The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units - Jay McTighe

The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units offers instructional modules on the basic concepts and elements of Understanding by Design (UbD), the "backward design" approach used by thousands of educators to create curriculum units and assessments that focus on developing students' understanding of important ideas. The eight modules are organised around the UbD Template Version 2.0 and feature components similar to what is typically provided in a UbD design workshop, including: Discussion and explanation of key ideas in the module; Guiding exercises, worksheets and design tips; Examples of unit designs; Review criteria with prompts for self-assessment; and a list of resources for further information.

[cassandramartin]

What I appreciate most is how McTighe doesn't assume everyone knows the purpose of a guide, so he explains it here in this video. Based off of what he says here the new text is a reflective piece that combines all of his experiences since the release of the original text. Through the UbD framework he and Mr. Wiggins have helped several teachers and school leaders create quality lessons, so through creating this guide they were able to extend beyond their original findings. This is helpful for educators because not only does it still have those fundamental big ideas introduced by UbD's instructional framework but now it has a breakdown of those aspects in stages, so if the focus needs to be on a specific aspect an educator/school leader can focus specifically on that particular aspect and not all.
Introducing version 2.0 of UbD is a way to introduce new features and refinements, which can only enhance the quality of the lessons through utilizing the UbD framework. I like that in this video McTighe reiterates the sole purpose of UbD is to make school more meaningful and relevant for learners and to help teachers focus around the most important ideas of their content for the greater good of student learning.

[TheCezase]

This video was interesting as you can hear from the designer of the template and the improvements that have been made to it. My initial thoughts are that Understanding by Design (UbD) can lead teachers to better designed lessons that can show high quality teaching. I believe that the opportunity of implementing it in small stages, as he presents, can be a good starting point in trying to help the students to transfer knowledge to the real world.

[ashleewomack]

This informational video helped me understand the importance of the text that is being discussed. I love that the focus is on unit design and I love that it is flexible for each individual. I love that this guide helps us as educators create units that help our students "acquire, make meaning, and transfer their learning." I think it is great that they used past experiences of teachers as their motivation for their guide. I look forward to exploring this guide further.

[swojcik]

I really enjoyed gaining another view of a how to plan. I really enjoy the idea of unit design and just how flexible it is for each teacher or individual reading this text. I am excited to learn about version 2.0 and above!

[jeoates]

This video gave me another view of how to plan. I like that the 3 stages can be done in layers. Teachers do not have to feel like they have to go through all three stages, in-depth, in one sitting. It seems familiar, but I can't quite put my hand on where I have seen this before. It is similar to one of the PLC templates my school was given for the myPerspectives program. I think this format will ensure that deeper understanding can be met and more meaningful discussions can happen in PLCs as well.

[carolyntroutman]

This video helped me better understand the break how of the book and how to best utilize it when planning a unit.