What is Understanding by Design?
Understanding by Design (UbD) is a framework
for improving student achievement.
Emphasizing the teacher's critical role as a designer of student learning, UbD works within the standards-driven curriculum to help
teachers clarify learning goals, devise revealing assessments of student
understanding, and craft effective and engaging learning activities.
Developed by nationally recognized educators Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, and published by the Association for Supervision
and Curriculum Development (ASCD), Understanding by Design is based on the
following key ideas:
- A primary goal of
education should be the development and deepening of student
understanding.
- Students reveal
their understanding most effectively when they are provided with complex,
authentic opportunities to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective,
empathize, and self-assess. When applied to complex tasks, these "six
facets" provide a conceptual lens through which teachers can better
assess student understanding.
- Effective
curriculum development reflects a three-stage design process called
"backward design" that delays the planning of classroom
activities until goals have been clarified and assessments designed. This
process helps to avoid the twin problems of "textbook coverage"
and "activity-oriented" teaching, in which no clear priorities
and purposes are apparent.
- Student and school
performance gains are achieved through regular reviews of results
(achievement data and student work) followed by targeted adjustments to
curriculum and instruction. Teachers become most effective when they seek
feedback from students and their peers and use that feedback to adjust
approaches to design and teaching.
- Teachers, schools,
and districts benefit by "working smarter" through the
collaborative design, sharing, and peer review of units of study.
http://www.grantwiggins.org/ubd.html
http://www.ubdexchange.org/
The Understanding by Design Exchange is a web site
dedicated to the design of curriculum, assessment and instruction that leads
students to deep understanding of content.
Based on the best-selling books by authors Grant
Wiggins and Jay McTighe. This is a subscription based website, but it
also includes free resources for teachers to use in their curriculum planning
such as Downloadable Templates.
http://www.ascd.org/
Additional
Resources:
Downloadable UbD Template
PowerPoint
on UbD from the ATLAS Workshop