This document summarizes a professional development session on designing instruction for deep learning and diversity using the backward design model. The session focused on the first stage of backward design, which is identifying desired results by setting goals, enduring understandings, and essential questions. Teachers worked in groups to unpack learning goals, identify big ideas and conceptual understandings, and craft enduring understandings and essential questions. The document provides examples and guidance for these backward design elements. It emphasizes designing curriculum around important concepts rather than just covering topics. The overall summary is that the session introduced teachers to the first stage of backward design for setting instructional goals focused on deep understanding.

1. Designing Instruction for
Deep Learning and Diversity
Session Two
January 26, 2010
Capilano Elementary

2. Designs 2010 Series
• January 12 Setting the Stage for Instructional Design that
fosters Deep Learning and Embraces Diversity
• January 26 Backward Design: Goal Setting, Enduring
Understandings, Essential Questions
• February 9 Backward Design Stage Two:
Assessment For, As, Of
Learning
• March 29 Backward Design Stage Three: Teaching
for Deep Understanding and
Diversity
• April 12 Differentiated Assessment and Instruction Practices

4. Post-its:
Please post
any of your
wonderings Parkin g Lot
to one of the
“Wonder
Walls”
throughout
the session.
Please use a “scrap
strip” on your
table for any
questions,
thoughts, or
comments.

5. “To begin with the end in mind
means to start with a clear
understanding of your destination.”
S. Covey
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

6. “Backward Design”
“Deliberate and focused instructional
design requires us to make an important
shift… The shift involves thinking a great
deal, first, about the specific learnings
sought, and the evidence of such
learnings, before thinking about what we,
as the teacher, will do or provide in
teaching and learning activities.”

7. UBD End Results
• Effective units
with deeper
understandings
• Curriculum design
that meets the needs
of all learners in the
class

8. Backward Design Model – 3 Stages
1. Identify desired results
2. Determine acceptable
evidence (Feb 9th)
3. Plan learning experiences
and instruction (March
29th)

9. Learning For Understanding
Three different but interrelated goals:
• For students to acquire important
information and skills
• For students to make meaning of that
content
• For students to effectively transfer their
learning to new situations both within
school and beyond it
Wiggins & McTighe (2008). Putting Understanding First. ASCD.

10. “Twin Sins” of Curriculum Design
1. Activity-Oriented Design
“Hands-on without “Minds On”
2. Curriculum Coverage
“Marching through the textbook”

11. Concept Based vs. Topic Based
Instruction
Concept-Based Instruction: Topic-Based Instruction:
• Results in higher-level, • Holds learning to a fact or
integrated thinking activity level
• Timeless, universal, and • Topical Theme Instruction
abstract (e.g., Plants, Dinosaurs,
• Forces students to think Japan, Penguins)
about topics and facts in • Has short term use – to
terms of their transferable cover an event, issue , or
significance (cross- set of facts
curricular)
• Increases the overloaded
• Allows flexibility to allow curriculum
students to search for and
construct knowledge Erickson, L. (2008). Stirring the head, heart and
soul: redefining curriculum, instruction, and concept-
based learning. p 30 - 41

12. Concept-Based Instruction
Allows instruction to be more effective
by providing the opportunity for teachers
(K-12 and beyond) to work as a team to
systematically build conceptual
understandings throughout the student’s
years of education.
Erickson, L. (2008). Stirring the head, heart and soul: redefining curriculum, instruction, and
concept-based learning. p 30 - 41

13. Pioneer Life: Lesson Make-Over
BEFORE UbD AFTER UbD
• Look at the Grade • Discuss the
3 Social Studies changes evident
unit in the lesson after
• Which of the “twin “Backward
sins” are Design” has been
represented in this applied
lesson?

14. Backward Design Unit Template
Unit Topic:
BIG IDEA(S):
STAGE 1: Desired Results
Prescribed Learning Outcomes:
Enduring Understandings: Essential Questions:
Knowledge: Skills:

15. Stage 1: Desired Results
Using the Planning Template
• Unit Topic
• Prescribed Learning Outcomes (Goals)
• Big Ideas (Concepts)
• Enduring Understandings
• Essential Questions
• Knowledge and Skills

16. Meaningful Use of PLOs
• Danger of coverage mentality
• Need to prioritize & identify BIG IDEAS
• Clarity of goal essential for success
• Planning for multiple ways of engagement
(UDL) – to tap into learners’ interests,
challenge them appropriately, and motivate
them to learn

17. BIG IDEAS
• Provide a conceptual lens
• Are universal and timeless – carry through the ages
and across cultures
• Are broad, abstract, transferable
• Are the “core” of the subject – they need to be
uncovered allowing students “dig deep” into learning
• Are the building blocks for Enduring Understandings
• Examples: equity, good triumphs over evil,
problem solving

18. Finding the Big Ideas:
Unpacking the Learning Goals (PLOs)
1. Select 2-3 related PLOs
– Look for a natural link or connection between
the content of the PLOs
– Select PLOs based on what you know about
students’ learning needs, readiness, and
interests

19. Finding the Big Ideas:
Unpacking the Learning Goals (PLOs)
2. Highlight the key (recurring) nouns and
adjectives in the PLOs selected
3. Look at the lists of transferable concepts
and use the “funnel” questions handout to
assist in identifying the Big Ideas
(concepts) implied by the nouns and
adjectives in the PLOs

20. Finding the Big Ideas:
Unpacking the Learning Goals (PLOs)
4. Identify a pair (two) concepts that:
– Indicate the kind of inquiries that must be
made (e.g., compare and contrast)
– Suggest the kind of rethinking that learners
will need to do in order to understand the
ideas and find them useful
Wiggins & McTighe (2005). Understanding by Design. P. 69-70

21. Unpacking PLOs: Grade 3 Example
PLOs for Grade 3 Social Studies
• B1: Identify changes that can occur in
communities over time
• B2: Describe the importance of communities
• B3: Identify cultural similarities and differences
Big Ideas:
change, similarities and differences, culture

22. School Teams: Your Task
• Work through the steps of unpacking the
PLOs to find the Big Ideas (key concepts).

23. Finding the Big Ideas:
Unpacking the Learning Goals (PLOs)
1. Select 2-3 related PLOs
2. Highlight the key (recurring) nouns and
adjectives in the PLOs selected
3. Identify concepts implied by the nouns and
adjectives in the PLOs
4. Identify a pair (two) concepts that:
- Indicate the kind of inquiries that must be made
- Suggest the kind of rethinking that learners will need
to do in order to understand the ideas and find them
useful

24. Enduring Understandings
What will the
students
remember for:
40 seconds?
40 minutes?
40 years?

25. Establishing Curricular Priorities
Worth being
familiar with
Important to
know and do
Big Ideas and
Enduring
Understandings

26. Enduring Understandings Are:
• Statements of conceptual relationships –
includes two (or more) concepts (Big Ideas)
derived from the PLOs
• Transfers through time and across cultures and
situations
• Completes the stem “Students will understand
that….”
Erickson, L. (2008). Stirring the head, heart and soul: redefining curriculum, instruction, and
concept-based learning. p 87-88

27. Grade 3 Example:
PLOs for Grade 3 Social Studies
• B1: Identify changes that can occur in communities over
time
• B2: Describe the importance of communities
• B3: Identify cultural similarities and differences
Big Ideas: change, similarities and differences, culture
Enduring Understanding:
Communities change over time to meet people’s needs.

28. Enduring Understandings
Table Work: Sorting Activity
• Sort the statements in the envelope on
your table into yes examples and no
examples of enduring understandings
• Generate a list of the attributes of a
“good” (exemplar) enduring understanding
• Write these attributes on the 11x17 paper
on your table

29. Yes Examples
• What we believe is part of who we are.
• Homes reflect personal identity and local culture.
• Past civilizations shape present day systems and technologies.
• Exploration leads to discovery and develops new
understandings.
• Imagination is a powerful tool for extending our ability to
think, create and express ourselves.
• Family histories provide an insight into cultural and personal
identity.
• Communities are enriched by their members and the different
perspectives that they bring.

30. No Examples
• Ancient Egyptians had a sophisticated irrigation system.
• Explore what an integer is.
• My family is special and unique.
• Finding peaceful solutions to conflict leads to a better
quality of human life.
• Mammals have characteristics and needs.
• Communities would be enriched if everybody just got
along!
• Do you really know who your parents are?
• It is important to preserve local ecosystems.

31. Handout
• Compare the attributes listed on the
handout to those listed on your chart
paper
• Enter into a brief dialogue of comparisons
between the two…
– “I notice that….”

32. Enduring Understandings
• Based on the Big Ideas (concepts) at the
heart of the discipline - has enduring value
beyond the classroom
• Need to be “uncovered” in order to be
learned - through sustained inquiry
• What we want the students to understand
40 years from now

33. You’ve got to go
below the surface…

34. Your Task
• Using the identified Big Ideas (concepts)
write an Enduring Understanding.

35. Essential Questions
• Help us stay focused on the
Enduring Understanding
• Broad and open-ended
• Are arguable and important to
argue about
• Raise more questions-provoking
and sustaining engaged inquiry
• Spark meaningful connections
• Foster deep and transferable
knowledge

36. Examples of Essential Questions
Big Ideas: change, similarities and differences, culture.
Enduring Understanding:
Communities change over time to meet people’s needs.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
• What defines a community?
• What are the similarities and differences between
communities?
• How and why do communities change?
• How do people’s needs affect change in a community?
• How do communities reflect the needs of people living in
them?

37. Essential vs. Leading Questions
• Essential Questions
– Asked to be argued
– Designed to “uncover” new ideas, views, lines of
arguments.
– Set up inquiry, heading to new understandings.
• Leading Questions
– Asked as a reminder to prompt recall
– Designed to ‘cover’ knowledge
– Point to a single, straightforward fact-a rhetorical
question.

38. Essential Questions –
Concept Attainment
No Examples: Yes Examples:
• What is foreshadowing? • How do effective writers
Can you find an example? hook and hold their
readers?
• What are some French
colloquialisms that native • What distinguishes fluent
speakers would use? second language learners
from native speakers?
• Name four technologies
that have improved • Who wins and who loses
human life. when technologies
change?

39. Essential Questions –
Yes or No?
• When was the Canadian Constitution signed?
• What are the relationships between popularity and
greatness in literature?
• What do masks and their use reveal about a culture?
• Name six mathematical ideas or discoveries.
• What makes writing worth reading?
• How should governments balance the rights of
individuals with the common good?

40. Your Task
• Design Essential Questions that will help
students to understand the Enduring
Understanding

41. Where to Differentiate?
Tomlinson & McTighe (2006) Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design. p. 36 Fig 3.3

43. Reflections and Feedback
Questions?
Remember to put any “Post-It” questions on
one of the “Wonder Walls” before you leave!
Next Session:
February 9th at the LMCC
Backward Design Stage Two:
Assessment For, As, Of Learning