Teaching is an art.  I have been teaching for the past 14 years and have worked with different lesson templates.  From Marzano’s intentional thinking map’s, Fink’s 3 column table, and now UbD lesson design.  Creating an effective lesson for the classroom can be daunting to say the least.

UbD Design

The UbD lesson design is very detailed and very organized.

Step I: Desired Results – First I started out by creating a goal.  This is different from my course standards or my state standards.  My goal is important for understanding the overall outcome that I am wanting from my students.  In this step I am looking at making connections to my goal.  The next thing that I think is important in this step is creating essential questions.  You need to have essential questions that can drive student learning towards the over all goal.  Next is writing out specifically what students will know and be able to do.  These statements again will point back to the goal that was laid out at the begin of this step. On to Step II.

Step II: Assessment Evidence – In step two it is important that I now look at how I am going to assess learning.  What is it that I am going to be looking for.  What type of assessment platforms will I use.  In UbD assessment is broken into two phases.  Performance task and other evidence.  I look at performance tasks as what the students them selves will be creating or doing.  For example in my psychology class we have weekly discussions based around the unit’s concepts.  I assess students learning through their discussions and over all understanding of those concepts.  In the other evidence category I placed my formative assessment quizzes.  I use these to gauge my own teaching as much as my own student’s learning.

Step III: Learning Plan – In this step I am laying out all the moving parts of the unit.  Here I am trying to fill in the W.H.E.R.E.T.O acronym.  Think of this as a road map to lesson success.  By making sure that these letters are each developed around the goal, I can be sure that my lessons will be well rounded and effective.

You can find my lesson create with the UbD template at the bottom of this blog.  You can also click here to see my 3 Column Table based on Fink’s design.  I used the same course content for both.

Comparing UbD to 3 Column Table

Let’s compare last week’s design to this week’s design.  In Fink’s 3 column table I like the simplicity of its design. I found his design to be more troublesome in my own thinking.  I struggled to be able to develop those extremely focused ideas that the 3 column table requires.

In the UbD design you can clearly see that this design is much longer and more specific in certain areas like Step III.  That is why it is broken down into 4 unit lessons rather than one single page like the 3 column table.  I gravitated to this design easier than I did the 3 column table.  I think it is easier in the way that I was taught to write lessons.  One thing that I worry about with the UbD design is flexibility.  How flexible is it or will teachers be?  When things don’t go as planned will teachers be able to adjust? Also is the 3 Column table better when thinking about giving students a clean slate to learn.  The UbD platform seems so specific and may be too specific that it takes away the creativity of the students.

Over all both designs require the teachers to deconstruct how they think about the students learning.  If I had to choose one today, I would choose UbD.  I find it to be easier in my own way of thinking when it comes to teaching.  I like the laid out plan and step by step template.  With more practice I could really see my self using this lesson design platform.

UbD Psychology Lessons

Resources

Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2008). Understanding by design. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.