Source: Digital Access Key Image; Morgue File; http://mrg.bz/xJqkIW
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you're having a wonderful day today. Today we're going to go ahead and look at a model lesson development, specifically one that uses Understanding by design within stages 2 and 3, how we can form those instructional units using Understanding by Design. And for today's lesson I've chosen a quote by Malcolm Forbes, which states, "The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one."
Now, by the end of the lesson today, you will be able to review various instructional planning techniques using the Understanding by Design stages 2 and 3. So first, let's go ahead and review what the major parts of each of those stages are before we go ahead and take a look at it in practice. Understanding by Design stage 2 is where the instructor is really going to begin determining that acceptable evidence. So we're going to develop some of those summative performance assessments, as well as the list of formative assessments that you're going to use to help see that through.
The first thing you want to do is develop the performance task. The performance tasks within Understanding by Design is really that summative assessment that the student is going to encounter at the very end of a given competency or unit so that they can show you that they have achieved mastery. These performance tasks, or the summative assessment here, should always be aligned to the essential questions that you've created, the understandings, as well as the competencies that you've developed for that unit.
Once you have determined the performance tasks or that end goal, then you are going to tell a develop other evidence of mastery. This is really where you're looking at those smaller formative assessments that really align themselves to the knowledge that you've identified, and a lot of those skills that you know that you want students to be able to reach. Once you've identified this knowledge or skills that you have, matching that to your formative assessments, you then want to make sure that you look at those formative assessments and say, do each of these help further my students' understanding and my understanding of how well they are progressing towards that final performance task or summative assessment?
Now, let's go ahead and take a look at stage 3. Stage 3 in Understanding by Design is where you really get the opportunity to develop that learning plan, creating that list of learning experiences that your students will encounter during a particular unit. So once you are within stage 3, you want to make sure that you list those learning experiences that will really help engage students and help them work towards mastering those desired goals.
As you're working to develop those learning experiences, I would highly recommend that you consider the WHERE TO elements. These are indicated by Wiggins and McTighe. And what they do is they really help you address whether or not you are creating a solid foundational learning plan to help meet those goals. So within WHERE TO, the W stands for the where, or the why that students are incorporating in to this. It should be really at the head of the unit so that students are able to understand what they're doing here and why it's important.
The H is that hook. Hooking the students in at the very beginning and then holding their attention throughout the entire unit. Three is equip. Making sure that you are equipping students with all of those necessary tools. And tools aren't just the actual resources in your classroom, but the knowledge and the experiences that they are going to need in order to meet those performance goals.
The R here is the ability for students to rethink, reflect, and revise what it is that they have previously known. To really go back and look at those big ideas, rethinking their original stance on it, reflecting on the progress that they're making, and in some cases, even revising their work so that they can better meet those goals. The E is to evaluate. It's important that students are able to build on opportunities where they can evaluate their own progress and self-reflect on what they're doing well in areas where they can improve.
The T here is the idea that education is really tailored to each student's individual talents, and interests, and their specific learning needs, and styles, so that the learning in the classroom is as productive as it can be for each student. Finally, the O is for an organization. Making sure that you are organizing to really allow for every opportunity for students to really get that deep understanding, as opposed to just kind of a superficial coverage of a certain area.
Now, let's go ahead and take a look at a sample learning unit development throughout stages 2 and 3. The unit that we are looking at here is a constitutional rights model unit for US history in grade nine. We previously looked at stage 1, now we're going to look at stage 2. And if you notice here, you'll see that we have a clear place for that assessment evidence.
So what we're looking at here are the performance tasks that the students are going to have to do in order to show that they've demonstrated mastery within this unit. So they're going to present at a senate committee meeting to discuss a renewal of the constitutionality of the Patriot Act. Again, this is knowledge that is highly applicable to ways in which they can use what they learned outside of the classroom.
You'll notice that roles are even being identified for various students so that everyone kind of knows the place where they're going to be, and they have a clear idea of how that learning is going to look, then, by the end of the unit. You'll notice we've also indicated the other evidence of learning. So we have a lot of those formative assessments listed here. You'll notice that they're listed here as transfer tasks. So really focusing in on a lot of those transfer goals that we established in the first stage.
You'll notice here that students are not only going to have writing prompts, and it identifies which lesson you'll see them in, but also some of that accountability talk, as well as some technology tasks. So we're coming at students from a number of different ways, helping to determine that they are reaching the knowledge and the skills that they need to.
When we look at stage 3, what you'll notice here within stage 3, we have really listed out kind of an overarching look at the eight major lessons that will be incorporated within this unit. Then, as you go down and break each lesson out into even more specific elements within each lesson, you'll notice that you can apply those WHERE TO elements as you look through at each lesson. Some people will actually list out the WHERE TO elements for each lesson and answer it. That is something that you could or could not do depending on how comfortable you feel with the development of these individual lessons.
Now that you've reached the end of the lesson, you have been able to review what instructional planning looks like when you use Understanding by Design specifically in stages 2 and 3. Now that we've reached the end of the lesson, I want you to take just a moment for reflection. As you look back on the development of a lesson using stages 2 and stages 3, what do you think would be the most difficult part of that lesson development within either one of those stages, for you?
Now it's your turn to apply what you've learned in this video. The additional resources section will be super helpful. This section is designed to help you discover useful ways to apply what you've learned right here. Each link includes a brief description, so that you can easily target the resources that you want.
(00:00-00:28) Intro
(00:29-00:39) Objectives
(00:40-02:28) UbD Stage 2
(02:29-05:14) UbD Stage 3
(05:15-07:32) Sample Lesson Development
(07:33-08:23) Review & Reflection
Understanding by Design Stages
This detailed UbD table is a useful resource for digital rich classroom lesson planning.
https://carpentries.github.io/instructor-training/files/papers/wiggins-mctighe-ubd-nutshell.pdf
Understanding by Design Stages
This page does a great job of explaining UbD in unit and lesson design. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/understanding-by-design/