Understanding By Design

Grant P. Wiggins, JAY AUTOR MCTIGHE

ASCD, Jan 1, 2005 - Education - 370 pages

What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today?s high-stakes, standards-based environment?Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K?16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum.Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, Understanding by Design, 2nd edition, offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.

What people are saying

Review: Understanding by Design

User Review  - Garrett Zecker - Goodreads

Understanding by Design is a technical publication for building curriculum using the backward design process. This book helps instructors support their work by implementing Essential Questions so that ...

Review: Understanding by Design

User Review  - Cara - Goodreads

It wasn't until a few chapters into this book that I really grasped the instructional design technique the authors promote here. However, once I understood how everything fit together it gave me a ...

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• Backward Design: 13
• Understanding Understanding: 35
• Gaining Clarity on Our Goals: 56
• The Six Facets of Understanding: 82
• Doorways to Understanding: 105
• Crafting Understandings: 126
• Thinking like an Assessor: 146
• Criteria and Validity: 172
• Planning for Learning: 191
• Teaching for Understanding: 227
• The Design Process: 254
• UbD as Curriculum Framework: 275
• Yes but: 302
• Getting Started: 322
• Sample 6Page Template: 327
• Endnotes: 333
• Glossary: 336
• Bibliography: 355
• Index: 365
• About the Authors: 369

About the author

Wiggins directs the Center on Learning, Assessment, and School Structure, an educational and consulting organization. He consults with school districts across the country, conducting teacher training on new forms of assessment.

An innovative thinker who is sought-after by institutions, publishers, and international think-tanks, Michael Fullan is special advisor on education to Dalton McGuinty, the premier of Ontario. He formerly served as dean and professor emeritus at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and from Nipissing University in Canada.

Fullan served as dean of the faculty of education at the University of Toronto from 1988 to 2003, leading two major organizational transformations, including a merger of two large schools of education. He is currently working as adviser and consultant on several major education reform initiatives around the world.

He bases his work on research and practice on both the public and private sectors, finding an increasing convergence in this literature. He has written several bestsellers on leadership and change that have been translated into several languages. Four of his books have won book of the year awards, and his publications have been translated into several languages.Now, Michael Fullan is offering his experience to you in an eStudy opportunity! Visit http: //www.corwin.com/learning/estudy/fullan.html for more information.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Understanding By Design; Gale Reference; Gale virtual reference library; Merrill education, ASCD college textbook series; Professional Development Series
• Authors: Grant P. Wiggins, JAY AUTOR MCTIGHE
• Edition: 2, illustrated
• Publisher: ASCD, 2005
• ISBN: 1416600353, 9781416600350
• Length: 370 pages
• Subjects: Education / Curricula; Psychology / Cognitive Psychology