Understanding by Design

Understanding By Design (UbD) is a curriculum design approach, created by teacher-educators Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, that asks us to consider and clarify the overarching goals for a unit of study before planning lesson activities. In this model, the goals established in the initial stages of unit planning go beyond discrete skills or facts to be learned. Instead, teachers focus their learning goals around what conceptual understandings they consider essential to the discipline or topic under review in a given unit. These conceptual understandings should be transferable to new situations and teachers should explicitly teach students the skills and knowledge needed in order to learn these desired understandings. Assessments and learning experiences are designed and resources selected in service of attaining the desired learning outcomes.

As we engage in planning professional development and supporting teachers in planning curricula, we have found the Understanding by Design (UbD) model useful to keep us focused on standards-based, critical, and rigorous outcomes, as we plan lessons that emphasize student creativity, engagement, critical thinking, and joy. The UbD design approach requires teachers to attend to three stages of instructional concerns. These stages are not completed in a linear fashion—but they do need to align among each other. That is to say that outcomes, assessments, and learning experiences should be linked and mutually supported.

The three stages in this "results oriented" design process are:

• Stage 1: Identify desired results. In this stage, unit designers study the standards, the discipline and the content to answer the question, What do I want to students to know, understand and be able to do as a result of this unit? Designers need to make hard choices about what content they will foreground in the unit, what enduring understandings they will make most prominent, and what skills for producing and consuming knowledge and understandings will be necessary to attain these goals.
• Stage 2: Determine acceptable evidence. Continuing in the backwards design mode, designers consider what evidence will be acceptable as proof that students have achieved the desired results. A variety of assessment evidence will be needed in order to gain a full picture of what students are learning. The major assessment task should be authentic, provide students with the opportunity to synthesize their new understandings, and should include clear criteria for evaluation.
• Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction. At this point, designers need to select the best route to guide students successfully towards the desired results. What experiences will equip students with the knowledge and skills they need for success in this unit? What activities and resources and what methods of instruction are bestsuited the goals articulated above? You will want to begin with a strong hook: an engaging activity to pique student interest and a clear statement to students of the intended learning outcomes.

As you develop the plan through the three stages, you will probably need to winnow down some at each stage. The end result should be concise and focused. The idea is to teach toward deep understanding rather than a shallow overview.

Resources

Attached you will find two templates that makes this three stage process far more visual and easier to understand and enact.

• 1. UbD Template with guiding questions
• 2. UbD Blank Template

For more detailed information on this model, see: Wiggins, Grant & McTighe, Jay (2005). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Using Process Drama

In our work as both teachers and teacher-educators, we  have found that drama-based pedagogical methods work exceptionally well to promote active and question-driven learning. Among the most powerful of the drama-based teaching strategies we have used is a methods called  "process drama."  A method of instruction less interested in creating a final public performance than in using theatrical exercises as a "process" through which to examine historical conflicts and questions, process drama is not a typical "role-play" activity.  It does not ask students simply to  "stand in someone else's shoes"-- but rather to pose critical intellectual problems and then to use a series of embodied and narrative intellectual activities to explore those questions. Relying a range of "structured improvisational" activities, in which "teachers and students jointly contract to an imaginary world, " process drama asks students to step into a variety of roles in an attempt to explore an intellectual problem or question. Thus drama, as we are talking about it here, is a pedagogical tool-- one that makes it possible to teach history and social studies in a way that requires students and teachers to examine the meanings, relationships, and conflicts that shaped key historical events and processes, while still acquiring fact-knowledge.

When used to teach history, these strategies foreground the twin ideas a) of history as debate, and b) that historical events were experienced from, and should be viewed through, multiple perspectives. While drama may seem like "play," there is the potential for a great deal of rigorous, standards-based learning to occur.

Essential elements in process drama include:

Student roles: taking on a voice that isn't your own, enacting a character from a different time and/or place.

Questioning: should be done in an attempt not to see specific answers but to generate meaning.

Tension: drama creates it. It is an important element, motivational. Some element of tension needs to be planned into the drama experience.

Some process drama strategies:

Tableaux: Frozen pictures, usually based on a primary source image or text.

Teacher in role: The classroom teacher sets up the dramatic world up in character-- thus modeling the method of participation, and inviting students to dialogue.

Thought tracking: A process that allows characters in tableaux to shares his or her thoughts. This happens when another student or the classroom teacher taps a character on the shoulder and asks them a question, such as "Why are you holding your arms like this?" Or "Where are you going?" Or "What are you feeling right now?"

Hot seating: Similar to "Thought Tracking"-- except it can be used in non-tablueax drama situations.

Writing in and on role: As a tool for reflection and assessment. Teachers might ask students to write in journals about their experiences in role and about their developing understandings. These journals can also be reflections on learning (prompts might be something like, "How is your understanding of the motivations for the Revolution changing?"), or they can be part of the drama work ("Write a journal entry or letter in the voice of your character").

For a quick overview of setting up and debriefing tableaux and other process drama strategies, click here.

Drama games (with thanks to Dr. David Montgomery, Department of Educational Theater, NYU).

In addition to structured process drama activities, we have found drama games useful, both as daily warm ups, as trust-building exercises, and as openers or more complicated historical lessons. There are several uses for these kinds of warm-ups in the elementary classroom. First, they prepare students for engaging in dramatic exercises, warming up their bodies, lubricating their creative energies, and building trust with classmates. Second, they can be useful as community building activities--either as stand-alones or as part of morning meetings. Used reflectively and consistently, they can also facilitate conversations about collaboration, generosity, sharing, and other important features of a healthy and productive community. Just as with any other classrrom strategy, teachers should always know what their pedagogical and instructional goals are, even when using these "games."

The drama games we have used in "Becoming Historians" include:

Throwing out sound and movement.

In a circle, each student will throw a body movement which is accompanied by a sound into the circle. The first time around, everyone in the circle can echo the movement and sound as each student goes. The second time around, you can do it "wave" style, with each person doing the sound and movement which the first person started in a "wave" around the circle.

Counting.

The group will count in order starting with one, and anyone can call out a number whenever they want to (there is no designated starter or set students calling out numbers). If two people say a number at the same time, the group must start over counting at one. The goal is to sense the energy of the group and get to a high number.

Hero/Villain/Shield

The teacher leads students in the following activities: First, tell students to walk through the space for a bit-- then tells them to to Stop. Think of another person in the room but don't make it obvious to others who it is. This is a person you want to be like. Mimic whatever they do-even if it's subtle. Notice their breathing, stance, etc. Okay, now walk around the space. You want to be near this person-this hero. GO. Stop-notice someone else in the room who is someone you don't want to be near. This person is an enemy, or villain, to you. Again, don't make it obvious to others who you chose. Imagine this person has a bomb as you walk walk through the space-GO. You want to stay away from that person but you must keep walking- You've got your villain and your hero-now you want to act as a shield in order to keep your hero away from his enemy. GO!

Stop/Go/Clap/Jump and opposites.

Instruct the group to move about the room at will. At certain random intervals, command them to: a) stop; b) go; c) clap; or d) jump. They must respond to the commands. Then do the opposing actions to what is said---so that stop will mean go, go will mean stop, clap will mean jump, and jump will mean clap.

Human Map

A chair or desk in the middle of the room represents your city, and the far side of the room represents somewhere halfway across the world (Japan? India? Australia?). Ask students to place themselves where they were born and raised. Then ask them to move to where their father was born and raised. Then to where their mother was born and raised,, then their mothers' mother, their mothers' father. Etc. A large wall map of the world can help students to orient themselves.

Word Exchange

Each student thinks about a word or sentence associated with the subject you are studying. Then tell students to walk around the room, and after a minute or so tell them to stop. Find the nearest person and quietly exchange words with them. Then tell everyone to start walking again. Stop. Now find another person and exchange words with them. After several minutes, the teacher should ask the students to stand in a circle and one by one say the last word received. Debrief.

Using Notebooks to Document and Further History Learning

A basic belief advocated by this website is that history requires more than learning about the names, places and events that promote a pre-determined idea of what “Americans should know” about the collective past. Instead, we encourage teachers to provide opportunities for learners to engage in purposeful inquiry with peers, to seek out and critically examine multiple sources of information (both primary and secondary), and to work to enter into the mindset of people long ago and far away.

Through this website and the professional development that these resources derive from, we propose a variety of pedagogical methods that we feel will foster an approach to history teaching and learning—an approach that foregrounds the use of investigation and critical inquiry. While these approaches are important, they do not necessarily, by themselves, lead to learning that addresses misconceptions and requires students to elaborate and synthesize their developing understandings. Thus, we are currently undertaking to investigate, in collaboration with a cohort of teachers, how we might use history notebooks (similar to the sorts of notebooks that elementary teachers sometimes use to amplify their literacy instruction) to provoke and document active and rigorous history learning in grades 4 and 5.

We have drawn upon the work of History Alive! interactive notebooks for middle and high school students and on the work of science educators who have studied the use of science journals to encourage students to integrate and elaborate upon their learning from multiple experiences.

History Alive! interactive notebooks are designed to provide students with experiences that require them to use visual and linguistic intelligences, become engaged in the organization of and engagement with the material they are learning, and provide an on-going portfolio of what students are learning.

Daniel Shepardson and Susan Britsch propose a framework for structuring content-based notebooks in the February 1997 issue of Science and Children.

Content-based Notebooks' Four Phases of Learning

1. Pre-investigation where students explain prior thinking and understandings of the content and purpose of a unit;
2. Investigation, where students record observations during investigations, reflect on prior thinking in light of the investigation, and create charts, drawings, and other visual documents to organize their data;
3. Post-investigation, where they answer questions using observations, data, and other resources to explain findings, continue to reflect on developing understandings, and propose new questions; and
4. Communication. It is at this stage that students “come out of notebooks” to produce a final document through with they share their learning with others. This sharing can take many forms-- including a book, poster, postrong, feature article for a school newspaper, report, or presentation. The authors strongphasize that “by creating a presentation, poster, or other work, students are engaged in exploring the genre of scientific narrative.” The communication phase is also essential because it results in notebooks that are used as tools for further learning rather than repositories of curriculum covered.

We decided to adapt this four-phase approach to social studies content explorations during our professional development sessions.  In these institutes and study groups, we ask teacher-participants to enage in a series of critical thinking activities and exercises within these notebooks--sometimes in response to specific prompts designed by us, and sometimes in a less structured, more individual way.

Planning for Notebooks

Through our investigations into using notebooks in history, we have determined some criteria for structures and prompts that can be useful in promoting critical, inquiry-based learning for students. 

Notebook structures 

Include non-fiction text features such as a table of contents, an atlas section (with maps to reference), a glossary of key words, images with captions, timelines, and "chapters" for each new unit.  Chapters can be differentiated by collages on a "title" page.

A "tool kit" at the back of the notebook with templates for analyzing primary sources, samples of graphic organizers, and rubrics.   As the tool kit is built upon through out the year, students can be given the opportunity to select and try out different tools for assignments and to build independence.

Notebook prompts 

Frame learning with guiding questions that focus students on key historical concepts of the unit. Use these questions to encourage students to synthesize and reflect upon learning.

Prompts that are specifically designed to tap and make visible prior knowledge and provoke initial questions, to provide multiple modes of responding to new information, and to link to relevant NYS Social Studies and ELA standards. 

Consider using a variety of writing-to-learn activities such as using two-column charts, graphic organizers that support different thinking skills (compare/contrast, sequencing, summarizing, etc.) 

Printing notebook prompts onto mailing labels can be useful.  It minimizes copying instructions and can also be useful in helping students who are absent to complete make up work.

Integrating Literacy and History

As elementary teachers, it behooves us to take advantage of possibilities for integrating literacy instruction in social studies. This entails using content area literature to teach students to become more proficient readers and writers in a variety of relevant genres: both fiction and non-fiction. The New York State Learning Standards emphasize four aspects of literacy - reading, writing, listening and speaking for information and understanding, and for critical analysis and evaluation - are particularly relevant for linking with social studies and history. Educators can draw upon a variety of instructional strategies to teach students general literacy skills in the content areas.

Strategies to help students read history

• Read Aloud/Think Aloud: As the teacher reads a text aloud to students, she slows down her reading and chooses a few places to make transparent her reading processes. These processes could be questioning, making connections to other texts or prior knowledge, inferring, drawing conclusions, summarizing, etc. The choice of reading skill demonstrated should match the text and the students in the classroom. The teacher should give the students opportunity to practice the skill together before sending them off to read independently or in small groups.
• Shared Reading: Similar to Read Aloud, Shared Reading is an instructional strategy through which the teacher can model reading strategies and skills. One major difference is that all members of the class are looking at the same text together. This text should be on an overhead transparency, enlarged with a poster maker or on experience chart paper, or in a "big book." Shared reading is an ideal tool for teaching note taking on or about texts.

• Book Clubs: In many schools, students engage in genre studies during their literacy block. When they read historical fiction, biographies, or folk tales, the texts used can reflect content being studied in social studies. In the fall of 2007, a group of elementary teachers in New York City gathered to study how we might plan for careful integration of history with genre studies. In particular, we examined how book club structures could be used to deepen content knowledge and expand students understanding of history while also providing an opportunity to differentiate instruction for our students with diverse reading skills. As a result of this inquiry, we generated guidelines for selecting quality texts and ideas for mini-lessons and unit plans. Click on the links below for more information.

  Text selection criteria for selecting...

  • Historical Fiction
  • Biography
  • Native American Folktales

  Lesson and unit ideas for...

  • Historical Fiction book clubs
  • Biography book clubs
  • Native American book clubs
• Reading and Analyzing Non-fiction charts: This is Tony Stead's adaptation of KWL charts. In this reading strategy, students begin by brainstorming what they think they know on a topic. These ideas are written on individual post-it notes and placed in the first column of a table.. Learners then read a text. When they find a confirmation in the text, that post-it is transferred to the second column. After the first reading of the text, students review the chart. Students can also attend to any misconceptions they may have about the content. They can note these on post-its and add them to a third column. These misconceptions may be able to be revised by adding qualifiers ("sometimes" instead of "always") and add them to the new information column. They then re-read the text to discover if there is any new information they learned that they would like to add to the fourth column, new information. Any post-its left in the first column can be revisited. Can the idea be confirmed if a modifier is added (most of the time, often, rarely)? For more information on this model, see Tony Stead, Reality Checks (Stenhouse).
• Two-column journal entry: There are many variations on the two-column journal entry or note-taking form. Each column has different information that is related to the text. Together, they push students to think more deeply about the text they are reading through questioning, awareness of one's reading process, determining important information, etc. The two columns relate to each other in some way: Compare/contrast, key facts/my responses or reactions, interesting information/important information, fact/opinion/evidence. For more information on this approach, see Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis, Strategies that Work (Stenhouse).
• Choral reading: Reading fluency is one of the core skills that mark proficient readers. Fluency is marked by intonation, pausing, and phrasing. Teachers can help students hone their fluency skills by providing opportunities for rehearsed readings of poetry, quotes, or songs having to do with the historical topic under study. Through careful selection of the choral reading material, and debriefing the experience and content afterwards, teachers can build deeper, more nuanced understanding of the human experience in a historical event or period.

Writing strategies in the history classroom

• History notebooks: Students keep records of what they are learning about and thinking about in their history notebooks. 2-column entries, thinking about primary sources, notes, questions, ideas, etc. that occur as a result of engaging in historical inquiry. Additionally, students could generate exploratory writing about how their thinking on the essential questions that frame the unit is changing over time. Teacher modeling in thoughtful journal entries through making writing decisions visible through a think aloud strategy establishes clear expectations and teaches explicit writing behaviors the teacher wants to foster in students.
• Writing in-role: During a study of a particular historical period, students can invent a character who lived the historical event being studied. An initial character sketch should include gender, socioeconomic status, housing, family, etc. In addition to free-writing how their character may have responded to what students are learning about in class, the teacher can also provide specific prompts that encourage students to consider events from different perspectives, to think about how their character may respond to a specific incident. This writing can be produced as a "journal," newspaper account, or letter to a historical person (either fictional or real.)

Speaking and listening strategies in the history classroom

The drama-based pedagogies we propose in other sections of this website provide excellent opportunities for students to engage in meaningful, academically rigorous discussions. As students decide together how to engage in the experience and then reflect on it through carefully planned questions they engage in powerful historical thinking. Students are asked to describe what they see or experience, to consider the locus of power in the situation, to justify their choices and reasoning to the group.