(

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Developme

)
Houston, TX
June 25-28, 2009
Dr. Carmen Chávez
Denise Darling, Carmen Chávez
Gabriella Horowitz, Anita DeRomo, Tracey Bourne
The Big Picture: UbD
Curriculum
Grant P. Wiggins, Jay McTighe
Three Stages of UbD (
Understanding by Design)
Helpful UbD Websites
UbD website with examples,
http://www.authenticeducation.org/bigideas/resource_carousel_list.lass

UbD template (pdf),

http://www.grantwiggins.org/documents/ForcastingFuture.pdf

Essential Question summary, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe

http://www.jaymctighe.com/ubdweblinks.html

UbD Backward Design Process,

http://digitalliteracy.mwg.org/curriculum/process.html

LESSON PLAN template,

http://digitalliteracy.mwg.org/curriculum/lesson.html
Essential Questions
UbD Workbook
Characteristics of Essential Questions
• Essential Questions have no one obvious right answer.
They uncover, rather than cover up a subject’s controversies, puzzles and
perspectives.
e.g. What is snow”
Why is winter colder than summer?
• Essential Questions raise other important questions, often across subject-
area boundaries
e.g. How does global warming affect all forms of life?
What can be done to decrease CO2 emissions?
• Essential Questions address the philosophical or conceptual foundations
of a discipline. They focus the learning of big ideas and core processes in
Science.
e.g. In nature do only the strong survive?
• Essential Questions recur naturally and are important enough to show up
in several science units.
e.g. What evidence of Patterns of Change is illustrated within…
(the Rock Cycle, Seasons, Adaptation)?
What is the relationship of Form to Function in… (Plants,
Animals,
Cell Shape, States of Matter)?
Essential Questions

•Essential Questions are framed to provoke and sustain student

interest.
e.g. Why/how do we see color?

•Essential Questions provide a continuum of learning from broad

overarching
questions to more specific Unit Questions.

Guidelines:
Questions should be framed for maximal simplicity.
Questions should be worded in student-friendly
language.
Questions should provoke discussion.
Questions should lead to larger essential and unit
ideas.
Essential Questions
websites
• Jamie McKenzie, EQ template
• Greenwich Public School Virtual Library,
Enduring Understandings & EQ
• Guided questions to ask yourself in the
backward design process.
• 10 top questions to ask yourself (
Backward Design)
• Digital Literacy (
Backward Design template)
In a nutshell
Integration of UbD and DI
Thank you!