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Understanding by Design (ASCD)
by
The ASCD,
Jay McTighe
The highly anticipated second edition of "Understanding by Design" poses the core, essential questions of understanding and design, and provides readers with practical solutions for the teacher-designer. The book opens by analyzing the logic of backward design as an alternative to coverage and activity-oriented plans. Though backward from habit, this approach bri...more
Paperback, Second Edition, 384 pages
Published
July 1st 2005
by Prentice Hall
(first published October 25th 1998)
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When I was a forklift operator, I topped out in terms of skill pretty quickly. And one need only receive one or two truckloads of any kind of merchandise to master the warehouse worker's skills. One of the great things about being a teacher, for me, is that it is a career that offers virtually endless opportunities to improve as a practitioner; it is, therefore, never boring. Grant P. Wiggins and Jay McTighe's Understanding by Design is in all respects a guide to keep one's teaching career stimu...more
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Wiggins offers ideas for designing curriculum to engage students in exploring and deepening their understanding of important ideas, and creating assessments that reveal the extent of their understanding. This is not a step-by-step guide on how to design a course, but rather a conceptual framework and design process. It offers a way of thinking about your course, but does not offer individual lesson plans.
I read the book at the same time I was putting together my 309K proposal, an...more
I read the book at the same time I was putting together my 309K proposal, an...more
Jay Salikin
is currently reading it
Three stages of backward design:
1. Identify desired results (To what extent does the design focus on the big ideas of targeted content?)
2. Determine acceptable evidence (To what extent do the assessments provide fair, valid, reliable, and sufficient measures of the desired results?)
3. Plan learning experiences and instruction (To what extent is the learning plan effective and engaging)
To what extent is the entire unit coherent, with the elements of all three s...more
1. Identify desired results (To what extent does the design focus on the big ideas of targeted content?)
2. Determine acceptable evidence (To what extent do the assessments provide fair, valid, reliable, and sufficient measures of the desired results?)
3. Plan learning experiences and instruction (To what extent is the learning plan effective and engaging)
To what extent is the entire unit coherent, with the elements of all three s...more
This thing is such an institution at Teachers College we use UbD as a verb. As in, "Did you UbD this novel yet?"
Yeah.
But I certainly can't think of a better way to plan than the approach so laboriously extolled in this tome. It's a smart, methodical way to make truly rigorous curricula that demand authentic learning, not coverage or cute performance tasks. And I'd say it's worth it to give the opening chapters a thorough read. Most teachers only get a fo...more
Yeah.
But I certainly can't think of a better way to plan than the approach so laboriously extolled in this tome. It's a smart, methodical way to make truly rigorous curricula that demand authentic learning, not coverage or cute performance tasks. And I'd say it's worth it to give the opening chapters a thorough read. Most teachers only get a fo...more
This was by far the best book assigned in my Master of Education coursework so far, and one which will stay on my bookshelf. This book reframes lesson planning by focusing on learning objectives and then using the "backwards design" approach to design learning experiences and assessments that are truly made to get the student where they need to be. It will be useful for educators working in the classroom at any level, K-16.
This is a great resource with lots of detailed information. I love the practical tables and examples. Sometimes, I think Wiggins gets into the weeds but in general, this is a practical and helpful guide that you can either read as a whole or flick through to find the relevant chapter or sub-section.
Okay, for someone who came to this via ABA and verbal behavior, backward design seems only natural. But the details sound intriguing: essential questions, transfer tasks and the six facets of understanding. Will only know once I read it, but the recommending source is persuasive!
Andy Mitchell
added it
Does your teaching sometimes feel disconnected and choppy? This book is a game-changer. I can't wait to apply these ideas to my teaching this school year. Highly-recommend.
Begin with the end in mind is the advice of the authors of this great book, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. This is a valuable resource that all teachers should read and think about.
Somewhat thick verbiage makes it a little hard to read, but the main point of the book is about a more effective way to teach current curriculum to students and the basic premise should be fairly obvious to anyone who teaches regularly - you think about the learning outcome and devise essential questions and discussion points to get students to your level of understanding of a topic.
Helpful in working through a unit of instruction, but not something aimed at the larger questions of w...more
Helpful in working through a unit of instruction, but not something aimed at the larger questions of w...more
This book outlines best practice in backwards planning, a very effective pedagogical technique. We've used it in all our lesson plans and suggest you do too!
This was required reading for me but I would recommend it for all old-school teachers. We definitely need to change the way things are done.
Not sure how I feel about Wiggns and McTighe's processes yet. My star rating may change once I've had time to cogitate.
Go Understanding! Take that standardized testing! Recommend for all educators, cognitive scientists and measly neurologists.
Sicuramente interessante e utile. Mi pare eccessivamente prescrittivo, ma comunque utile.
Chapters 1-11 assigned and read. For the most part, a well-written book with appropriate examples and explanations. I don't like the size of the book, it's just too floppy and difficult to take places, but the content is fine.
I really like the teaching. . .hm, design, I suppose, proposed in this book. It was a book I needed to read for class, but I think I'd read it again, just because this is the way I learn (by understanding) so the whole backwards design makes complete sense to me. I think it's a good book to have in your library if you're a teacher, and I'll be keeping this one to look at again.
Man, is this a thick read. Just tough to get through, but it does give a fantastic method for planning units in the classroom. Its suggestions are unbeliveably time consuming, but if you could do one or two units a year, your students learning would improve exponentially. I found it exceptionally helpful to work through this book with my grad school cohort. I'd suggest that you have a group of people with which to struggle through the concepts.
This was the cornerstone of my masters degree and still the most sensible step-by-step approach to curriculum development I've read. While much of what I've encountered more recently has challenged things that this method takes for granted, it counteracts many harmful/wasteful commonplaces of teaching and proposes a curriculum design method that puts students' enduring understanding front and center.
A great approach to unit planning and design. As I was reading this the other day, I happened upon an example that could have only come from the St. John's Program. So, I looked at the author bios and was pleased to discover that one of the authors is indeed a Johnnie. No wonder everything I read seemed to sound vaguely familiar...
Stacy Young
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Recommends it for:
Teachers!
Recommended to Stacy by:
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This is one of the most helpful books I have ever read on curriculum design and instructional practice. I have a stack of paperbacks that I want to read but this one is pretty interesting as far as a "work" book goes. I highly recommend it to any teacher who feels his or her curriculum design could use a jump start!
Contains useful ideas on the "backwards design" of curriculum and instruction. The book is rather repetitious and wordy. It could be about 80% shorter and still present the essential details. Reads as though it was transcribed from oral presentations. Except for those issues, it would get a higher rating.
I was introduced to UbD through a lesson planning model, so now I'm a little thrown off that it's used more for planning entire units. However, I'm excited to see how it may shape and advance my overall planning in the classroom. We'll see if I have the time implement it.
Another homework book for school. This one is not pleasant. Wordy and dense and spends entire chapters teaching us what words like "understanding" mean. Luckily my department is jig-sawing it, so I don't have to read the whole thing myself.
Oops, wrong version. How do you delete books you accidentally put on your shelf?
This book was my starting point for my Honors thesis. It is a well written textbook basically (meaning not dry). If you want to know about UbD this is the first hand source. Be warned it is a lot of information.
this book is useful for two things:
1. thinking about how to plan lessons
2. preparing to kiss administrative posterior by spouting off about "new" pedagogy
but it's actually not a bad book
1. thinking about how to plan lessons
2. preparing to kiss administrative posterior by spouting off about "new" pedagogy
but it's actually not a bad book
I have to say reading this book is rough, but the research changed my teaching! I only plan using UbD, and I have seen a huge increase in student achievement because of that.
This added to my course design knowledge- and gave me a different way of looking at design.... although it felt a bit "overthought" at times. It is a good guide for teachers-
Monday
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
teachers in need of curriculum help
Shelves:
teaching-books
I'm reading this book right now in hopes to improve the structure and meaning of my teaching. I'll give a better review after I begin to implement what I've learned.
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