GPS, Essential Questions, and Word Walls… …taking the first steps toward backward design.

GPS, Essential Questions, and Word Walls…

…taking the first steps toward backward design.

Essential Questions

How do skillful teachers deliver instruction at the level requested in the GPS?

How do you move from a content standard to a well crafted essential question?

How do you move from a content standard to a well crafted

essential question?

StandardsIdentify

UnderstandingEssential Questions

What comes first… learning or

understanding?

Begin with NOUNS and VERBS

Decide What Students

Must Knowand

How They Are to Demonstrate

Knowledge

Unpacking a standard: 4th grade Science Strand: Physical Science

S4E3 States of Water, Water Cycle, and Weather Students will differentiate between the states of water and how they relate to the water cycle and weather.

Element: S4E3a States of Matter (Water) a. Demonstrate how water changes states from solid

(ice) to liquid (water) to gas (water vapor/steam) and changes from gas to liquid to solid.

Element: S4E3b Freezing/Boiling Temperatures of Water b. Identify the temperatures at which water becomes a

solid and at which water becomes a gas.

Unpacking a standard: 4th grade Science Strand: Physical Science

S4E3 States of Water, Water Cycle, and Weather Students will differentiate between the states of water and how they relate to the water cycle and weather.

Element: S4E3a States of Matter (Water) a. Demonstrate how water changes states from solid

(ice) to liquid (water) to gas (water vapor/steam) and changes from gas to liquid to solid.

Element: S4E3b Freezing/Boiling Temperatures of Water

b. Identify the temperatures at which water becomes a solid and at which water becomes a gas.

How do you move from a content standard to a well crafted

essential question?

StandardsIdentify

UnderstandingEssential Questions

What Is Understanding?

Understanding is different than knowledge

Understanding is fluid, transferable to new contexts and transformable into new theory

Mere knowledge can be rote, understanding provides insight

Stage OneContent Standards to Understandings

When writing understandings, ask yourself these questions: What are the enduring understanding I

want my students to take away from this unit?

Does my understanding have lasting value beyond the classroom?

Does the understanding help dispel misconceptions – is the understanding not obvious?

Modified Concept Attainment for Enduring Understandings

The student will understand that…

Effective readers use specific strategies to help them better understand the text.

A text’s structure helps a reader better understand its meaning.

The student will understand …

How to predict. The table of

contents.

Examples of Understandings

Reading involves making sense of the text, not just decoding the words.

History is a “story”, who tells the story affects how it is presented.

Punctuation marks and grammar rules are like highway signs and traffic signals. They guide readers through the text to help avoid confusion.

Meaning is conveyed through phrasing, intonation, and syntax.

Enduring Understandings: Format

No: “Students will understand principles of persuasive speaking”

No: “Students will know how to speak persuasively”

No: “Speak persuasively in public” YES: “Students will understand that

persuasion often involves an emotional appeal to the particular wishes, needs, hopes, and fears of an audience, irrespective of how logical and rational the argument”

Begin with Understandings to get to Essential Questions

Remember understanding should be:

Knowledge that is enduring Has value beyond the classroom Understanding is not obvious to

students Most be “uncovered” – inferred, revealed,

come to be seen, constructed Can often be applied to other

situations Should be written as a full sentence

statement

Your Turn!

With a partner determine an Enduring Understanding for your standard.

State understandings as sentences:

Students will understand that…

Write 1-2 understandings for the standard and elements.

Flip Book 1

Record the definition of an Enduring Understanding under the first flap.

You may also include an example.

How do you move from a content standard to a well crafted

essential question?

StandardsIdentify

UnderstandingEssential Questions

Essential Questions…

Questions of different scope and purpose are used to “uncover” important ideas and issues in a unit

Are arguable and lead to understandings, rather than “leading” questions that point to facts

Have no simple right answer Raise other important questions, often

across subject boundaries Are thought provoking

Partner Activity

Concept Attainment With a partner, review the questions in

the envelope. Determine if the question is a “yes”

example or a “no” example of EQs. Record their common characteristics.

Modified Concept Attainment

To what extent does “form” derive from “function” in biology?

How do effective writers hook and hold their readers?

Who “wins” and who “loses” when technologies change?

How do you know that you comprehend when you read?

How do native speakers differ from fluent foreigners?

How can technology enhance understanding?

How many legs does a spider have?

How does an elephant use its trunk?

What is “foreshadowing”? Can you find an example of “foreshadowing” in the story?

What is the original meaning of the term, technology (from its Greek root, “techne”)?

What are continents? How many hours are in

day? When was the Magna

Carta signed and by whom?

3 Types of Questions

Overarching ~ Essential Questions Point to broad transferable ideas Transcend a particular unit Can apply to various subjects or topics

Topical ~ Essential Questions Frame a particular unit of study Specific to a particular content topic

Guiding ~ Questions NOT an Essential Question More specific than topical Answers are right or wrong Can be looked up

Essential Questions

Geography How does where you live affect how you live?

History How does the past shape the present?

Government How does citizen satisfaction influence a

country’s government? Economics

What factors influence a country’s standard of living?

Culture How cultural diffusion shape a region?

Essential and Guiding Questions

How does where you live affect how you live?

1. What landforms and bodies of water are located in _______________?

2. What are the natural resources in _________________?

3. What are the vegetation and climate zones in ___________?

Guiding Questions

Your Turn!

Write 2 or 3 essential questions for your unit standard that are tied to your understandings.

Flip Book 2

Complete the analogy. Overarching is to topical as

___________ is to _____________. Share with a neighbor.

Elements of Word Walls

A Word Wall is something you and your class should “Do”, not “Have.”

A Word Wall is a work in progress…built over time and referenced frequently. Add content words as they are taught or

encountered in reading. Word Walls are a source for informal

writing activities to demonstrate student understanding. Assessment tool

Example Word Wall

Example Word Wall

Flip Book 3

One Sentence Summary

A Word Wall is a kind of _________ that __________________.

Education is what survives when what

has been learned has been forgotten.

B.F. Skinner