Written Report in Understanding by Design

Dalia S. Cristobal
Understanding by Design or UbD is a framework for improving student achievement. It
works within the standards-driven curriculum to help teachers clarify learning goals,
devise revealing assessments of student understanding, and craft effective and
engaging learning activities.
This is a curriculum model advocated primarily by Jay Mc Tighe and Grant Wiggins in
their book, Understanding by Design (2005).
Understanding by Design is based on the following key ideas:
1) A primary goal of education should be the development and deepening of student
understanding.
2) Understanding is revealed when students autonomously make sense of and transfer
their learning through authentic performance.
3) It is a framework for improving student achievement.
4) It works within the standards-driven curriculum to help teachers clarify learning
goals, devise revealing assessments of student understanding, and craft effective
and engaging learning activities.
5) Effective curriculum development reflects a three-stage design process called
"backward design" that delays the planning of classroom activities until goals have
been clarified and assessments designed.
6) Student and school performance gains are achieved through regular reviews of
results followed by targeted adjustments to curriculum and instruction.
7) Teachers, schools, and districts benefit by "working smarter" through the
collaborative design, sharing, and peer review of units of study.
The UbD framework offers a three-stage backward design process for curriculum
planning, and includes a template and set of design tools that embody the process.
Stage 1Identify Desired Results
In the first stage of backward design, we content standards (national, state, province,
and district), and review curriculum consider our goals, examine established
expectations. Because there is typically more content than can reasonably be
addressed within the available time, teachers are obliged to make choices.
This first stage in the design process calls for clarity about priorities.
Stage 1 focuses on transfer of learning. Essential companion questions are used to
engage learners in thoughtful meaning making to help them develop and deepen their
understanding of important ideas and processes that support such transfer.

Stage 2Determine Assessment Evidence

In Stage 2, we distinguish between two broad types of assessmentperformance tasks
and other evidence. The performance tasks ask students to apply their learning to a
new and authentic situation as means of assessing their understanding and ability to
transfer their learning.
In the UbD framework, we have identified six facets of understanding for assessment
purposes.
1. Explanation
2. Interpretation
3. Application
4. Perspective
5. Empathy
6. Self- Knowledge

Stage 3Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

In Stage 3 of backward design, teachers plan the most appropriate lessons and learning
activities to address the three different types of goals identified in Stage 1: transfer,
meaning making, and acquisition (T, M, and A).
Teaching for transfer means that learners are given opportunities to apply their learning
to new situations and receive timely feedback on their performance to help them
improve.