S03 EP03 - Understanding by Design with Jay McTighe

Show Notes

Jay McTighe has a wealth of experience and knowledge developed during a rich and varied career in education. He is an accomplished author having co-authored 17 books, including the award-winning and best-selling Understanding by Design series with the late Grant Wiggins. His books have been translated into 12 languages. Jay has also written more than 50 articles and book chapters and been published in leading journals, including educational leadership and Education Week. He has an extensive background and professional development, and is a regular speaker at national, state and district conferences and workshops. He has conducted workshops in 47 states within the US and seven Canadian provinces, and internationally to educators in 35 countries on six continents.

In today's episode, Jay explains Understanding by Design, and how you can implement it in your classroom. He tells us how UbD can lead to deeper understanding and learning and talks about assessment in the UbD framework.

Timestamps

3:58 What is Understanding by Design?

4:53 A modern education should do more than equip students to repeat back information they've learned

5:32 Teaching does not ensure learning

6:22 The three stages of backward design

7:17 Stage one: Identifying transfer goals

8:06 Stage two: What would students need to be able to transfer?

8:25 Stage three: Identifying the more specific and discrete knowledge and skill objectives

8:55 Understanding by Design in a nutshell

10:07 Teachers can answer Ryan Bowens' question

11:40 Some areas of curriculum are naturally taught with UbD

12:04 What do those areas have in common?

12:48 UbD is also common with extracurricular activities

12:59 What makes learning meaningful

13:25 An athletics analogy

14:28 Teaching isn't just about marching through grade level standards

17:25 Is there still wiggle room in the day to day operations of our classes?

17:55 Essential Questions

18:48 Some examples of essential questions

19:48 Assessments we use should be directly linked to the goals we've identified in stage one

20:35 There may not be much differentiation with WHAT we want students to know, but there can be in HOW they demonstrate their understanding

20:54 An example about declarative knowledge

23:37 The bookends of goals and success criteria

24:37 An example about with the goal of argumentation

28:19 Where to start with backward design?

31: 55 Some advice for teachers new to UbD

35:14 Find a partner or a team to plan with!

36:42 What would Jay give to every teacher in the U.S. and why?

Resources

Jaymctighe.com

Twitter - @jaymctighe

Understanding by Design by Ryan S. Bowen

Grant Wiggins' YouTube Video

UbD White Paper from ASCD

Tomlinson, C., & McTighe, J. (2006). Integrating differentiated instruction and Understanding by Design: Connecting content and kids. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.