Understanding by Design

Learning by Understanding (UbD) by Design from Wiggins & McTighe (2005) felt similar to when I worked on my BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) and my 3 Column Table. With both processes I felt like I was starting at the end by determining what I wanted my goal to be (my BHAG) and working backwards to see how to get to that goal.

The three main stages in UbD are identifying desired results, determining acceptable evidence, and planning learning experiences and instruction (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). With my UbD template the stages were separated into the goals, evidence/activities, and planning. This differed from my 3 Column Table because with my 3 Column Table each row focused on a specific learning goal followed by the learning activities and assessment activities. While I found both the UbD and the 3 Column Table beneficial I think I prefer the 3 Column Table.

While I preferred the 3 Column Table process, both were beneficial for me to use with my innovation plan. I felt the 3 Column Table helped me think through my goals and activities in a way that better worked with how I think. However, the UbD process gave me a lot of information to review in the Understanding by Design (2005) book and this seems to have led me to being able to go even further into the goals and activities that I determined in my 3 Column Table. Both were beneficial in my innovation plan but I believe going forward I will use the 3 Column Table.

Below you will find my Understanding by Design process.

You can also review my 3 Column Table and my blog post that goes with that process here.

Reference:

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005) Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA:

     Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development ASCD