Chapter 12 - The Big Picture

UbD as Curriculum Framework

By: Mark Pickering

You’ve got to go below the surface...

to uncover the really ‘big ideas.’

Explanation

• How should the BIG PICTURE for CURRICULUM be conceived and implemented to fully reflect BACKWARD DESIGN with an emphasis on UNDERSTANDING?

• To design course syllabi and program frameworks utilizing BACKWARD DESIGN that integrate ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS, ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS, KEY PERFORMANCE TASKS, and RUBRICS.

Rationale

• Typical curriculum focuses on specific content knowledge and skills. However, framing curriculum around ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS fosters connective, thought-provoking, and recurring inquiries that are more central to the learning experience of students.

Example from Mr. P’s U.S. History Class

• Everything we do in this course will be filtered through one or more of the following questions:

1. What is the story of U.S. history?

2. How do historians construct and evaluate the stories they tell?

3. Why study history?

Student Impact

• Rather than facts learned in isolation, narrowing of curriculum and decontextualized “multiple-choice” teaching methods, students are searching for answers to provocative questions that human beings perennially ask about the world and themselves.

• Additionally, students’ understanding of the key ideas are embedded in the context of exploring and applying the BIG PICTURE ideas.

Misconception Alert

• One cannot predict the actual future performance needs of each student.

• Curriculum framework is still essential as people learn most effectively when curriculum is aligned with performance mastery.

What educators might find difficult?

• Approaching curriculum with a conventional, linear, textbook-driven scope and sequence filter is the traditional mindset.

• UbD frames curriculum from a reflective, recursive “SPIRAL” filter which focuses on recurring, ever-deepening inquiries into BIGPICTURE ideas and important tasks.

• This approach fosters enduring understanding that is effective and developmentally appropriate.

What teachers like/dislike about this strategy?

• Educators dislike UbD approach as it removes them from comfort zone of textbook-driven planned lessons. UbD requires a lot of work!

• Benefits outweigh the costs in short and long term for all stakeholders once curriculum has been framed according to UbD principles.

Exit Slip

• What would change in your classroom if you applied principles of UbD to framing your curriculum? Would it be beneficial or detrimental? Why? For whom? Be specific.

References

• Wiggins, Grant & McTighe, Jay. Understanding by Design. New York: Prentice Hall. 2000.