Lesson+Planning

This resource page will be a place to share materials on lesson planning, lesson study, Common Core Standards, and other materials that assist in designing high-quality lessons.

Here is quote from an article by __Wiggins and McTighe__ about the value of understanding by design and backwards design:

"But many teachers begin with and remain focused on textbooks, favored lessons, and time-honored activities—the inputs—rather than deriving those means from what is implied in the desired results—the output. To put it in an odd way, too many teachers focus on the teaching and not the learning. They spend most of their time thinking, first, about what they will do, what materials they will use, and what they will ask students to do rather than first considering what the learner will need in order to accomplish the learning goals." (see article Reading_02_Backwards Design listed below)

Here are some Design Tips that Wiggins and McTighe share when thinking about building a high-quality lesson.


 * ~ DESIGN TIP #1 ||~ DESIGN TIP #2 ||
 * < ** Consider these questions that arise in the minds of all readers, the answers to **
 * which will frame the priorities of coached learning: **
 * ** How should I read the book? **
 * ** What am I looking for? **
 * ** What will we discuss? **
 * ** How should I prepare for those discussions? **
 * ** How do I know if my reading and discussions are effective? **
 * ** Toward what performance goals do this reading and these discussions head, **
 * so that I might focus and prioritize my studies and note taking? *** ** What big ideas, linked to other readings, are in play here? **


 * These are the students’ proper questions about the learning, not the teaching, and any good educational design answers them from the start and throughout **
 * a course of study with the use of tools and strategies such as graphic organizers and written guidelines. ** || ** To test the merits of our claims about purposelessness, we encourage you to sidle up to a student in the middle of any class **
 * and ask the following questions: **
 * ** What are you doing? **
 * ** Why are you being asked to do it? **
 * ** What will it help you do? **
 * ** How does it fit with what you have previously **
 * ** done? **
 * ** How will you show that you have learned **
 * ** it? ** ||

In their article on Understanding By Design and Backwards Design (see attachments below), Wiggins and McTighe ask the most important question we should consider when thinking about lesson design: "How, in other words, will students be helped to see by design the purpose of the activity or resource and its helpfulness in meeting specific performance goals?" (page 5)

In Understanding By Design, the teacher or designer is being asked to: "start with a much more careful statement of the desired results—** the priority learnings **—and to derive the curriculum from the performances called for or implied in the goals." (page 5)

Wiggins and McTighe suggest that we be able to answer the following three questions after framing the goals of a lesson:
 * 1) What would count as evidence of such achievement?
 * 2) What does it look like to meet these goals?
 * 3) What, then, are the implied performances that should make up the assessment, toward which all teaching and learning should point?

Here are the three stages of planning with backwards design in mind--the practice in Understanding By Design:



A description of each stage is shown below:


 * Stage 1: Identify the desired results of learning**
 * What should students know, understand, and be able to do?
 * What content is worthy of understanding?
 * What enduring understandings are desired?


 * Stage 2: Determine acceptable evidence**
 * How will we know if students have achieved the desired results?
 * What will we accept as evidence of student understanding and proficiency?

What is the total assessment evidence we need to know whether students understand and have achieved the desired outcomes?


 * Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction**

With clearly identified results and appropriate evidence of understanding in mind, it is now the time to fully think through the most appropriate instructional activities.
 * What enabling knowledge (facts, concepts, principles) and skills (processes, procedures, strategies) will students need
 * in order to perform effectively and achieve desired results?
 * What activities will equip students with the needed knowledge and skills?
 * What will need to be taught and coached, and how should it best be taught, in light of performance goals?
 * What materials and resources are best suited to accomplish these goals?

(see pages 6-7 of the article Reading_02_Backwards Design)

UbD Design Standards: used by a teacher-designer when engaged with the UbD template.

Figure 1.4


 * RESOURCES **


 * Lesson Planning Activity for Day 1 of the Summer Institute **

An introduction to UBD, a slideshow from Wiggins and McTighe

Overview of the UBD template, the 1-page template that serves as a design structure for a lesson.

Simplified version of UBD template, blank template in Word.

UbD Design Standards for the three Stages, PDF of Figure 1.4 above

Key components of 5-E Lesson plan model

Overview of the 5-E Lesson Plan model

5-E Lesson Plan template



5-E Lesson Plan example in Chemistry, Water Unit

Reading on Understanding by Design and Overview

Reading on Backwards Design within the UBD system


 * WEBSITES **

[|Understanding by Design] [|Understanding by Design Exchange by ASCD], collaborative lesson planning [|Understanding by Design, Framework by ASCD], a set of resources ASCD provides [|5-E Lesson Plan Model], Michigan State University School of Education (see diagram below) An excellent site for learning about 5-E lesson design. [|5-E Lesson Plan Example], Earth Science Lesson Teaching Science, Wikispace, How to design a 5-E lesson plan [|Math Functions UbD lesson plan example-Middle School] [|Fifth Grade Social Studies lesson plan using UbD] [|Sixth Grade Math, Geometry], UbD lesson plan


 * BOOKS **

[|Understanding by Design], by Grant Wiggins


 * OTHER RESOURCES **


 * Powerpoint that goes through the six facets and three stages of UBD. A good resource.**