| What is the PSSA? | Current PSSA Scores | Current Courses | Best Practices | Goals | Results |
Integrating
Differentiated Instruction
and Understanding by Design
By Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe
Summary and Reaction by David Fulton
| Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Reaction |
Chapter 1: UbD and DI: An Essential Partnership
The authors begin by explaining the interest their ideas have generated. Differentiated Instruction (DI) and Understanding by Design UbD have both logical and practical appeal. The authors claim that teachers find their ideas appealing because they acknowledge the centrality of standards while honoring the need for meaning and understanding in the classroom. Simply "serving up" a curriculum will not work in a diverse learning environment. By combining their ideas, the authors hope to give a comprehensive vision to teachers in todays standards driven schools.
The Logic of Combining (UbD) and (DI)
(UbD) and (DI) are complementary of and necessary for each other.
UbD focuses primarily on What is being taught and gives principals for curriculum design.
(DI) focuses on Who, Where and How we teach and focuses on process and procedures.
Beginning with this division of the educational landscape, the authors proceed to fuse their theories together using the ancient framework of Axioms and Corollaries. They present the fundamental principals of UbD as Axioms. Each axiom is followed by a set of Corollaries showing how DI principals work to ensure that students can succeed at each axiom. A summary of the result follows.
Axiom 1: The goal of quality curriculum design is to develop and deepen student understanding.
Corollaries for Axiom 1:
 |
All students benefit from and are entitled to a curriculum that develops and deepens their understanding. |
|
Given the variance in student ability, experience, opportunity, language, interest, and adult support, they will grow at different rates and require varied support systems to develop and deepen their understanding. |
Axiom 2: Evidence of student understanding is revealed when students apply (transfer) knowledge in authentic contexts.
Corollaries for Axiom 2:
|
Such authentic applications will reveal varying degrees of proficiency and sophistication in student knowledge, understanding, and skill. |
|
The most effective teachers use the evidence of variance in student proficency to provide opportunities and support to ensure that each student continues to develop and deepen knowledge, understanding, and skill from his or her current point of proficency, interests, and learning preferences. |
Axiom 3: Effective curriculum development following the principal of backward designe (Chapter 3) helps avoid the twin problems of textbook coverage and activity oriented teaching in which no clear priorities and purposes are apparent.
Corollaries for Axiom 3:
|
All learners benefit from and should receive instruction that reflects clarity about purposes and priorities of content. |
|
Struggling learners require focus on the truly essential knowledge, understanding, and skill of a unit to ensure that their efforts are most efficient and potent in moving them forward in reliable ways. |
|
Advanced learners need challenge predicated on what is essential in a discipline so that their time is accorded value and their strengths are developed in ways that move them consistently toward expertise in the disciplines. |
Axiom 4: Regular reviews of curriculum and assessment design, based on design standards, provide quality control and inform needed adjustments. Regular reviews of "results" (i.e. student achievement) should be followed by needed adjustments to curriculum and instruction.
Corollaries for Axiom 4:
|
Results of review will inevitably show variations among students is essential knowlage, understanding, and skills. |
|
Results-based adjustments to curriculum and instruction should be targeted to individual as well as to the class as a whole4. |
|
Results-based adjustments will require flexible use of time, teacher attention, student groupings, and other classroom elements to ensure continuing development and deepening of student understanding. |
Axiom 5: Teachers provide opportunities for students to explore, interpret, apply, shift perspectives, empathize, and self-asses. These six facets provide conceptual lenses through which student understanding is assessed.
|
All students should be guided and supported in thinking in complex ways. |
|
It is not the case that struggling learners must master the basics before they can engage in thinking. Rather, evidence clearly suggests that for most students, mastery and understanding come through , and not after, meaningful interaction with ideas. |
|
Nonetheless, students will differ in the level of sophistication of their thinking and understanding at a given time. |
|
Teachers should be prepared to provide opportunity and support to continually develop students' understanding and capacities as thinkers. |
Axiom 6: Teachers, students and districts benefit by "working smarter" and using technology and other vehicles to collaboratively design, share, and critique units of study.
Corollaries to Axiom 6:
|
Students also benefit when teachers share understandings about students learning needs, classroom routines, and instructional approaches to ensure that each student develops knowledge, understanding, and skills as fully as possible. |
|
A routine part of collaboration in academically diverse classrooms should occur between teachers and specialists who have expert knowledge about student needs and instructional approaches most likely to respond effectively to those needs. |
|
Technology should be used to address varied learner needs and to assist the teacher in keeping track of student growth toward important curricular goals. |
Axiom 7: UbD is a way of thinking, not a program. Educators adapt its tools and materials with the goal of promoting student understanding.
Corollaries to Axiom 7:
|
Differentiated Instruction is a way of thinking, not a formula or a recipe. Educators draw on apply, and adapt its tools with the goal of maximizing knowledge, understanding, and skill for the full range of learners. |
|
Effective differentiation guides educators in thinking effectively about whom they teach, where they teach, and how they teach in order to ensure that what they teach provides each student with maximum power as a learner. |
These axioms and corollaries are intended to be applied by professionals who can both access the latest knowledge and adapt it to the needs of there students.
Chapter 2: What Really Maters in Teaching (the student)
Central to teaching is the question of what we ought to teach. The degree to which we are driven to find the essence of our subject matter is the degree to which we are expert teachers. Also central to teaching is whom we teach. The best teachers are mindful that teaching is judged by successful learning, and they are also mindful of how learners vary. As teachers refine their art, they are able to envision the year ahead as a journey, filled with familiar landmarks, and well worn routes, but are also able to recognize that plans are subject to change.
The best curriculum can be eclipsed by many factors including personal crisis, identity issues, learning disabilities, learning styles and habits. When student needs take center stage the best route to learning is discernable, even when it lies off the beaten tract. All students look for affirmation, accomplishment and autonomy. they are looking for adults who are competent and caring to guide them. Students vary, but these basic needs do not. (see William Glasser, Choice Theory)
No two students are exactly alike, and in student population there is wide variance among students. Students vary in their biology, degree of privilege, positioning for learning, and preferences. All this variance is beyond the direct control of the educator and they all have some implication for learning. giving such a population a "take it or leave it" curriculum will result in far too many leaving it. Responsive or differentiated teaching is needed to reach these students.
What is responsive or differentiated teaching. It means the teacher has balanced curriculum with the needs of students. Such balancing requires a positive relationship to students that enables the teacher to discover and lead the student on the learning path best suited to him or her. The authors then list several behaviors that contribute to learner success:
|
Attending to teacher student relationship contributes energy for learning. |
|
Attending to the learning environment builds context |
|
Attending to students' backgrounds builds bridges to content |
|
Attending to student readiness allows for academic growth |
|
Attending to student interest enlists student motivation |
|
Attending to student learning profiles enables efficiency of learning. |
Student learning will diminish in direct proportion to teacher inattention to any of these attributes. This does not mean teachers must become a tutor to every student and "individualize" there class for every student need. This is impossible. what teachers can do is implement patterns of instruction that are likley to meet a recurring student need. Such patterns include naming and greeting students, small group teaching, teaching in multiple ways, and using clear rubrics that coach for quality. Begin planning your curriculum with student diversity clearly in mind and chart a broad path that includes multiple instructional methods and relationship strengthening strategies.
Chapter 3 What really matters in learning? (Content)
How can teachers select essential and enduring content for their classes, avoid content overload and meet state standards simultaneously. The authors suggest a three stage backward design process for curriculum planning.
Backward Design asks educators to consider the following three stages:
|
Stage 1. Identify and Clarify Desired Results. What should students know, understand and be able to do? What content is essential and enduring? |
|
Stage 2. Determine Acceptable Evidence. How will we know whether students have achieved the desired results? What will we accept as evidence of understanding and proficiency? |
|
Stage 3. Planning Learning Experiences and Instruction. What enabling knowledge and skills will students need to performed effectively and achieve desired results? By first focusing on goals and assesment, the backward designe strategy hopes to avoid two errors:
|
The authors then provide planning templates on pages 30 and 31.
Key Question: How do I identify the "big ideas" that students want to understand? Answer: Consult your state standards list. Interogate the content with questions like "what will students need to know five years from now"? Work smarter and get outside input from sites like UbD Exchange Web site at http://ubdexchange.org (this is a subscription web page and costs $45 for an individual membership).
The remainder of the chapter reviews use of the authors templates.
Chapter 4: What really matters in planning for student success?
Teachers must continually attend to the quality of both curriculum and instruction. A key premise of differentiated instruction is that virtually all students should have access to a curriculum rich with ideas and skills valued by experts in the field. The authors then list nine skills that typify teachers who help all learners.
They establish clarity about curricular essentials.
They accept responsibility for learner success.
They develop communities of respect.
They build awareness of what works for each student.
They develop classroom management routines that contribute to success.
They help students become effective partners in their own success.
They develop flexible classroom teaching routines.
They expand a repertoire of instructional strategies.
They reflect on individual progress with an eye toward curricular goals and personal growth.
The rest of the chapter is spent expanding and giving examples of these basic teaching principals.
Chapter 5 Considering Evidence of Learning in Diverse Classrooms
What should count as evidence of learning and understanding? How can we maintain standards without standardization? The authors offer three "key principals" that should guide classroom assessment.
Assessment Principal 1: Consider photo albums versus snapshots. The authors decry the problems that result from "quick and dirty" one shot high stakes tests. They propose that classroom teachers counter this with a varied assessment approach which includes:
|
Select response format (e.g., multiple choice, true false) quizzes and tests |
|
Written and oral responses |
|
performance assessment tasks creating a product. |
|
Portfolios |
|
Reflective journals |
|
Informal and formal student observation |
|
Student self assessment |
|
Peer review |
Assessment Principal 2: match the measures with the goals. Wiggins and McTighe (2005) maintain that students truly understand when they can explain, interpret, apply, have perspective, have empathy, and have self knowledge. Using this as the standard they categorize common classroom tasks as authentic and inauthentic.
| Inauthentic Work | Authentic Work |
| Fill in the blank | Conduct research using primary sources |
| Select an answer from given choices | Debate a controversial issue |
| Answer recall questions at end of chapter | Conduct a scientific investigation |
| Solve contrived problems | Solve real world problems |
| Practice decontextualized skills | Interpret literature |
| Diagram sentences | Do purposeful writing for an audience |
Assessment Principal 3: form follows function. Ask four questions about the function of the assessment before deciding on the form of the assessment: What are we assessing? Why are we assessing? For whom are we assessing? How will the results be used?
Effective assessment not only shows student learning but shows the way to more effective teaching.
Chapter 6: Responsive Teaching With UbD in Academically Diverse Classrooms.
This chapter centers around the authors core beliefs about curriculum and diverse student populations:
Virtually all students should consistently experience curricula rooted in the important ideas of a discipline that requires them to make meaning of information and think at high levels.
Students need opportunities to learn the "basics" and opportunities to apply them in meaningful ways.
There is a need for balance between student construction of meaning and teacher guidance.
Students need to know the learning goals of a unit or lesson and criteria for successfully demonstrating proficiency with the goals.
The authors stress flexibility in classroom practices as essential as they give examples of UbD being applied in an educational setting with a wide range of students. Many teachers were not taught or trained it this kind os setting, and have never seen it modeled. Therefore, the authors anticipate uncertainty among educators moving toward flexibility.
Chapter 7 Teaching for understanding in the academically diverse classroom.
Tha authors share a constructivest view of learning. Facts must be constructed into meaning. Memorization is not