Develop a CBE Unit of Study

Video Transcription

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you are having a wonderful day today. Today I would like to go ahead and take a look at how to develop a competency-based education unit of study. So for today's lesson, I've chosen a quote by Abraham Lincoln which states, "the philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next."

For today's lesson, by the time we are done, you will have been able to understand how to develop a CBE unit following the three stages of Understanding by Design.

First, what I'd like to go ahead and show you is how you are able to really use some of the templates and rubrics that are available to you to create those unit lessons and these various curriculum maps based on Understanding by Design. If you go ahead, you can take a look at the top link, which will take you directly to-- if you type it in, it will take you directly to some of those templates and rubrics, as well as if you take a look at the bottom link, that is a UbD in a Nutshell, which is actually developed by Wiggins and McTeague so that you can use those to carefully create your own unit template.

Now, what I would like to do next is I would like to go ahead and take you through one of these templates and how to develop that unit plan within a template. So let's take a look now at this unit plan using Understanding by Design. For this as a unit, I have chosen To Kill a Mockingbird, which is an English 9 unit. So you'll notice I indicated that right up at the top.

What we're going to do first with stage one of Understanding by Design is really focusing on identifying those desired results. If we look at those stage one questions, McTeague offers us a couple of questions. First, what are some of those long-term goals or competencies that I want students to be able to reach? Remember, this is where those standards and competencies should be indicated.

So if you take a look at this, I haven't expressly included those standards, which I could go back and do. But what I have looked at-- what are some of the overarching goals that I want those students to be able to reach by the time they're done? That is where I put those that are based directly on the standards.

Then what meanings should students be making based on this lesson? And what are some of those essential questions? You'll notice that the essential question I have here-- how does our understanding of those different from us shape us as human beings? That's a really unanswerable, open-ended question. There isn't a right or a wrong. And it can definitely extend beyond the classroom.

Then I want to make sure that I focus in on, what are the skills and knowledge that students should be able to acquire by the time we are done? So if you look at this, I have both what the students should know by the result of this unit and what students are going to be able to do as a result of the unit.

Next we're going to go ahead and focus in on stage two, determining that acceptable evidence. So here, I want to first ask myself, based on McTeague's stage two question, what performance task is that student going to engage in or my student's going to be a part of in order to really make meaning and understand that knowledge? Ideally, performance tasks are transferable. So the knowledge that they learn can be transferred to other areas.

So for this unit, I've chosen the performance task or project of participating in a mock trial, similar to the one that takes place in the story. And you'll notice that in addition to that, students will also be assessed using formative assessments, such as weekly reading quizzes, in-class discussions, and journal entries.

I've included there a performance task rubric so that you can really look and see what additional evidence is going to be collected from the students to really look at those desired results. So I've not only included the rubric of how I'm going to assess those students on the performance, but also some of the other ways in which I will observe their understanding and acquisition of the skills and knowledge that I want them to have. I've also included some very clear student self-assessment so that I'm ensuring that those students are not just being assessed by me, but they're engaging in their own assessment.

Finally, then we can move on to stage three, where we get that learning plan. So here we're looking at students really planning that learning experiences for those students. What I'm looking at here-- I'm asking myself McTeague's questions of, what activities, experiences, lessons am I going to use to help make sure that I can achieve mastery and my students can achieve mastery by the end of the unit? And how will this learning plan help students when it comes to making meaning of the information, understanding it, and transferring that knowledge?

As we look at that, I can fill in those facets of understanding, as well as the WHERETO acronym questions and the GRASPS questions, as I look at the specific elements that I'm including in my lessons. So you'll see here I've not only aligned activities to each of these facets of understanding so that I know I'm reaching them at all levels. But I've also included and asked myself, how am I meeting each of these questions in my planning, as well as, how does my project-based assessment fit into all of the various elements involved with that GRASP-- so making sure that I am reaching all of those students?

Finally, I want to end with just a few tips for you as you begin to plan your units of study using Understanding by Design. First, it's really important that you look at depth over breadth. The idea here is that we're not trying to cover a million things just a little bit. But rather, we're going to dig all the way into that iceberg and really see everything that's involved and unpack all of those questions. So when we look at our approaches to coverage, we want to look at depth over breadth.

Next, you want to make sure that you're always connecting your unit plans back to the curriculum map. Does it connect? Are you reaching everything that you want to be reaching over the course of the unit within that unit's plan? And does it match back up to your goals for the entire course?

Make sure that you are aligning your curriculum to the various assessments and the elements of instruction, both written and hidden. Make sure you're paying attention to everything that you are going to be judging those students on and assessing those students. And make sure that is accounted for clearly in your curriculum.

And finally, as you are creating this unit plan, make sure that you're answering all of those Understanding by Design stage questions that we walked through as I was taking you through my unit plan. If you have an unanswered question, that probably means that you're missing something important within your unit. So make sure, if you cannot answer it, you go back and you find a way to include those elements in yours.

Now that we've reached the end of the lesson, you have been able to understand how to develop a competency-based education unit following the three stages of Understanding by Design. Now I'd like to take just a moment for you to reflect. What do you think would be the most difficult part of creating a unit plan that you are going to be teaching based on this Understanding by Design?

For more information on how to apply what you've learned in this video, please view the Additional Resources section that accompanies this video presentation. The Additional Resources section includes hyperlinks that are useful for applications of the course material, including a brief description of each resource.