The book Understanding by Design (UbD) has become renowned in education circles and is an important part of my practice as a teacher. At the end of March I attended an ASCD pre-conference workshop with the authors of the UbD book, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. The workshop was called Schooling by Design and addressed their ideas both at the classroom level and at the District level.
An important point in Understanding by Design is that the purpose of schools is not primarily teaching but helping students to learn. The teaching is the method we use as teachers to accomplish that goal. We should therefore be focusing our attention on what students are learning and what they can do as a result of education.
Wiggins and McTighe often reference sports analogies such as the soccer coach who prepares her players during practice but then has to stay on the sidelines during the game. The emphasis in school should be more focused on what students can do independently.
Much of traditional education focuses on the acquisition of skills and facts and of course this is important, but it should fuel the building of meaning and the transfer of understanding to new situations. In essence we should be preparing our students beyond our classrooms.
The idea of purposeful education that translates into life long learning is not new and can be found in the writing of John Dewey and many others. What I like about the UbD model is the focus on putting these ideas into practice in a systematic way. Here is how I use UbD.
When I plan a unit of study such as the plant unit that I have been describing in this blog I start with the National Science Education Standards and determine which standards I am addressing in the unit. Then I develop one to two transfer goals for the unit to describe what the students will be able to do independently.
Next I look at the enduring understandings and essential questions that define the meaning that I want students to strive towards. Then I am ready to identify key skills and facts that are important for students to know. Only after I have outlined the goals of my unit using the template can I determine which activities will help me reach my goals. The teaching follows from the goals and not the other way around. Below is the UbD template I used for my plants unit with 5th grade.
The Life Cycle of Plants |
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| Stage 1: Desired Results | |
| Goals:
1. Students will be able to develop and implement a controlled scientific experiment and report on their findings. 2. Students will be able to contribute to discussions about plants, analyze evidence and synthesize ideas about plants. |
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| Enduring Understandings:
1. Living things demonstrate the complementary nature of structure and function. 2. All organisms must be able to obtain and use resources, grow, and reproduce while living in a constantly changing external environment. 3. Evolution is a series of changes that account for the present form and function of organisms. 4. Plants play an important role in the development of cities and culture. |
Essential Questions:
1. What factors may affect the growth of a plant? 2. How can you use evidence to back up the conclusions you have drawn from yourexperiment. 3. What does it mean to be alive? 4. What are the components of a life cycle? 5. What is a fair test. |
| Students will know…
1. Living things share certain characteristics in common that distinguish them from non-living things. 2. Plants are a unique form of life that produce food using the sun’s energy. 3. There is variation of the characteristics of the individuals of a species. 4. Plants physical form and processes are suited to their survival. 5. The structure and function of living organisms reflects their interdependence. 6. All living things go through a life cycle that shapes their existence 7. Angiosperms’ life cycle involves the production of flowers and seeds for reproduction. 8. Living things must reproduce and survive in order to endure over time. Key terms: energy, dormant, survival, variation, reproduce, radicle, cotlyedon, anther, stigma, ovule, photosynthesis, adaptation, producer, medium,testa, Chlorophyll, Dispersal, Independent variable, Dependent Variable, Control Variables |
Students will be able to…
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| Stage 2: Assessment Evidence | |
| Performance Tasks:
Presentation of Experimental Findings for their experiment Pollination Video |
Other Evidence:
Participation in discussions Science Notebook Homework Assignments Quizzes Self-Reflections |
