Understanding by Design: Teaching with the End in Mind

1. Understanding by Design:
Teaching with the End in Mind
Curriculum and Planning Model by Wiggins and McTighe
Laura K. Penney
EDU-522
April 16, 2019

2. What is Backward Design?
● What are the steps involved?
● How is it used?
● Why is it important?

3. Main Concepts of UbD:
1. All teaching and assessments are focused on a student’s deep
understanding of learning goals and objectives and their ability to
transfer their knowledge and skills.
2. Designing curriculum from the “end” to the “beginning”, or
“backwards to achieve transfer and deep understanding

4. Three Stages of UbD:
A Step-by Step Guide to Backward Design
Stage 1: Identify Desired Results
Stage 2: Determine Assessment Evidence
Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

5. Stage 1: Identify Desired Results

6. Stage 1 – Desired Results
Content Standard(s):
TEK 8.5: Students understand, make inferences, and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of drama and provide evidence
from text to support their understanding.
Students are expected to analyze how different playwrights characterize their protagonists and antagonists through the dialogue and
staging of their plays.
Understanding (s)/goals
Students will understand that:
· [this is a goal, not an objective. List the big ideas or
concepts that you want them to come away with, not facts that
they must know]
Learner-Centered Example:
Students will understand how the playwright uses
dialogue and soliloquy to show how the contradictions
in Anne’s personality help her to find the strength to
deal with the challenges beyond her control.
Essential Question(s):
· [What leading questions can you ask of students to get them
to understand the Big Ideas?]
· [Address the heart of the discipline, are framed to provoke
and sustain students interest; unit questions usually have no one
obvious “right” answer
Big IDEAS/Essential Questions:
Example:
How do we find the strength within to overcome challenges
that are beyond our control?
In the face of adversity, what causes some to be successful
where others fail?
Stage 2 Template and Learner-Centered Lesson Example

7. Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence

8. Stage 2: Determine Evidence of Learning:
Template Information and Learner-Centered Example
Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence
Performance Task(s):
· [Authentic, performance based tasks that have students apply what they have learned and demonstrate their
understanding.]
· [designed at least at the application level or higher on Bloom’s Taxonomy. ]
· [Rubrics can be used to guide students in self-assessment of their performance]
Other Evidence:
· [includes pre-assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment evidence]
· [Can be individual or group based]
· [Can include informal methods (such as thumbs up, thumbs down, and formal assessments, such as quiz, answers to
questions on a worksheet, written reflection, essay]
Learner-Centered Example:
Students will work collaboratively to fill out a KWL chart about what Anne Frank, WWII and the Holocaust before they begin
reading the play to activate prior knowledge on the subject and hook their interest.
Students will complete a graphic organizer to show examples of how how the playwright uses dialogue and soliloquy to show
how the contradictions in Anne’s personality help her to find the strength to deal with the challenges beyond her control.

9. Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

10. Stage 3: Learning Experiences and Instruction
Stage 3 – Learning Plan
Learning Activities:
[This is the core of your lesson plan and includes a listing describing briefly (usually in bullet
or numbered form so easy to follow) what:
· the students will do during the class to prepare them for the outcomes you expect
of them.]
· the teacher will do to guide the learning]
Learner-Centered Examples:
● Pre-reading group discussion
● Small group brain-dump KWL completion
● Whole group choose parts and then read play excerpt
● Small group collaborative discussion about how Anne’s character copes with her situation
using text evidence

12. Why is this method effective?
● UbD targets specific learning goals and objectives that it is required for
students to be able to know, understand, and do successfully.
● UbD considers what forms of assessments will best illustrate a student’s
transfer of knowledge in relationship to the goals and objectives that
were taught.
● Finally, UbD considers meaningful activities and tasks that will best teach
students the information that they must learn to successfully learn,
understand, and transfer their knowledge of the targeted learning goals
and objectives from a lesson or unit.

14. Creating rich, meaningful, and relevant instructional opportunities is an integral part of the learning process when students are taught
using a learner-centered approach. Knowledge acquired using this method enables students to be actively involved in the learning process, where they
can make their own interpretations and bring their own understanding to the lessons they are expected to learn. Teachers can facilitate this approach
by providing students with learning opportunities that are based on their interests and learning styles (Davidovitch, 2013). Since Understanding by
Design is a lesson and unit planning model that starts differently from most traditional instructional planning methods, it can easily be used in
combination with a learner-centered approach.
With this backwards design model, planning takes place in three stages. The first stage, Identify Desired Results, begins by taking the
standards that students must be able to successfully know, understand and do and then deciding what enduring understandings and essential questions
should be used to clearly focus and prioritize that learning process (McTighe & Wiggins, 2012). Even though specific standards are the focus here,
the learner-centered approach can still be used effectively. This can be addressed by having students assist in deciding the essential questions and big
ideas that they feel interest them most. By allowing for student involvement, the educator is considering students prior knowledge, interests, and
learning desires, which can be a powerful learning tool. The next step in this curriculum model, Determine Evidence, requires the educator to identify
how they will assess students to see whether they have been able to achieve knowledge and understanding of the required learning

15. objectives and if that learning has led to transfer of that knowledge (McTighe & Thomas, 2003). Teachers can again provide students
with a choice of how they want to show they have been able to successfully learn the required standards. This can be done by having a list
of project-based tasks that students can choose from that will show they have been successful in their learning through their performance
of a task. Providing them with options that are geared to different learning styles allows students to choose the learning evidence that best
fits them personally. The final step is the place where teachers plan out what instructional methods and activities, they will use to teach
students and support them in their learning of the targeted standards, goals, and objectives. This can also be learner-centered by allowing
students opportunities to collaborate with their peers, where they can bring their own personal experiences and knowledge into the learning
process.
According to Covey (1989), “To begin with the end in mind means to start a clear understanding of your destination. It means to
know where you are going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction” (p.
98). Through the backward design model for lesson and unit planning, students can achieve a deep knowledge and understanding of
targeted concepts and skills. By coupling this planning model with a learner-centered approach, that deep knowledge and understanding
can be obtained in ways that is personally meaningful to them as learners.

16. References
Covey, S. (1989). The seven habits of highly successful people. Fireside/Simon & Schuster.
Davidovitch, N. (2013). Learning-centered teaching and backward course design-From transferring knowledge to
teaching skills. Journal of International Education Research, 9(4), 329.
McTighe, J., & Thomas, R. S. (2003). Backward design for forward action. Educational Leadership, 60(5), 52-55.
McTighe, J., & Wiggins, G. (2012). Understanding by design framework. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision
and Curriculum Development, p. 10.