Stage 3 Summary Presentation

1
Stage 3

• Plan for Learning

2
Going from Stage 2 to 3

• Where the work in Stage 2 revolved around what
  will become the summative assessments of a lesson
  plan, the activities in Stage 3 are what provide
  formative assessment opportunities.
• Stage 3 learning activities naturally rely upon
  informal (formative) checks for understanding,
  recognizing that understanding evolves over time
  and with continued effort.

McTighe, J., Wiggins, G. (2005). Understanding by
Design. Alexandria, VA Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
3
Formative Assessment

• Informal checks for understanding also give light
  to any misunderstandings or confusion students
  are experiencing.
• Ongoing formative assessment provides feedback to
  teachers about where there may be gaps in
  students learning or in the lesson plan itself.
• Review and download an excerpt from
  Understanding by Design on Techniques to Check
  for Understanding on the slide that follows

4
The Outcomes of Stage 3

• In this stage, we determine more fully what the
  learning plan needs to accomplish, given not only
  the desired understandings and assessment
  evidence, but who our learners are and what is in
  their best interest.
• To accomplish this, we answer the questions
• What does a learning plan for understanding look
  like?
• How do we make it more likely that everyone might
  achieve understanding?
• What will the learners need, individually and
  collectively, to achieve the desired results of
  Stage 1 and to perform well at the tasks proposed
  in Stage 2?

McTighe, J., Wiggins, G. (2005). Understanding by
Design. Alexandria, VA Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
5
Stage 3 Key Design Questions

• McTighe Wiggins ask the teacher designer
• What learning activities and teaching prompt
  understanding, knowledge, skill, student
  interest, and excellence?
• To accomplish this, McTighe Wiggins asked
  groups of teachers in their UbD workshops to call
  upon their past experiences to note when they
  have observed students most engaged and when the
  learning is most effective.
• The results are displayed on the next three
  slides

McTighe, J., Wiggins, G. (2005). Understanding by
Design. Alexandria, VA Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
6
Teachers responded that students are most engaged
when their work

• Is hands on.
• Involves mysteries or problems.
• Provides variety.
• Offers opportunity to adapt, modify, or somehow
  personalize the challenge.
• Balances cooperation and competition, self and
  others.

• Is built upon a real-world or meaningful
  challenge.
• Uses provocative interactive approaches such as
  case studies, mock trials, and other kinds of
  simulated challenges.
• Involves real audiences or other forms of
  authentic accountability for the results.

Learning was most effective when
McTighe, J., Wiggins, G. (2005). Understanding by
Design. Alexandria, VA Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
7
Teachers responded that the learning was most
effective when

• Work is focused on clear and worthy goals.
• Students understand the purpose of, and rationale
  for, the work.
• Models and exemplars are provided.
• Clear public criteria allow the students to
  accurately monitor their progress.

• There is limited fear and maximal incentive to
  try hard, take risks, and learn from mistakes
  without unfair penalty.
• The ideas are made concrete and real through
  activities linking students experiences to the
  world beyond the classroom.
• There are many opportunities to self-assess and
  self-adjust based on feedback.

What is good learning
McTighe, J., Wiggins, G. (2005). Understanding by
Design. Alexandria, VA Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
8
What is good learning?

• McTighe Wiggins again asked groups of teachers
  to recall their own most engaging and effective
  learning experiences noting the characteristics
  of their best experiences.
• McTighe Wiggins then compiled the following
  characteristics of the best learning designs from
  the teachers responses, as follow

McTighe, J., Wiggins, G. (2005). Understanding by
Design. Alexandria, VA Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
9
Best Designs of Learning

• Clear performance goals, based on a genuine and
  explicit challenge
• Hands-on approach throughout far less
  front-loaded teaching than typical
• Focus on interesting and important ideas,
  questions, issues, problems
• Obvious real-world application, hence meaning for
  learners
• Powerful feedback system, with opportunities to
  learn from trial and error.
• Personalized approach, with more than one way to
  do the major tasks and room for adapting the
  process and goal to style, interest, need.

McTighe, J., Wiggins, G. (2005). Understanding by
Design. Alexandria, VA Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
10
Best Design, continued

• Clear models and modeling
• Time set aside for focused reflection
• Variety in methods, grouping, tasks
• Safe environment for taking risks
• Teacher role resembles that of a facilitator or
  coach
• More of an immersion experience than a typical
  classroom experience
• Big picture provided and clear throughout, with a
  transparent back-and-forth flow between the parts
  and the whole.

McTighe, J., Wiggins, G. (2005). Understanding by
Design. Alexandria, VA Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
11
What is WHERETO?

• WHERETO was composed by McTighe Wiggins to make
  what may sound like a lofty ideal, that is
  designing learning for understanding, into a
  practical design tool.
• We use the design elements represented in the
  WHERETO acronym in the planning stage of
  instructional design, just we used the ASSURE
  model for the evaluation stage of the process.

12
W Where to? Where from?

• Where are we headed? Where have we come from?
  Why are we headed there? What are the students
  specific performance obligations? What are the
  criteria by which student work will be judged for
  understanding?
• This requirement is more stringent than it first
  appears. It means that the expected work, its
  purpose, and the final learning obligations must
  all be transparent to the learner.

McTighe, J., Wiggins, G. (2005). Understanding by
Design. Alexandria, VA Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
13
W Where to?

• Alerting students from day one to the essential
  questions of the unit and course is an easy way
  to signal the priorities to students.
• Thus, by knowing the essential questionsand
  that those questions frame the key assessments
  students can study, do research, take notes, and
  ask questions with far greater clarity, focus and
  confidence.

McTighe, J., Wiggins, G. (2005). Understanding by
Design. Alexandria, VA Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
14
W also Where from?

• Just as important as communicating where the
  learning is headed, teacher designers must know
  where their students are coming from in terms of
  prior knowledge, interests, learning styles,
  talents and even misconceptions.
• Use of a K-W-L (know, want to know, learnings)
  chart and/or pre-assessment/post-assessment
  strategy helps determine assumptions, attitudes
  and learning styles prior to and after the
  learning engagement.

McTighe, J., Wiggins, G. (2005). Understanding by
Design. Alexandria, VA Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
15
Wheres the rest?

• Review and download detailed WHERETO guidelines
  in an excerpt from McTighe Wiggins
  Understanding by Design handbook on the slide
  that follows.
• Download the WHERETO template from DocSharing in
  the eCourse to use for your Stage 3 draft.

McTighe, J., Wiggins, G. (2005). Understanding by
Design. Alexandria, VA Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.