Understanding by Design (UbD), Stage # 1
Learning Objectives
After completing the Stage #1 presentation, you will be able to do the following when creating your UbD course:
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UbD Stage #1, Overview
Understanding by Design (UbD) is an approach to education based upon backward design; the practice of looking at outcomes in order to design course units, perform quiz testing assessments, and instruction. UbD focuses on teaching to achieve Understanding, and ultimately, Transfer of Understanding to external and broad applications; what is learned in course work is applicable in environments outside of the course itself (Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).
UbD Stage #1 is based on concepts developed by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins, and for this presentation, we use their textbook The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units. Throughout this presentation, you will complete your own template by employing Backwards Design or backward planning techniques. Backwards design is identifying course goals at a high-level and then building backwards by supporting such high-level goals as requirements with objectives to support them by building more granular class structure and concepts (Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).
Backwards Design has three stages of development:
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UbD Stage #1, Template Overview
For UbD Stage #1, you will learn how to define your course’s Desired Results for course-takers to accomplish upon completion. Each section of the template is designed for you to organize your course from high-level design to a more granular design for implementation. Areas covered are:
- Course and Unit Summary
- Unit Summary/Overview
- Professional Organizations for Course Content
- Standards and/or Competencies adhered to for the course
- Transfer, or applicable achievement of course material upon completion
- Meaning and Understanding of course material
- Acquisition of Knowledge and Skills acquired through course completion
Important Note on Presentation Images
- If it is too difficult to read the content example noted in an image, click on an image to view the larger-sized example.
- Or, click the UbD Stage #1 Template Upload at towards the end of this presentation to view the entire template example in document form.
Course and Unit Summary
The Course and Unit Summary for Stage #1 is a listing of course specifics comprising the course’s makeup. Items such as:
- Basic Course Information: Subject/Discipline, Class name and number, Class time frame, Grade level, Key words, Organization, Corporation, Type of organization, Textbooks, Links to online material.
- Unit Information: Unit title, Unit time frame, Where does it fit into the class, Unit delivery method.
- Course Design: Why are you developing this course, Time frame to teach, and Level of experience for course-takers (Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).
Unit Summary and Professional Organizations for Content
Next is a quick, general summary of the course unit, and a list of 1 or more professional organizations used for creating content.
- Unit Overview: Provide a brief 1 or 2 line summary of the unit's instruction. Although you should convey specific concepts you wish to cover, try to keep it concise.
- Professional Organizations for Content: List each professional organization who maintains development standards that will be applied to your course's unit. Ensure URL addresses are provided here for quick reference access (Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).
Standards and/or Competencies
The Standards and Competencies section is a broad area of focus that course-taker will address throughout the unit’s instruction. These standards/competencies are labeled with a code to help you organize further detail later covered in the template. They’re meant to be broad topics of discussion, allowing you to develop deeper instruction level guiding your course-taker towards knowledgeable understanding and application of instructed material.
In short, standards and competencies are basic goals to be accomplished through course completion and are meant to be expanded later with course's material. The codes applied here assist in organizing presented class content so that you have a proper work-flow throughout instruction, ultimately culminating in a positive class experience so a course-taker may apply learned knowledge in environments outside of instruction (Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).
- Codes: Codes are assigned for each Competency definition, allowing you to map your course's work material. These are used as reference points throughout your design and are basically the main requirements for completing your course. As you create your course design, you will use these code references to further define and create objectives to fulfill them, forming an overall cohesive study unit.
Some codes are standards assigned by professional organizations (previously referenced), so if you have them available, use them. If not, create your own to use, but ensure they are easily identifiable for use in your UbD template. - Standards and/or Competency definitions: Your definitions of Standards and Competencies are what a course-taker will take away upon the completion of your course unit. By the end of your course's unit, course-takers will be competent in the standards you have defined here (Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).
Transfer
When defining Transfer goals for your course, they should be mechanisms for applying course-learned knowledge and understanding outside of the course environment. Transfer goals are ideas and conclusions drawn upon from course learning, but ultimately are to be applied outside of the course environment. As you consider Transfer goals for your UbD setup, ensure they are applicable outside of the course’s structure and that they are goals which are autonomously repeatable externally across broad domains that fall outside of course instruction (Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).
- Codes: Again, codes are used to organize your Transfer goals, and they are each assigned a code so they may be correlated with established course Standards and Competency codes, thereby allowing you to map the path of instruction you provide to course-takers.
- Transfer definitions: In the Stage #1 template, Transfer goals should be in line to support your course’s Standards and Competencies. Remember, Standards and Competencies are larger, more broad skill sets that your course-taker will learn by completing your course; the Transfer goals are what the course-taker will take away from your instructional environment as adaptable knowledge and skills and then later apply them to real-life circumstances.
- Competency Codes: These are the previously established Competency Codes for your overall course. Your Transfer goal definition should fulfill a Competency requirement, supporting it with a more in-depth fulfillment relating to course material (Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).
Meaning
Understanding goals for your instruction are applicable answers to the overall Essential question for your course. An Essential Question existentially ties your course’s Standards and Competencies along with Transfer ideas into a cohesive knowledge-base that may be applied outside of course instruction.
Essential Question: An Essential Question is meant to trigger deeper thought among your course-takers, relating coursework Standards and Competencies to knowledge Transfer and is accomplished by deeper Understanding. These concepts build upon each other:
- Standards and Competencies are what will be learned; upon completion, they are the ideas a course-taker will be competent in.
- Transfer is taking course Standard and Competencies and applying them to real-world examples and situations.
- Essential Questions trigger deeper thought, causing course-takers to explore a deeper understanding of course material, thereby reinforcing the Transfer of knowledge out in the real world (Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).
Understanding: All Understanding goals must assist a course-taker in answering proposed Essential Questions; to answer the question requires deeper use of course material to truly know what is instructed so it may be applied external to the course being taught. The goal is ultimately Transfer of knowledge and prove competency, and it is gained by answering Essential Questions through Understanding (Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).
Codes: As previously practiced, codes are assigned to your course’s Essential Question or Questions, and they in turn have corresponding Understanding codes which should trigger the course-taker to answer the question. All are mapped with your course’s Competency codes, ensuring that your course-taker is adhering to founding coursework Standards (Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).
Acquisition
Lastly, Acquisition of all-of-the-above is accomplished by Knowledge and Skill development. The Stage #1 template culminates in the specific Knowledge and Skills to be obtained during coursework completion to reinforce the broad concepts founded in Understanding and Standards and Competency goals. High-level coursework design starts with Standards and Competencies and become more granular as you move down your UbD setup, building a framework with Transfer and Meaning, and all tied together with applicable Knowledge and Skill sets (Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).
- Knowledge: How a course-taker acquires Knowledge and Skills necessary for achieving Competency and Transfer are defined within this section, setting course expectations for fulfillment. They are basic facts and concepts to be acquired through course learning, supporting previously established Competency and Transfer requirements.
- Skills: Skills are the nuts-and-bolts of your course operation. They are what will be employed to obtain course Knowledge, thereby meeting overall objectives established in Competency and Transfer requirements .
- Codes: Again, mapping codes are used to correlate the previous subjects, building a cohesive education plan that is accomplishable by your course-takers (Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).
UbD Stage #1, Template Upload
Here is an example copy of the UbD Stage #1: Identify Desired Results template for your use. Feel free to download a copy of the document to use as a personal reference for when you are completing the form.
Understanding by Design (UbD) Template, Version 1.0
Last updates, October 26, 2016
Stage #1: Identify Desired Results
Last updates, October 26, 2016
Stage #1: Identify Desired Results
UbD Template Video
This online instructional video is a walk-thru on how to complete the UbD UbD Stage #1: Identify Desired Results template. It is available for use on YouTube.
UbD Stage #1 Assessment Quiz
References
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2011). The understanding by design guide to creating high-quality units. ASCD books.
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2012). The understanding by design guide to advanced concepts in creating and reviewing units. ASCD books.
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2012). The understanding by design guide to advanced concepts in creating and reviewing units. ASCD books.