Curriculum by DesignAligned Unit Plans based on Desired Student Understanding

Teaching without Design

Suitcase Curriculum &

Isolated Curriculum A teacher moves to a new school

or to a new subject or grade level, then unpacks and teaches the same units from the previous school, subject or grade level.

A new teacher arrives in a classroom, is handed a textbook or general guidebook and left to teach. The teacher begins to teach what he or she knows in the way he or she was taught. Often, there is no coordination or help other teachers or administrators.

Teaching without Design

The Apple Event: A Familiar Problem

Activity-oriented, theme-based tasks with interdisciplinary connections, but what are the enduring understandings? What is being “uncovered”? Do the students understand the learning targets? What evidence reflects worthwhile content standards? What understandings will emerge and what will endure?

Examples: Harvest Celebrations, Holiday Pageants, Field Trips

Curriculum by Design Includes

Backward Planned UbD Units

Understanding by Design (UbD) - a systematic method used to develop curriculum units. 1. Identify desired results2. Determine Acceptable

Evidence3. Plan Learning

Experiences and Instruction

Articulated Units Curriculum Maps, a school-

wide timeline of curriculum units

Standards and Benchmarks, defined set of knowledge and skills linked to units on curriculum map.

Shared Database of Maps and Units - for example, Atlas Rubicon, an online database used to track curriculum maps and units.

Planned UbD UnitsBackward Planning Unit Design

Unit = Short for a “unit of study”. Units represent a coherent chunk of work in courses or strands, across days or weeks. An example is a unit on natural habitats and adaptation that falls under the 3rd grade science.

Planned UbD UnitsDefine the Destination

Backward Planning

Curriculum should lay out the most effective ways of achieving specific results.

The best designs derive backward from the learnings sought.

Planned UbD Stages Backward Planning

Stage 1: Identify Desired Results

Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence

Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

UbD Stage 1 Stage 1 Unit Plan: Identify

Desired Results What is worthy and requiring of

understanding? What are enduring understandings and

essential questions? What should students understand by design? Is the focus apt and rigorous? What is feasible and appropriate allocation of

time, given overall priorities? What will users need to know to judge the

unit’s value and usefulness to them?

UbD Stage 1Is It Worth Knowing?

Enduring Understanding Example Overarching understanding:

Elements of “wellness” include healthy habits, nutrition/diet, exercise, mental health

At the end of the unit, students will understand (1) that a balanced diet contributes to optimal health and “healthy” living, and (2) the elements of good nutrition by analyzing the nutritional value of menus and planning a balanced diet.

Will Students “Uncover”

Knowledge? Guiding Questions

Example Overarching

questions: What does it mean to lead a healthy life? What is wellness?

During the unit students will ask and find answers to: (1) What is healthy eating? (2) What is a balanced diet?

UbD Stage 1 Understanding

checkpoint: What is an enduring

understanding in a unit you are or will teach?

Are you using guiding questions to uncover knowledge? What are the questions?

UbD Stage 2 Stage 2: Determine Acceptable

Evidence What is evidence of understanding? What fits within the school’s continuum of assessment

types? Does it assess the 6 facets of understanding? Is the assessment valid, reliable, sufficient, authentic,

feasible, student friendly? Is the unit anchored in credible and educationally vital

evidence of the desired understandings? Is the assessment sound? Are rubrics developed and

available? What will users need and need to know for assessment?

UbD Stage 2Stage 2:

Assessment Evidence

6 Facets of Understanding1. Can explain2. Can interpret3. Can apply4. Have perspective5. Can empathize6. Have self-knowledge

UbD Stage 26 Facets of

Understanding Can explain

provide thorough, supported and justifiable accounts of phenomena, fact and data

Assessment Example

A cook explains why adding a little mustard to oil and vinegar enables them to mix. The mustard is an emulsifier.

A history student provides a well-supported view of the economic and political causes of the American Revolution.

UbD Stage 26 Facets of

Understanding Can interpret

tell meaningful stories; offer apt translations; provide a revealing historical or personal dimension to ideas and events; make it personal or accessible through images, anecdotes, analogies and models

Assessment Example

A grandfather tells stories about the Depression to illustrate the importance of saving for a rainy day.

A student shows how Gulliver’s Travels can be read as a satire on British intellectual life; it’s not just a fairy tale.

UbD Stage 26 Facets of

Understanding Can apply

effectively use and adapt what we know in diverse content

Assessment Example

A young couple uses their knowledge of economics to develop an effective financial plan for saving and investing.

7th grade students use their knowledge of statistics to accurately project next year’s costs and needs for the student-run supply store.

UbD Stage 26 Facets of

Understanding Have perspective – see

and hear points of view through critical eyes and ears; see the big picture

Assessment Example

A 10-year old girl recognizes in TV advertisements the fallacy of using popular figures to promote products.

A student explains the Israeli and Palestinian arguments for and against new settlements on the Gaza Strip.

UbD Stage 26 Facets of

Understanding Can empathize

find value in what others might find odd, alien or implausible, perceive sensitively on the basis of prior direct experience

Assessment Example

From a British national exam: “Romeo and Juliet, act 4. Imagine you are Juliet. Write your thought and feelings explaining why you have to take this desperate action.”

A middle school student empathizes with the restrictive, constrained lifestyle of students his age in a war-torn country.

UbD Stage 26 Facets of

Understanding Have self-knowledge

perceive the personal style, prejudices, projections, and habits of mind that both shape and impede our own understanding; we are aware of what we do not understanding and why understanding is so hard

Assessment Example

A mother realized that her frustration with her daughter’s shyness is rooted in issues from her own childhood.

Mindful of the fact that many students are visual learners, a teacher deliberately includes visual organizers and images.

UbD Stage 2Assessment

Methods Assessment Types

UbD Stage 2 Understanding

checkpoint: Identify and describe

how students will demonstrate an enduring understanding at the end of a unit.

Describe assessment methods and types of assessments used.

UbD Stage 3 Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences

and Instruction What learning experiences and teaching promote

understanding, interest, and excellence? Does the unit include a research-based repertoire of

learning and teaching strategies? Where is the unit going? Does it “hook” students and

allow them to explore, rethink, revise, exhibit, evaluate? Does it promoted learning and teaching to evoke

desired understandings. Is it clear, coherent, and engaging? What will users need and need to know to teach and

modify the unit?

UbD Stage 3 Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences and

Instruction “Note that the teacher will address the

specifics of instructional planning – choices about teaching methods, sequence of lessons, and resource materials – after identifying the desired results and assessments.

Teaching is a means to an end. Having a clear goal helps us as educators to focus our planning and guide purposeful action toward the intended results.”

UbD Stage 3 Understanding

checkpoint: Describe a lesson

activity that will help students to achieve the expected understanding. How will the unit hook the students and allow them to explore, rethink, revise, exhibit, evaluate?

Are the learning experiences modified to accommodate student needs.

Articulated UnitsCurriculum Maps: Timelines to

promote planning. promote communication

and collaboration. promote an articulated

curriculum. promote professionalism

and teaching creativeness.

Articulated Units

Curriculum Map Sample – Timeline of Units

Articulated Units

Curriculum Map Sample – Timeline of Units In Version 2 the curriculum was adjusted to make the curriculum

more meaningful for students. They saw the articulation of knowledge across the curriculum, and they were taught basic skills that were used immediately in another subject.

Articulated Units Standards are broad-based statements

indicating what skills student must perform and specifying content to be learned. There are 3 types of standards: Content standards answer the question, “What

should students know and be able to do?” Performance standards answer the question,

“How well must students do their work?” Design standards answer the question, “What

worthy work should students encounter?” Benchmark, associated with specific standards,

specify content and skills for grade levels.

Articulated UnitsStandards & Benchmarks

Specify content and skills for each subject and at each grade level

Ensure increasingly in-depth curriculum.

The standards and benchmarks are often listed in the UbD unit Stage 1 linked to the skills and knowledge students will learn.

Social Studies Example

Big Idea/Standard 2: Pre-Columbian Florida Grade 2: Compare the cultures of

Native American tribes from various geographic regions of the United States.

Big Idea/Standard 2: Pre-Columbian North America Grade 5: Compare cultural aspects

of Native American tribes from different geographic regions of North America including but not limited to clothing, shelter, food, major beliefs and practices, music, art, and interactions with the environment.

Articulated UnitsStandards & Benchmarks

Standards and benchmarks reduce the gaps and overlaps among subject areas and grade levels.

Standards and benchmarks articulate units horizontally and vertically.

Curriculum Map with Benchmarks.

Articulated Units Understanding

checkpoint: Describe how a unit you

teach is articulated with other subjects at the same grade level or/and with the same subject at other grade levels.

Articulated UnitsOnline, Shared,

Transparent Atlas Rubicon http://www.rubicon.com/ Atlas Rubicon is a

Database of Curriculum Maps and Unit Plans. The units can be accessed by teachers and administrators and can be made accessible for parents and students.