Weeding
Ah, Understanding by Design. My old nemesis. A number of years ago, my district decided that we were going to make a switch to using UbD as our unit design model. With no warning, or explanation, we returned for a new school year only to be thrown into several day-long inservice meetings run by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins. In these sessions, we sat in a cold, dark auditorium and were lectured about essential questions and enduring understandings, when what we wanted and needed to be doing was setting up our classrooms and getting ready for the arrival of our students. Throughout the year, we had more inservice days and after-school meetings devoted to UbD. In all that time, no one was able to make the case for why we were making the change, or how it was truly going to improve learning for our students. It should come as no surprise that the initiative quietly faded away after only a year or two, only to be replaced by yet another revolutionary plan.
The Student Years Part 2 via Humanology with Professor Charles Human May 7, 2010 Creative Commons licensing
So when I was asked to revisit and create a UbD course design template, I cringed. “Not this again,” I thought, “please no.” When I sat down to actually work through the unit plan, however, I realized something. This wasn’t that bad. What had, in the past, looked like a ridiculous amount of work to create a simple lesson plan, was actually an intelligent way to plan out a unit. It made me think concretely about what it was that I truly wanted my students to learn, what I wanted them to walk away with, and work my way backwards. Instead of picking a piece of curriculum and deciding how to teach it, I had to think about where I wanted my students to end up, and plan the best route to get them there. In that regard, it wasn’t that different than Fink’s 3 column table design.
Left and Right Side of the Brain by tonyzebastian via DeviantArt Creative Commons licensing
I think if you’re trying to develop an overarching plan for a unit, UbD has some advantages. It forces you to boil down a large amount of information into concise, clear questions that reflect what it is that you truly want your students to gain. It allows you to see areas where you might be able to connect information or themes in a non-linear fashion. I think in terms of planning, the UbD design model would flexible in terms of allowing the class to go off on a tangent that still relates to the enduring understanding.
I tend to be more of a linear thinker, and as such, prefer the design of Fink’s learning goals table. While Fink doesn’t require a “big picture” item, I included one in the form of a BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goal), which allowed me to keep the goal for the class in mind while I was designing. I prefer the structure of having a week by week or unit by unit idea of where things are headed, as many of the skills and knowledge that students will be developing build on prior learning. For example, without learning to create keyword searches one week, conducting an actual search during another week would be futile. Fink’s design provides a scaffolding structure that makes it easier for me to ensure that I’m not missing any key steps.
Weeding by Ruth Hartnup May 14, 2007 via Flickr Creative Commons licensing
In the library world, we have a term called “weeding.” It’s where you go through your collection and get rid of materials that no longer fit. Maybe they are out of date, in poor condition, contain inaccurate or stereotypical information, or maybe they just don’t get used. If that’s the case, you get rid of them to make way for new materials that better meet the needs of your library. I think of these two methods as being a version of weeding for the classroom. By forcing you to put the student front and center in your planning, they make it easier to identify the superfluous things that might be bogging your class down, and to pare down to what is truly essential for your students. Rather than focusing on how you are going to teach something, you’re thinking about why you’re teaching it, which allows you to get rid of any old, outdated, or ineffective things that you might have been doing. They allow you to better organize your thinking, and your planning, to make way for the things that will reinvigorate your class and your students.
References
American Association of School Librarians. (2009). Standards for the 21st century learner [PDF]. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/AASL_Learning_Standards_2007.pdf
Fink, L. D. (2003). A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning [PDF]. Retrieved from https://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf
McTighe, J., & Wiggins, G. P. (1999). Understanding by design handbook. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
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