Designed for Understanding

Designed for Understanding January 17, 2013

BTPS Assessment Facilitator Meeting

Coffee Break:10:30 a.m. – 10: 45 a.m.

Why understanding is everything…

The twin sins of design

Typical instruction in schools is activity and/ or coverage- focused… neither of which gets at the heart of learning.

Today’s Essential Questions:

To what extent are outcomes, assessments and learning activities aligned in teacher planning (horizontally and vertically)?

How do we facilitate a deeper understanding of curriculum with our students? or (how do we make it more likely, by our design, that more students really understand what they are asked to learn?)

What constitutes effective learning?

Today’s Agenda

Designing for understanding - an overview (10:45 – 11:30)

Resources to support your work (11:30 – 12:00)

Lunch (12:00 – 12:30) Choose a stage + Work time (12:30 –

2:30) Peer/ Self reflection and next steps

(2:30 – 3:00)

Begin with the end in mind…

To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.

- Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. 1989, p.98

A Focus on “Understanding”…

Eliminates the twin sins Is backward in design (Stages 1, 2,

and 3) Engages students in inquiry &

“uncovering” ideas. Achieves quality control in learning

and & assessment designs.

1. Identify desired results

2. Determine acceptable evidence

3. Plan learning experiences

& instruction

3 Stages of (“Backward”) Design

The 3 Stages of Backwards Design…

1. Identify desired results

2. Determine acceptable

evidence 3. Plan learning experiences and instruction

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3

If the desired result is for learners to..

Then you need evidence of the students’ ability to…

Then the learning activities need to…

Understand that…

And thoughtfully consider the questions…

The ideas and concepts of UBD discussed here

are taken from the work ofJay McTighe and Grant

Wiggins, Understanding by Design, 2004.

Overarching understandings

Knowledge and skill to be acquired

Essential Questions

Understanding by Design Template:

The UBD template embodies the 3 stages of “Backward Design”

The template provides an easy mechanism for exchange of ideas

The “big ideas” of each stage:

Assessment Evidence

Learning Activities

Understandings Essential Questions

stage

2

stage

3

Standard(s):

stage

1

Performance Task(s): Other Evidence:

Unpack the curriculum outcomes and ‘content’, focus on big ideas Analyze multiple

sources of evidence, aligned with Stage 1Derive the implied learning from Stages 1 & 2

What are the big ideas?

What’s the evidence?

How will we get there?

Not necessary to fill in the template “in order”

There are many ‘doorways’ into successful design – you can start with... Curriculum outcomes Performance goals A key resource or activity A required assessment A big idea An important skill or process An existing unit or lesson to edit

!

Misconception Alert:the work is non-linear

It doesn’t matter where you start as long as the final design is coherent (all elements aligned) Clarifying one element or Stage often

forces changes to another element or Stage

The template “blueprint” is logical but the process is non-linear (think: home improvement!)

!

The big ideas provide a way to connect and recall knowledge

Immigration

Railroad

BNA Act

Treaties signed

Constitution

Big Idea:

The Confederation of

Canada

1. Identify desired results

2. Determine acceptable evidence

3. Plan learning experiences

& instruction

3 Stages of Design, elaborated

Stage 1 – Identify desired results. 1. What are the big ideas/ enduring

understandings we students to leave with? What will they remember 10 years from now.

2. What essential questions will frame the teaching and learning that uncovers key issues and ideas, through meaningful and provocative inquiry into content?

3. What should students know (knowledge outcomes) and be able to do (skills outcomes)?

4. What curricular outcomes are addressed explicitly

by the unit?

Stage 1: Establishing Curricular Priorities

Enduring Understanding

Important to know and do

Worth being familiar with

1. Big Ideas…

▪ Organize topical content around key concepts

▪ Offer a purpose and rationale for the student to want to consider the content

▪ Often need “unpacked” from Alberta Education curriculum to make them clear

▪ Are written as understandings that summarize the desired insights we want students to realize

Understandings are:

specific generalizations about the “big ideas.” They summarize the key meanings, inferences, and importance of the ‘content’

deliberately framed as a full sentence “moral of the story” – “Students will understand THAT…”

unobvious inferences drawn from facts (not the facts themselves), counter-intuitive & easily misunderstood

Able to connect the dots between facts, skills, and ideas: they tell us what our knowledge means

ie.) Students will understand that…

Great artists often break with conventions to better express what they see and feel.

Price is a function of supply and demand. Friendships can be deepened or undone by

hard times History is the story told by the “winners” F = ma (weight is not mass) Math models simplify physical relations –

and even sometimes distort relations – to deepen our understanding of them

The storyteller rarely tells the meaning of the story

2. Essential Questions

Essential questions guide inquiry into the big ideas/ enduring understandings * ensure that questions are essential, not

leading (which are designed to cover knowledge, not inquire into it)

2. Essential QuestionsAsk what questions –

are arguable - and important to argue about? are at the heart of the subject? recur - and should recur - in professional

work, adult life, as well as in classroom inquiry?

raise more questions – provoking and sustaining engaged inquiry?

often raise important conceptual or philosophical issues?

can provide organizing purpose for meaningful & connected learning?

Q

Sample Essential Questions: Who are my true friends - and how do I

know for sure? How “rational” is the market? Does a good read differ from a ‘great

book’? Why are some books fads, and others classics?

To what extent is geography destiny? Should an axiom be obvious? How different is a scientific theory from

a plausible belief? What is the government’s proper role?

Q

1. Identify desired results

2. Determine acceptable evidence

3. Plan learning experiences

& instruction

3 Stages of Design: Stage 2

Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence

What are key complex performance tasks indicative of understanding?

What other evidence will be collected to build the case for understanding, knowledge, and skill? (triangulated evidence)

What rubrics will be used to assess complex performance?

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The big ideas for Stage 2

Assessments should… Be grounded in real-world

applications, supplemented as needed by more traditional school evidence

Provide useful feedback to the learner, be transparent, and minimize secrecy

Be valid, reliable - aligned with the desired results of Stage 1

Assessment Evidence Cautions…

Evidence of understanding is a greater challenge than evidence that the student knows a correct or valid answer

Understanding is inferred, not seen

Seek a photo album of evidence, not a single snapshot. Patterns help overcome inherent measurement error

Assessment of Understanding via the 6 facets

i.e. You really understand when you can: explain, connect, systematize, predict it show its meaning, importance apply or adapt it to novel situations see it as one plausible perspective among

others, question its assumptions see it as its author/speaker saw it avoid and point out common misconceptions,

biases, or simplistic views

Scenarios for Authentic Tasks

Build assessments anchored in authentic tasks using GRASPS:

What is the Goal in the scenario? What is the Role? Who is the Audience? What is your Situation (context)? What is the Performance challenge? By what Standards will work be

judged in the scenario?

SPS

GRA

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For Reliability & Sufficiency:Use a Variety of Assessments

Varied types, over time: authentic tasks and projects academic exam questions,

prompts, and problems quizzes and test items informal checks for understanding student self-assessments

1. Identify desired results

2. Determine acceptable evidence

3. Plan learning experiences

& instruction

3 Stages of Design: Stage 3

Stage 3 big idea:

EFFECTIVE

and

ENGAGING

Stage 3 – Plan Learning Experiences & Instruction

What learning experiences and instruction will promote the desired understanding, knowledge and skill of Stage 1?

How will the design ensure that all students are maximally engaged and effective (how are you scaffolding) at meeting the goals?

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Think of your obligations via W. H. E. R. E. T. O.

“Where are we headed?” (the student’s Q!) How will the student be ‘hooked’?What opportunities will there be to be

equipped, and to experience and explore key ideas?

What will provide opportunities to rethink, rehearse, refine and revise?

How will students evaluate their work?How will the work be tailored to individual

needs, interests, styles?How will the work be organized for maximal

engagement and effectiveness?

WHE

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Traffic Lights

Green: I’ve got it

Yellow: I am getting there and may need some assistance

Red: I don’t understand – Help!

Tools for your use-

www.assessmentcoaches.wikispaces.com

- general resources- templates to consider/ use- reflections/ self-assessment tools

3 Simple Steps to Planning