Module 5: Understanding by Design

Prepared by:

Abraham Jerome M. SegundoLorraine

Objectives

After reading this module, you will be able to do these:

1. Identify the 3 stages of Understanding by Design:▫Desired Results, Assessment Evidence, Learning Plan

2. Should appreciate the Six (6) Facets of Understanding:▫Explanation, Interpretation, application, perspective,

empathy, and self-understanding 3. Should be able to prepare the right lesson plan for

learner or student.

Concepts

Understanding by Design is a framework for student assessment. It tackles about the importance of designing a plan to make a better presentation of a topic or subject matter in the class. And also it gives some information about the three (3) stages of UbD and the Six (6) facets of understanding.

Essential question• How does Understanding by Design provide a

framework and a language to help educators promote all students' understanding?

• How does Understanding by Design evolve since its initial publication? What are the major changes and trends associated with its evolution?

• To what extent can educators abstract lessons learned about successful implementation of Understanding by Design and then apply those lessons to the process of strategic planning and continuous improvement?

Introduction

This module focused on how the educators promoting the students understanding in different lessons/subject matter that they teach. And it gives some hint on how to deliver the topics prior to the different individuals or students in the class.

Lesson proper:• Understanding by Design (UbD) is a framework

for improving student achievement. Emphasizing the teacher's critical role as a designer of student learning, UbB works within the standards-driven curriculum to help teachers clarify learning goals, devise revealing assessments of student understanding, and craft effective and engaging learning activities. Developed by nationally recognized educators Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, and published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), Understanding by Design is based on the following key ideas:

Three (3) stages of Understanding by Design(Adapted from format developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, 2002)

•Stage 1 Desired Results

Content Standard(s):Comes from professional standards in your field (e.g. See MN Standards)

Understanding (s)/goals:Students will understand that...This is a goal, not an objective.List the big ideas or concepts that you want them to come away with, not facts

that they must know.

Essential Question(s):1.) What leading questions can you ask of students to get them to understand

the Big Ideas?2.)Address the heart of the discipline, are framed to provoke and sustain

students interest; unit questions usually have no one obvious “right” answer

Student objectives (outcomes):Students will be able to...These are observable, measurable

outcomes that students should be able to demonstrate and that you can assess. Your assessment evidence in Stage 2 must show how you will assess these.

You’re learning activities in Stage 3 must be designed and directly linked to having students be able to achieve the understandings, answer the essential questions, and demonstrate the desired outcomes

Stage 2 Assessment Evidence

Performance Task(s):-Authentic, performance based tasks that have students apply

what they have learned and demonstrate their understanding.

-Designed at least at the application level or higher on Bloom's Taxonomy.

-Rubrics can be used to guide students in self-assessment of their performance

Other Evidence:

-Includes pre-assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment evidence

-Can be individual or group based-Can include informal methods (such as thumbs up, thumbs

down, and formal assessments, such as quiz, answers to questions on a worksheet, written reflection, essay)

Stage 3 Learning PlanOutline the learning plan (teaching & learning activities). This plan should be aligned

clearly with the desired results (i.e., geared towards having students meet the objectives, answer the essential questions, and be able to complete the assessment activities). There are many formats that you can use for this part of the lesson plan (e.g. Hunter Elements of Lesson Design), but the plan should include all of the following components:

1. Materials & resources: List all.

2. Timeline: next to each step, indicate approximate length of time you expect each step to take.

3. Introductory activities: hook/capture student interest, set the stage, relate to previous learning (review), how this fits into what is to follow (preview), tell students what they will learn and be expected to do as a result of the lesson.

4. Developmental activities: outline the content and outline the instructional strategies & learning activities. Include details what you will do, how you will organize/prepare students for tasks, and what students will do. If you plan to involve students in discussion, list key/stem questions that you might ask to generate discussion.

5. Closing activities: list activities that you & students will do to summarize the lesson, reinforce what was covered, and tie everything together so students see how the lesson fits into the context of the rest of the course (what they have already done and what is coming next).

Also include any handouts, overhead transparencies/PowerPoint slides, and other relevant visuals and materials.

What you should aim for in your plan• Include appropriate strategies that promote student learning, active

engagement, manipulation and testing of ideas. Students are asked to take responsibility for their own learning

• Include cultural integration. Community resources are brought into lesson.

• Clearly tie to a standard(s). Students are asked to engage critical thinking and problem solving as appropriate to prior knowledge, styles and interests

• Engage students in both individual and group learning based on personal interests. Students are able to make choices that help to establish meaning.

• Include variety and accommodations for learning styles, and multiple levels of development. Lesson clearly ties to curriculum goals.

• Include activating prior knowledge, anticipating preconceptions, exploration and problem solving, and new skill building.

Six (6) Facets of Understanding

Facet 1 - Explanation

Sophisticated and apt explanations that provide knowledgeable and justified account of event, actions and ideas. Why is that so? What explains such events? What accounts for such action? How can we prove it? To what is the action connected? How does this work?

Provide thorough and justifiable accounts of phenomena, facts, and data.

 

Facet 2 – InterpretationNarratives, translations, metaphors, images and

artistry that provide meaning. What does it mean? Why does it matter? What does it illustrate in human experience? How does it relate to me? What makes sense?

Tell meaningful stories, offer apt translations, provide a revealing historical or personal dimension to ideas and events; make subjects personal or accessible through images, anecdotes, analogies, and models.

Facet 3 – Application•Ability to use knowledge effectively in

new situations and diverse contexts. How and where can we apply this knowledge, skill, process? How should my thinking and action be modified to meet the demands of this particular situation?

•Effectively use and adapt what they know in diverse contexts.

Facet 4 – Perspective• Critical and insightful points of view.From whose

point of view?From which vantage point? What is assumed or tacit that needs to be made explicit and considered? What is justified or warranted? Is there adequate evidence? Is it reasonable? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the idea? What are its limits? What is a novel way to look at this?

• See and hear points of view through critical eyes and ears; see the big picture.

Facet 5 – Empathy• The ability to get inside another person’s feeling

and worldview. How does it seem to you? What do they see that I don’t? what do I need to experience if I am to understand? What was the author, artist or performer feeling, seeing and trying to make me feel and see?

• Find value in what others might find odd, alien, or implausible; perceive sensitively on the basis of prior indirect experience.

Facet 6 – Self-Knowledge• The wisdom to know one’s ignorance and how one’s

patterns of thought and action inform as well as prejudice understanding. How does who I am shape my views. What are the limits of my understanding? What are my blind spots? What am I prone to misunderstand because of prejudice, habit and style? How do I learn best? What strategies work for me?

• Perceive the personal style, prejudices, projections, and habits of mind that both shape and impede our own understanding; they are aware of what they do not understand and why understanding is so hard.

Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

• To describe the learning activities of the students and the teaching methods of the staff; effective module design by should result in a varied range of active learning experiences for students – including learning activities which are ‘research-like’ - across modules and the programmed as a whole.

• Activities should, of course, motivate and encourage deep learning (reflection on wider meanings, rather than superficial memorization of information). They should also be varied and flexible enough to accommodate different learning styles and orientations, and allow for inclusivity of students from different backgrounds and with different kinds of learning abilities.

• Learning activities therefore need to include reference to independent, interdependent (peer-supported) and online activities, as well as participation in different kinds of taught class.

• In determining the proportion of time spent in each type of activity you should use the convention that one credit point equates to 10 learning hours. The time in scheduled learning and teaching activities and in placements will need to be accurately measured; the proportion in guided independent study will be derived as the number of hours remaining after taking into account hours spent in placements and scheduled learning and teaching activities.

Sample teaching and learning activities

•We sometimes struggle trying to think of different ways to present teaching and learning activities to students. Are you tired of using a brainstorm, exhausted of trying to engage students in class discussions, and then continue reading!

•Below are a few different teaching and learning ideas that will help you present content in a slightly different way. These strategies will support students to question knowledge and take an active role in their learning.

1. Artifacts strategy▫This strategy can be used as an introduction

to the reading of a specific text or prior to viewing a video. The objects you choose as artifacts could be headlines, graphics, photos, words, phrases or quotes or everyday objects that relate to the issue being discussed.

2. Cooperative conflict resolution strategy▫The cooperative conflict resolution strategy

encourages students to see both sides of an argument and can be used as an introductory activity for a class debate. It promotes communication, cooperative problem solving and critical thinking.

3. R.A.F.T. strategy (role, audience, format, topic)▫The RAFT technique provides an easy,

meaningful way to incorporate literacy skills into the PDHPE class room. The R.A.F.T strategy involves students or the teacher making decisions about four aspects of the writing task prior to students starting to compose their written piece.

4. Internet scavenger hunt▫An Internet scavenger hunt is a short inquiry-

oriented activity. Students use information from the Internet to complete questions to develop their knowledge of a topic. They then answer a big question or complete a task that requires them to utilize higher-order thinking skills.