Desired Results
these open-ended, thought-provoking questions must explicitly link back to content and enduring understandings to spark student inquiry.
What are Essential Questions?
Global pedagogical practice states that the ultimate goal of any assessment is to evaluate whether a student can do this independently with their learning in a new situation.
What is transfer?
The letter H charges teachers to find ways to do this to ignite student passion and curiosity at the start of a unit.
What is Hook the students?
When reflecting on long-term curriculum goals, we must ask if they truly align with what our district wants students to retain at THIS specific point in time.
What is several years after leaving the course?
These formal benchmarks and expectations must be explicitly embedded across Curriculum.
What are standards?
To design tasks that go beyond memorization, allowing students to flexibly apply knowledge to real-world scenarios is called this type of task.
What are Performance Tasks?
The letter T in the template's instruction manual asks teachers to modify the learning sequence to support the growth of ALL students without compromising the unit's goals.
What is Tailor?
When evaluating a unit's materials and resources, this reflection element pushes teachers to ask whether they have provided students with a wide enough lens to analyze multiple viewpoints and break down single-minded conclusions.
What is perspective awareness?
In pure UbD, this is the term used for the "Big Ideas" or long-term conceptual takeaways; in MYP, it is explicitly driven by the chosen Key and Related Concepts.
What are Enduring Understandings?
Global UbD practices argue that the fundamental goal of choosing assessment strategies isn't just to assign points, but rather to collect valid proof that students can answer these core inquiry drivers.
What are the Essential Questions?
Represented by the letter R, this mechanic prompts teachers to build structured moments where students can look back, re-evaluate, and upgrade their work.
What is Reflect, Rethink, Revise, and Refine?
Measures how effectively the daily activities guide students to execute three core UbD cognitive actions: acquire, make meaning, and do this.
What is transfer learning?
Core learning goals are divided into two distinct areas, distinguishing between facts learners gain and the behaviors they can appy.
What are Content Knowledge and Skills?
To ensure achievement of genuine learning, when designing both Performance Tasks and Other Evidence Collection Tasks, teachers must establish this to outline exactly how student success is judged.
What are Evaluative Criteria?
The final letter O focuses on how a teacher intentionally arranges the sequence of activities and skills to maximize equity, engagement, and achievement.
What is Organize?
Global practices push us to ask how effectively we used formative checks to provide students with this, rather than just using data for a final grade.
What is actionable, descriptive feedback?
This specific planning approach requires teachers to map out the deliberate weaving of common themes, skills, or content across entirely different subject areas to amplify learning.
What are Course Essential Goals?
Assessment items for any given curriculum unit should explicitly assess what two knowledge areas?
What are Content Knowledge and Skills?
The letters W and E require teachers to establish clear learning directions (Where/Whence) and ensure lessons actively help students do these two things with the Essential Questions. Hint... They are the 'e".
What are Experience and Explore?
A critical component of global UbD reflection is assessing equity and "access." This requires teachers to look back and evaluate whether the unit successfully allowed all students to reach the core goals regardless of this initial factor.
What is their entry level (or current level of learning / readiness)?