Objective 2: What does a UbD classroom look like?
According to Jay McTighe (n.d.), there are 4 steps to implementing UbD in the classroom; start small, work collaboratatively, think big and plan to adjust.
Start Small – Do not try to plan everything you teach using the UbD steps right away. It is recommended to plan two to three units a year and then expand in the future. This design is very demanding and can be overwhelming if you bite off more than you can chew in the beginning.
Work Collaboratively – Try to plan these units with a peer or PLC if possible. When you can bounce ideas off of someone else, provide feedback to one another and brainstorm activities and assessments, you will begin to understand the process and the work will then be smarter not harder. Sharing the workload will make your progress towards complete unit design much more efficient.
Think Big – As you become familiar with UbD and begin to plan units, it will make more sense to begin to plan the entire year of units using the UbD framework as a natural progression to effective unit planning.
Plan to Adjust Based on Results – Along the way, using formative assessments, you may have to adjust and change your plans to fit the needs of the students. On going revision will be the norm as you become more comfortable with UbD unit design
According to Wiggins and McTighe (2005), when using UbD in the classroom, you will begin to think in three distinct
categories (p. 71):
(1) Information worth being familiar with: Not necessarily essential material, may be considered “nice to know” standards
(2) Information important to know and do: Items students need to be able to recall and know for future study.
(3) Information that is considered a big idea and core task: What the student absolutely needs to understand and be able to transfer or apply to other subjects and areas.
Learning in this classroom will be active, not passive. This will look familiar to you if you use differentiated learning in your classroom. The video below gives you one of many ideas of how crucial the teacher’s role is in designing the right experiences for the students in the UbD unit plan and what the classroom may look like using the UbD framework for unit planning.
Before moving to Objective three, reflect on what you have learned about what the big ideas of UbD are and what your classroom may look like during a unit of study.
Is this different that what you currently see in your classroom?
Are there teachers in your school who are using these ideas successfully?
Do you have a unit of study in mind to which you can apply the ideas of Ubd?
Are there teachers in your school who are using these ideas successfully?
Do you have a unit of study in mind to which you can apply the ideas of Ubd?
