The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units

by Grant P. Wiggins, 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 organized 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.
This guide is intended for K-16 educators—either individuals or groups—who may have received some training in UbD and want to continue their work independently; those who've read Understanding by Design and want to design curriculum units but have no access to formal training; graduate and undergraduate students in university curriculum courses; and school and district administrators, curriculum directors, and others who facilitate UbD work with staff. Users can go through the modules in sequence or skip around, depending on their previous experience with UbD and their preferred curriculum design style or approach. Unit creation, planning, and adaptation are easier than ever with the accompanying downloadable resources, including the UbD template set up as a fillable PDF form, additional worksheets, examples, and FAQs about the module topics that speak to UbD novices and veterans alike.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Grad School, Nonfiction, Professional Development, School, Textbooks

122 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Kayla Scott]

This was a VERY dry textbook to get through. Although I do believe it helped gain a better understanding of the backwards lesson plan design, I feel like it wasn't something I could easily apply to an English class. This type of design is more geared for math, science, or business courses where students can create a project in the end that models the skills and information taught.

[Sky Hull]

I should preface this 1⭐️ rating with this statement: If you know absolutely nothing about Curriculum Design then Wiggins & McTighe's textbook series here would be a great place to start. HOWEVER, if you do know a thing or two, this is not worth your time. It just restate's everything that is already known and suggested for designing a satisfying unit where students can learn and transfer their skills learned to real life. As a grad student in a curriculum & instruction program I may be jaded since we keep harping on the same things and this taught me nothing new. So, that is how I feel about that. And I said it on my Ms. Hull account too. Word for word. I'm speaking with my whole chest here.

[jo lemahieu]

Holds up man...

[Truls Ljungström]

En tydlig steg-för-steg-handbok i kurs- och lektionsdesign. Målet är att hjälpa mig som lärare att målstyra kurser mot före-och-efter-mål, och därtill att målstyra aktivteter för att säkra fyra variabler: klassrumsextern kunskap, mening, faktakunskap respektive färdighet. Den är väldigt användarvänlig, och väldigt hands on. Väl värd tidsinvesteringen.

[Pete Jurchen]

This book really will only appeal to those who have read one or more of the UbD theory books. If you haven't, go back and read the main book, Understanding by Design, and get the authors' gists. If you have read the background stuff, and are interested in using it, this is an INVALUABLE resource. It gives step-by-step actions to create a deep system of goals and objectives, followed up by great considerations for assessment rationale and also some guidance for how to structure motivation behind learning activities. It is really just a great system for creating an impressive skeleton for a unit that can be filled with meaningful and purposeful assessments and activities. The attached pdf, with spaces to fill in the blanks, makes this into a workbook for thorough and deep unit design. There's no fat to trim in this book or in the system, and it's exactly what previous UbD books have needed to succeed.

[Jen]

It will be a useful guide but I am thinking I will need to read it about 10 more times before it sinks in. Mainly it feels like a lot of the sections and subsections are either redundant or so similar that it's extremely difficult to tease out the differences among them, when you use what, if there's a time you can omit a section, etc. It could definitely use more examples (in the book itself; I don't want to have to go online to get the additional material, if I wanted to do that I'd purchase the ebook version.)

[Jackson]

This book has beautiful examples of how to move our learning process away from 'content-coverage' and 'activity-based teaching' to one where our knowledge is applied fluidly in all new situations. Gold.

[Ana Stanciu-Dumitrache]

Cea mai utila si interesantă carte-ajutor in lesson planning, pe care cred ca toți profesorii ar trebui sa o folosească. 🤩

[Megan]

If you have a strong understanding of UBD, this is an outstanding guide for those working in curriculum design. For the average teacher, it might be a bit overwhelming. I particularly enjoyed having the access to digital downloads from the guide where I could take notes and apply the process to my own work.

[Laurie]

I am so excited to be using this book to guide our TEAM lesson plan template. This has some excellent instructional modules on basic elements and concepts that are sequenced for constructivist teaching practices. I am so impressed with how easy this text is for usage with undergrads, graduate students and teaching practitioners. Highly recommended!

[Ms. Hull]

I should preface this 1⭐️ rating with this statement: If you know absolutely nothing about Curriculum Design then Wiggins & McTighe's textbook series here would be a great place to start. HOWEVER, if you do know a thing or two, this is not worth your time. It just restate's everything that is already known and suggested for designing a satisfying unit where students can learn and transfer their skills learned to real life. As a grad student in a curriculum & instruction program I may be jaded since we keep harping on the same things and this taught me nothing new. So, that is how I feel about that.

[Marissa Lauren]

Great unit plan design and good examples. It felt a little repetitive, but very informative.
Key ideas:
3 types of learning: acquisition, meaning, and transfer
Backwards design in 3 steps: identify desired results, decide what the evidence will be to demonstrate the desired results (learning objectives), and plan learning experiences and instruction that help scaffold the information so students are able to complete the tasks that show the desired results.

[John]

This is a small book with big ideas. I will have to revisit my highlights as I increasingly make my learning units better.

[Kim Benouski]

This was very clear, and I like backwards design. It has good tips and charts. I just read it 8 years after it came out and feel it needs some updating.

[Maggie Brill]

Very interesting approach to teaching. I think putting it into practice may be difficult at first but will definitely result in more prepared students.

[Ms. Bridget]

Easy to understand and apply.

[Devan]

Very easy to understand and implement. Great way to look at your units differently and improve them.

[Rebecca]

The book had great examples. Just wish it had more examples of modified work for ELLs or students with IEPs/504s.

[bookishlife23]

Pretty decent as far as teaching pedagogy goes. Has some good strategies in it for creating good, units that will suit students.

[abby hayman 💗]

the articles my prof shared were a lil more helpful than this textbook

some of the digital resources are great. def a plan of backward design regardless and plan on using it more this fall

[Kari]

This seems to be an amazing way to plan meaningful learning experiences for students. It begins witha question and then starts at the end and works backwards. It actually makes lesson planning a piece of cake (if you can believe that) as your goals are already set out for a 3 week time frame, as well as what assessments you plan to use. It takes some getting used to but it is worth the time to try it out.

[James Purkis Purkis]

This book contained well explained processes to understanding the different aspects of UBD. I found the new version of the template more user friendly and the worksheet online and in the book helped with my planning and clarifying key ideas. A useful companion to the Backwards by Design book with little unnecessary repetition of ideas/content.

[Brooke Nadzam]

I've read about UbD before--what educator hasn't? What this book does well is help people to write the lesson plans. It is broken up into modules, and each says something like, "If you're struggling with 'x', than read this module. If not, skip it". I appreciated that.

[Carlene Walter]

A practical guide for those who have a strong understanding of UBD. The digital downloads from the guide are helpful templates for applying UBD.

[Paula]

This book was a little droll for me. It went on and on about designing lesson plans.

[Michael Palmer]

A fantastic guide to planning inquiry based units of study. I have been inspired to create a visual representation of the major steps in planning high quality units.

[Brittnee]

Very informative companion to the expanded UbD edition. I am looking forward to partnering this design with the information literacy threshold concepts. Wish me luck!

[Leanna Aker]

The third book I've read on UbD. This is the Cliff Notes version, and probably a better starting place than the first two books I've read. Solid principles of instruction.

[Eco]

Just a text for class

[Corey]

Great overview of UBD!!