Understanding by Design
I am fortunate in that my school district has been using Understanding by Design for several years. I remember my first introduction to it. It made sense. It was really kind of the way I’ve been planning things… sort of. I had a strange mix of backward design and traditional lesson planning at the time. But Understanding by Design felt right. Over the years, I’ve gotten better at it. I still have a long way to go.
Below you will find the unit plan I’ve put together for my innovation project. Whether I had done this for my grad school class or not I would have still done this unit plan. The template I’m using is the one to my school uses. Long time ago I had actually come up with my own because the district didn’t have a set template for us to use. On my STEM Academy team, everybody was using different templates. This made things difficult. I had created one that we all could agree that worked for us. Shortly after, the district came up with their template that they wanted everyone to use.
Since this project is becoming a part of my class, it only makes sense that I use the district template. If you look between this template and the Three-Column Table that I created previously. You will see some similarities, but you have to look for them. The parts for the three-column table are not overtly there. At the same time the parts of the UBD template are not overtly in the three-column table. But both start with the end in mind and then work backwards from there. All of the elements of each one is encapsulated. They are just brought out in a different way. I actually like the idea of having both of these because it gives a good view the roadmap and the expected outcomes makes It very clear.
I have also created what our district calls a placement (link). It’s simply a one-page document that highlights the overall outcomes for the program concepts such as Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings. I’m including a link to those so that you can see how this project actually fits in very well with what we were doing in my program and fits in very well with my capstone course.
Content Area: CTE/STEM/Engineering Course/Grade Level: Practicum in STEM - 12th grade |
Unit Title: STEM Outreach Time Frame: 6 Weeks |
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Stage 1: Desired Results |
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High Priority Learning Standards: What high priority learning standards will this unit address? C2 - The student applies concepts of critical thinking and problem solving. The student is expected to: C2A - analyze elements of a problem to develop creative and innovative solutions C2B - analyze information to determine value to the problem-solving task Other Established Outcome Goals (Standards): What outcome goal(s) and curriculum goal(s) or standards (TEKS) will this unit address? Use (R) and (S) to denote STAAR readiness and supporting standards. Use (P) to denote science process standards. |
Transfer |
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What kinds of long-term independent outcome accomplishments are desired? Students will be able to independently use their learning to…
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Meaning |
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Understandings What unit big ideas do you want students to understand? Students will understand that…
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Essential Questions What thought-provoking questions will foster inquiry, meaning making, and transfer? Students will keep considering…
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Acquisition of Knowledge and Skills |
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What facts and basic concepts should students know and be able to recall? Students will know that…
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What discrete skills and processes should students be able to do? Students will be skilled at…
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Unit Considerations / Misconceptions / Prerequisite Knowledge |
Academic Vocabulary |
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· Computational thinking · Standards · Abstraction · Decomposition · Algorithm · Pattern-recognition · Assessment · Reflection |
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Other Standards to Consider |
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College and Career Readiness Standards, Global Competencies, ELPS, and Technology Application Standards can be included here. |
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Stage 2: Evidence |
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Assessment Evidence |
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Performance Assessment(s) (Anchors the unit by providing evidence of student understanding) Students will demonstrate understanding of unit concepts by evidence of:
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Pre-Assessment/Checks for Understanding/Formative Assessments How will you assess and provide feedback along the way? (sample assessments described or listed below) Formative Assessments:
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Summative Assessment How will you assess student mastery of unit understandings, knowledge, and skills?
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Stage 3: Learning Plan |
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Describe the general flow of the constructivist learning experiences through which students will develop understanding of the unit concepts.
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Sample Learning Experiences and Resources |
Hands-On Materials and Technology Tools Needed |
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Numbers template guide iPad (?) |
Responsive Teaching |
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What strategies, resources, interventions or extensions might be needed to make this unit content accessible to all learners? How will you respond when students show mastery? How will you respond when learners do not show mastery along the way?
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