However, our experience in introducing the Understanding by Design framework to teacher -‐ designers favors the Goldilocks approach i.e., begin in a design space that is bigger than a daily lesson but smaller than a year -‐ long curriculum.
Indeed, that is the very approach to district and school curriculum planning that we advocate and describe in Schooling by Design. In an ideal world, unit designers would be able to draw upon overarching elements (transfer goals, understandings, essential questions, cornerstone assessments and multi-grade rubrics) that had already been established at the programmatic, departmental and course levels. Think BigĪs you become familiar with the Understanding by Design framework for unit planning, you may have wondered: if we truly apply Backward Design, wouldn’t it make sense to design the overall curriculum and courses before units and lessons? Well, yes. Once you and your teammate s get the hang of it, you can “work smarter” by dividing up the planning work among department or grade level teams e.g., you take the lead in developing unit 1 and 3, while your teammate plans unit 2 and 4. Most designers find it valuable to bounce ideas around during design, give each other feedback along the way, and examine student work together. If possible, work with a colleague or two when planning UbD units. Then, expand to additional units in future years. Since this design process is demanding, we recommend planning two or three units a year as a start. However, we caution against trying to plan everything you teach using UbD, at least right away. In fact, if you keep at it, we predict that your experience will parallel that of thousands of other teachers who have found that UbD unit design becomes a way of thinking.
Start SmallĪs with any other skill, practice in designing units will improve your ability and efficiency. When expanding the use of UbD for your classroom or school, we offer the following tips to ensure quality while avoiding "overload" to yourself or your staff. However, UbD is not an easy planning process.
Understanding by Design (UbD) offers a robust curriculum-planning framework.
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