Problems/Needs: Making the case for UbD

What problems does UbD help to “solve”? What needs will UbD address?

  • Teachers plan in isolation.
  • There is no coherent and consistent curriculum within and across subjects.
  • Teachers are teaching isolated knowledge and skills for acquisition (emphasis on content coverage).
  • Important standards (or elements within standards) are not being sufficiently addressed (e.g. math practices).
  • Important aims of schooling (i.e. 21st century skills) are falling through the cracks.
  • Excessive emphasis on test prep.
  • One size fits all teaching — no differentiation.
  • Assessments are low-level (i.e. factual recall).
  • Activity oriented teaching that is not linked to important outcomes.
  • Students are bored, disengaged, or passively compliant.
  • Students are overly reliant on teacher direction and struggle to perform independently on challenging/novel tasks.
  • Students fail to see purpose, relevance, or conceptual connections within and across subjects.
  • Students are acquiring information and skills but are unable to transfer.
  • Students are unclear about criteria (i.e. what quality looks like) and performance expectations (i.e. how good is good enough) on a given task.
  • Lack of systemic collection of evidence of achievement and growth for individual students and program outcomes.
  • Communication of student performance (i.e. report card) does not provide a complete picture.
  • Minimal collective examination of authentic student work to inform curricular, assessment, and instructional improvements.
  • Evaluation of student work is overly subjective and/or inconsistent across teachers.
  • School leaders are unclear about how to lead and/or support UbD.
  • Supervisory practices are not fully aligned with UbD.
  • Other:

STAGE 1: Desired Results
Curriculum Design (school/district)
  • District leadership (including BOE) see the need for UbD, understand curriculum blueprint elements, and recognize the systemic implications.
  • Curriculum committees develop competence in macro UbD design: transfer goals, overarching understandings and essential questions, programmatic rubrics, and recurring cornerstone performance tasks.
  • Curriculum committees apply macro UbD design elements into mapping units that are vertically and horizontally aligned.
  • Establish a system to collect evidence ofstudent achievement of program and mission outcomes.
  • Establish a PLC system to evaluate student work and plan needed improvements.
  • Create/revise the reporting system to effectively and appropriately communicateall valued outcomes.
Other:
Curriculum Implementation (school/classroom)
  • Staff see the need for UbD.
  • Teachers understand each component of the UbD framework.
  • Teachers implement UbD units effectively through the design and refinement of lesson plans.
  • Curriculum committees based on feedback from teachers monitor and revise units.
  • Teachers teach for understanding and transfer along with acquisition so that students can transfer to new situations.
  • Teachers focus on all important outcomes not just those being tested (or what’s easy to test and grade).
  • Students are genuinely engaged and putting forth significant effort.
  • Students become increasingly capable of autonomous performance (e.g., self-direction, self-assessment, and goal setting).
  • Students can explain purpose, relevance or conceptual connections.
  • School/district leadership implement and monitor the collection of evidence on student achievement of program and mission outcomes.
  • Teachers regularly meet in teams to analyze student work based on established rubrics and plan improvements.
  • Curriculum committees/teachers select and annotate anchors for the rubrics to provide clarity about quality indicators and performance expectations.
  • School/district leadership monitor the effectiveness of the reporting system and plan improvements as needed.
Other:
STAGE 2: Evidence
Teaching Staff / Administrator
  • Units meet design standards.
  • Meet teaching for understanding standards.
  • Demonstrations of student understanding and transfer.
  • Teachers make instructional adjustments based on results.
  • Students demonstrate increased independence in performance.
  • Teachers evaluate student performance in a consistent manner.
  • Grading and reporting system effectively communicates to target audiences.
  • Other:
/ Curriculum Design
  • Macro curriculum elements meet design standards.
  • Evidence of student achievement of program and mission outcomes is regularly collected and effectively used to plan needed improvements.
  • Grading and reporting system effectively communicates to target audiences.
  • Other:
Curriculum Implementation
  • Teachers effectively teach and assess for understanding and transfer.
  • Students demonstrate increased independence in performance.
  • Teachers evaluate student performance in a consistent manner.
  • Feedback from teachers, students, and performance data inform curriculum revision and instructional adjustments.
  • Other:

STAGE 3: Plan
ACTION (WHAT) / KEY INDIVIDUALS/GROUP (WHO) / TIMELINE (WHEN) / RESOURCES (HOW) / STATUS
Draft Branford Public Schools template and glossary using key principles and elements of Understanding by Design / Curriculum committee that comprised of teachers, instructional coaches, building and district administration / February – April / Examination of existing work
Exploration of Understanding by Design / Complete
Draft Macro-Level K-12 English Language Arts Framework / K-12 Vertical team of teachers and instructional coaches, building and district admin / May / Examination of illustrative examples
CCSS English Language Arts / Second draft done
Currently being piloted through unit design
Draft Macro-Level K-12 Mathematics Framework / K-12 Vertical team of teachers and instructional coaches, building and district admin (staff have been identified and invited) / September / Examination of illustrative examples
CCSS Standards of Mathematical Practice and Content / To be drafted

1

DRAFTED on 7/22/15 by McTighe and Zmuda.