Understanding by Design

the ‘big ideas’

of UbD

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 1 UBD 08/2002

 3 Stages of
(“Backward”) Design
1. Identify desired results

2. Determine acceptable evidence

3. Plan learning experiences

& instruction

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 2 UBD 08/2002

 Why “backward”?
The stages are logical but they go
against habits
 We’re used to jumping to lesson and activity
ideas - before clarifying our performance
goals for students
 By thinking through the assessments
upfront, we ensure greater alignment of our
goals and means, and that teaching is focused
on desired results

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 3 UBD 08/2002

 Understanding by Design
Template: the basis of Exchange
 The ubd template
Overarching unde
rstandings

embodies the 3 stages

of “Backward Essential Questio
ns

Design”
 The template
Knowledge and

provides an easy
skill to be acquire
d

mechanism for
exchange of ideas
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 4 UBD 08/2002
The “big ideas” of each stage:
Standard(s):

Unpack the content Understandings Essential Questions

standards and ‘content’, s

t

focus on big ideas

a
g
e

1 What are the big ideas?

Assessment Evidence
Analyze multiple sources of Performance Task(s): Other Evidence:

evidence, aligned with Stage

s
t
a
g

1
e

What’s the evidence?

2

LearningActivities

Derive the implied s

t

learning from Stages 1 & 2

a
g
e

3
How will we get there?
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 5 UBD 08/2002
 Each element is found behind a
menu tab when designing units
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3

U Understandings T Task(s) L Learning

Plan
Q Questions R Rubric(s)
CS Content OE Other
Standards Evidence
K Knowledge
& Skill
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 6 UBD 08/2002
 Not necessary to fill in the
template “in order” !
There are many ‘doorways’ into successful
design – you can start with...
 Content standards
 Performance goals
 A key resource or activity
 A required assessment
 A big idea, often misunderstood
 An important skill or process
 An existing unit or lesson to edit
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 7 UBD 08/2002
 Exchange featrues provide
other entry points
You can –
 Search for, find, and attach other designers’
essential questions and understandings to
your own unit
 Use the web links provided to find ideas
on relevant sites for each design element
 Study exemplary units and adapt them to
your own needs and interests

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 8 UBD 08/2002

 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!)

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 9 UBD 08/2002

 The big ideas provide a way to
connect and recall knowledge
The Parallel
postulate
S.A.S. Like rules
Congruence of a game
Big Idea:
A system
of many powerful
A2 + B2 = C2 inferences from a
small set Like Bill of
of givens Rights

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 10 UBD 08/2002

 “Big Ideas” are typically
revealed via –
 Core concepts
 Focusing themes
 On-going debates/issues
 Insightful perspectives
 Illuminating paradox/problem
 Organizing theory
 Overarching principle
 Underlying assumption
 (Key questions) Q
 (Insightful inferences from facts)
U
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 11 UBD 08/2002
 Big Ideas in Literacy:
Examples
 Rational persuasion (vs. manipulation)
 audience and purpose in writing
 A story, as opposed to merely a list of events
linked by “and then…”
 reading between the lines
 writing as revision
 a non-rhyming poem vs. prose
 fiction as a window into truth
 A critical yet empathetic reader
 A writer’s voice
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 12 UBD 08/2002
 Some questions for identifying
truly “big ideas”
 Does it have many layers and nuances, not
obvious to the naïve or inexperienced person?
 Can it yield great depth and breadth of insight
into the subject? Can it be used throughout K-12?
 Do you have to dig deep to really understand its
subtle meanings and implications even if anyone
can have a surface grasp of it?
 Is it (therefore) prone to misunderstanding as well
as disagreement?
 Are you likely to change your mind about its
meaning and importance over a lifetime?
 Does it reflect the core ideas as judged by experts?
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 13 UBD 08/2002
 You’ve got to go
below the surface...
 to uncover the
really ‘big ideas.’

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 15 UBD 08/2002

 3 Stages of Design,
elaborated
1. Identify desired results

2. Determine acceptable evidence

3. Plan learning experiences

& instruction

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 16 UBD 08/2002

 Stage 1 – Identify
desired results.
Key: Focus on Big ideas
 Enduring Understandings: What specific insights U
about big ideas do we want students to leave with?
 What essential questions will frame the teaching and
learning, pointing toward key issues and ideas, and Q
suggest meaningful and provocative inquiry into
content?
 What should students know and be able to do? K
 What content standards are addressed explicitly
by the unit? CS
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 17 UBD 08/2002
 The “big idea” of
Stage 1:

There is a clear focus in the unit

on the big ideas
Implications:
 Organize content around key concepts
 Show how the big ideas offer a purpose and rationale for the
student
 You will need to “unpack” Content standards in many cases
to make the implied big ideas clear

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 18 UBD 08/2002

 From Big Ideas to
Understandings about them U

An understanding is a
“moral of the story” about the big ideas

 What specific insights will students take

away about the the meaning of
‘content’ via big ideas?
 Understandings summarize the desired
insights we want students to realize
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 19 UBD 08/2002
 Understanding, defined:
They 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…”
 Require “uncoverage” because they are not
“facts” to the novice, but unobvious inferences
drawn from facts - counter-intuitive & easily
misunderstood

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 20 UBD 08/2002

 Understandings: examples... U
 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
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 21 UBD 08/2002
 Knowledge vs. Understanding
 An understanding is an unobvious and important
inference, needing “uncoverage” in the unit;
knowledge is a set of established “facts”.
 Understandings make sense of facts, skills, and
ideas: they tell us what our knowledge means; they
‘connect the dots’
 Any understandings are inherently fallible
“theories”; knowledge consists of the accepted
“facts” upon which a “theory” is based and the
“facts” which a “theory” yields.

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 22 UBD 08/2002

 Essential Questions Q
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?
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 23 UBD 08/2002
 Essential vs. “leading” Q’s
used in teaching (Stage 3)
Essential - STAGE 1
 Asked to be argued
 Designed to
“uncover” new
ideas, views, lines
of argument
 Set up inquiry,
heading to new
understandings
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe
Leading - STAGE 3
 Asked as a reminder,
to prompt recall
 Designed to “cover”
knowledge
 Point to a single,
straightforward fact -
a rhetorical question
24 UBD 08/2002
 Sample Essential Questions: Q
 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?
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 25 UBD 08/2002
 3 Stages of Design:
Stage 2

1. Identify desired results

2. Determine acceptable evidence

3. Plan learning experiences

& instruction

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 26 UBD 08/2002

 Stage 2 – Assessment
Evidence
Template fields ask:

 What are key complex performance tasks

T
indicative of understanding?
 What other evidence will be collected to build
the case for understanding, knowledge, and
skill? OE

 What rubrics will be used to assess complex R

performance?
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 27 UBD 08/2002
 The big idea
for Stage 2
The evidence should be credible & helpful.
Implications: the 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 (and fair)

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 28 UBD 08/2002

 Just because the student
“knows it” …
Evidence of understanding is a greater
challenge than evidence that the
student knows a correct or valid answer
 Understanding is inferred, not seen
 It can only be inferred if we see evidence that
the student knows why (it works) so what?
(why it matters), how (to apply it) – not just
knowing that specific inference

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 29 UBD 08/2002

 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

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 30 UBD 08/2002

 Scenarios for Authentic Tasks T

Build assessments anchored in

authentic tasks using GRASPS:
G  What is the Goal in the scenario?
 What is the Role?
R  Who is the Audience?
A 
What is your Situation (context)?
S  What is the Performance challenge?
P  By what Standards will work be judged
S in the scenario?

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 31 UBD 08/2002

 Reliability: Snapshot vs.
Photo Album
We need patterns that overcome
inherent measurement error
 Sound assessment (particularly of State
Standards) requires multiple evidence over
time - a photo album vs. a single snapshot

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 32 UBD 08/2002

 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
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 33 UBD 08/2002
 Some key understandings
about assessment
 The local assessment is direct; the state assessment is
indirect (an audit of local work)
 It is therefore always unwise to merely mimic the state’s assessment
approaches
 The only way to assess for understanding is via
contextualized performance - “applying” in the broadest
sense our knowledge and skill, wisely and effectively
 Performance is more than the sum of the drills: using only
conventional quizzes and tests is insufficient and as
misleading as relying only on sideline drills to judge athletic
performance ability

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 34 UBD 08/2002

 3 Stages of Design:
Stage 3
1. Identify desired results

2. Determine acceptable evidence

3. Plan learning experiences

& instruction

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 35 UBD 08/2002

 Stage 3 big idea:

E
F E
F N
E G
C and A
T G
I I
V
N
G
E

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 36 UBD 08/2002

 Stage 3 – Plan Learning
Experiences & Instruction
A focus on engaging and effective
learning, “designed in” L
 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 at meeting the goals?

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 37 UBD 08/2002

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

W “Where are we headed?” (the student’s Q!)

H How will the student be ‘hooked’?
What opportunities will there be to be equipped, and to
E experience and explore key ideas?
What will provide opportunities to rethink, rehearse,
R refine and revise?
How will students evaluate their work?
E How will the work be tailored to individual needs,
T interests, styles?
How will the work be organized for maximal
O engagement and effectiveness?

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 38 UBD 08/2002

 Note that some fields require
you to enter one idea at a time
One idea per box allows for more powerful
searching, selecting, and attaching to units
when you browse
 Essential questions Q
 Enduring understandings U
 Tasks of complex performance
T
 Rubrics
R
Also: makes expert reviewer assignment of
“blue ribbons” more precise
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 39 UBD 08/2002
 Help in the Exchange about
all template design elements
Get to know the icons!
 A summary of each field Q
 Examples for each field
 A self-test of your understanding
for that field √
 FAQ’s and Glossary ?
 A special unit in which each field is
Ubd template
explained: click the icon for UBD
TEMPLATE
 Web links to resources for that field
© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 40 UBD 08/2002
 for further information...
Contact us:
 Grant Wiggins, co-author:
grant@ubdexchange.org
 Jay McTighe, co-author:
jmctigh@aol.com
 Steve Petti, webmaster:
steve@newimagemedia.com

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe 41 UBD 08/2002