Chapter Three: Gaining Clarity on Our Goals

Chapter Three: Gaining Clarity on Our Goals

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards – Kierkegaard (1843)

UBD is Goal Directed

We aim for specific results and design backward from them accordingly.

The desired results in Stage 1 dictate the nature of the assessment evidence needed in Stage 2 and suggest the types of instruction and learning experiences planned in Stage 3

Avoid the “twin sins:” aimless coverage of content, and isolated activities that are merely engaging (at best) while disconnected from intellectual goals in the learners mind.

A teacher hasn’t taught until the student has learned, no matter how elegant you think your lesson is. - RJH

p.56

See Figure 3.1: Stage 1

Established Goals Content standards, course/program objectives,

learning outcomes Desired Understandings

Enduring Understandings based upon Transferable big ideas that set the context for content meaning, facts and skills

Essential Questions Frame EQ’s to guide student inquiry and focus

instruction on the important ideas in the content

p.57

See Figure 3.1: Stage 1 continued

Key Knowledge/skills students will acquireTargeted knowledge can be three kinds

Building Blocks for desired understandingsKnowledge and skills stated or implied in the

goalsReference “enabling” knowledge and skills

needed to perform the complex assessment tasks identified in Stage 2

p.57

Unpacking Standards

Common complaint is that there are too many, too big, too small, or too vague

Solution: Unpack the big ideas (GI’s) and core tasks

I don’t have the time (wah, wah, wah)

Unpacking World Geography Standard

“The student will analyze the regional development of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and the Caribbean, in terms of physical, economic, and cultural characteristics and historical evolution from 1000 A.D to the present”

Unpacking World Geography Standard Re-framed

“The geography, climate, and natural resources of a region influence the lifestyle, culture, and economy of its inhabitants”. Essential Question: “How does where you live

influence how you live and work?” Transferability: Compare the early civilizations

of the Indus River Valley and the Huang-He of China .”

See figure 3.2, p.64

Unpacking Standards - Research

How People Learn (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000)A key finding in the learning and transfer

literature is that organizing information into a conceptual framework allows for greater transfer. (p.17)

Learning with understanding is more likely to promote transfer than simply memorizing information from a text or a lecture (p.236)

Unpacking Standards - Research

Experts first seek to develop an understanding of problems, and this often involves thinking in terms of core concepts or big ideas. Novices’ knowledge is much less likely to be organized around big ideas; novices are more likely to approach problems by searching for correct formulas and pat answers that fit their everyday intuitions. (p.49)

Big Ideas? Core Tasks?

UBD guarantees nothing. It’s elegant application ensures its power and effect.

Every topic has more “content” than anyone can reasonably address therefore we must make deliberate choices and set explicit priorities. See Figure 3.3

p. 66

Big Ideas? Core Tasks?

Learners should be able to answer these questions: What is most important here? How do the pieces connect? What should I pay most attention to? What are the (few) bottom line priorities?

Big Ideas connect the dots – conceptual Velcro!

The challenge: Identify a few big ideas and design carefully around them and teach “surgically” around them.

p. 66

Five Biggest Ideas in Science

Quantum physic’s model of the atomChemistry’s Periodic LawAstronomy’s Big Bang TheoryGeology’s Plate Tectonics ModelBiology’s Theory of Evolution

What questions do they answer?

(Wynn & Wiggins, 1997)

Big Ideas at the “core” of a subject

Need to be uncovered through Inquiry (Gotta go slow to go fast)

Big Ideas are the hard-won results of inquiry, ways of thinking and perceiving that are the province of the expert

BI’s are not obviousMost expert BI’s are abstract and

counterintuitive to the novice, prone to misunderstanding

Big Ideas at the “Core” vs. “Basics

Basic Terms• Ecosystem• Graph• Four basic operations

• Picture composition• Fact v. Opinion• Experiment

Core Ideas• Natural selection• “Best fit” data curve• Associativity and transitivity• Negative space• Credible thesis• Inherent error and fallibility of methods and results

The big ideas at the core of a subject are arrived at, sometimes slowly, by teacher-led inquiries and reflective work by students

Uncovered by design, understandings and essential questions that push to the core of a subject.“Excavate the essence” of a subject or topic” – (RJH, 2002)

SpEd students work to uncover the essence (BI’s) of Macbeth – honor and loyalty

Essential Questions: What are the difference between things that

happen to us and things that we make happen? What is honor? Is there a cost or price for honor? Is it worth it? What is loyalty? Is there tension between loyalty and honor in

Macbeth? In our own lives? Why is defending your honor so hard?

Core Idea of Loyalty…

Involves inescapable dilemmas, because loyalties invariably collide.

Learning that does not penetrate to the core of what is vital about an idea yields abstract, alien, and uninteresting lessons.

p.68

Attributes of “Big Ideas”

Broad and AbstractRepresented by one or two wordsUniversal in applicationTimelessRepresented by different examples that

share common attributes

Lynn Erikson, 2001, p.35

W & McT define BI’s as…

Providing a focusing conceptual lens for any study

Providing breadth of meaning by connecting and organizing many facts, skills, and experiences; serving as the linchpin of understanding

Pointing to ideas at the heart of expert understanding of the subject

W & McT define BI’s as…

Requiring “uncoverage” because its meaning or value is rarely obvious to the learner, is counterintuitive or prone to misunderstanding

Having great transfer value: applying to many other inquiries and issues over time – “horizontally” (across subjects) and “vertically” (through the years and in later courses) in the curriculum and out of school.

W & McT define BI’s, and finally…

A BI is not merely “big” by virtue of its intellectual scope. IT has to have pedagogical power; and, most notably, be helpful in making new, unfamiliar ideas seem more familiar

A BI is not another fact or vague abstraction but a conceptual tool for sharpening thinking, connecting discrepant pieces of knowledge, and equipping learners for transferable applications

What “big idea” has helped you thus far in making new, unfamiliar ideas seem more familiar?

BI’s typically manifest

ConceptThemeOngoing debate and point of viewParadoxTheoryUnderlying assumptionRecurring questionUnderstanding or Principle

p.70

A Prioritizing Framework

What content is worth being familiar with? What content is important to know and do? What are the Big Ideas and Core Tasks?

See Figure 3.3. Upon reflection, what priorities have you noticed thus far in UBD and how might you use them to reframe your instruction?

See “More tips for finding big ideas” pp.73-78

Framing Goals for Transfer

Core tasks are the most important performance demands in any field

Core tasks are authentic and involve realistic situations

Core tasks are contextually aligned to real-world opportunities and difficulties

Core tasks reflect the transfer with big ideas sought over time. They are not merely interesting assessments.

Framing Goals for Transfer

Core tasks with authentic challenges embody our educational aims: The goal of school is fluent and effective

performance in the world, not mere verbal or physical response to narrow prompts

Transfer, reflective of understanding, involves expertly addressing authentic challenges at core tasks, where content is a means.

Successful transfer means that students can perform well with minimal hand-holding, guidance, or cueing by teachers

Framing Goals for Transfer

A challenge of reading a text is to gain an understanding of what the text might mean, despite the obstacles of ones ABBA’s, limited tools and experience as a reader

A challenge in music is to turn a complex set of instructions onto a fluent and moving whole, more than just the sum of the notes

Framing Goals for Transfer

A challenge in studying another language is to successfully translate meaning idiomatically, not just do a 1 to 1 translation of each word

Your turn

Transfer Demand/Degree of Cue

4. The task looks unfamiliar, even odd or puzzling, and is presented without cues as to how to approach or solve it. Success depends on “far transfer.”

3. The task looks unfamiliar but is presented with clues or cues meant to suggest the approach or content called for (or to narrow the options considerably). Success depends on realizing what recent learning applies in this somewhat ambiguous or different scenario – “near transfer.”

Transfer Demand/Degree of Cue

2. The task is presented with explicit reference to ideas, topics, or tasks previously studied, but no reference is made to the specific rule or formula that applies. Minimal transfer is requires. Success requires recognition and application of which rule applies and uses it.

1. The task is presented so that the student need only follow directions and use recall and logic to complete it. No transfer is required – simply a “plug-and play” approach.

Transfer Demand/Degree of Cue

Challenging tasks at the core of a subject can clearly help us prioritize our aims if we think of them as organizing clusters of related knowledge and skill

They would be the performance equivalent of Phenix’s “representative ideas” in each field

Transfer Demand/Degree of Cue

Core tasks embody:Key state and local standards and goalsAre related to Stage 1 Specify the conditions that any proposed

assessment must meet in Stage 2Clarity that makes it far more likely that our

goals will be intellectually vital and coherentAcademic goals setting process should

mirror authentic performance-based goals in the arts, athletics, or carpentry.

Hey, where the hell is Bob?

See what Bob is up to? What about his journey resonates with

you?What questions are raised?What “aha” moments have occurred?

p.81

Transfer Demand/Degree of Cue

What transfer/cue demand is required of your NCATE assignment?

What transfer/cue demand is required of your classroom assignments?

No wonder we and our students are struggling in the “real world!”