Understanding by Design

consider the following questions after framing the goals: Whatwould count as evidence of such achievement? What does it look like to meetthese goals? What, then, are the implied performances that should make up theassessment, toward which all teaching and learning should point?

A second form of aimlessness goes by the name of “coverage,” anapproach in which students march through a textbook, page by page (orteachers through lecture notes) in a valiant attempt to traverse all the factualmaterial within a prescribed time

If transfer is the key to teaching for understanding,our designs must make clear that questions are not only the cause of greaterunderstanding in the student, but also the means by which all content accrues.

To understand is tohave done it in the right way, often reflected in being able to explain why a particular skill, approach, or body of knowledge is or is not appropriate in a particular

Understanding is about transfer, in other words. To be truly able requiresthe ability to transfer what we have learned to new and sometimes confusingsettings. The ability to transfer our knowledge and skill effectively involves thecapacity to take what we know and use it creatively, flexibly, fluently, in different settings or problems, on our own.

A bigidea is a concept, theme, or issue that gives meaning and connection to discrete facts and skills.

If questions elicit thoughtful and varied student responsesthat will ultimately have no effect on the direction of the class or the design ofthe work, they are merely rhetorical questions, despite their seemingly openended form.

Organize programs, courses, units of study, and lessons around the questions. Make the “content” answers to questions.• Select or design assessment tasks (up front) that are explicitly linked tothe questions. The tasks and performance standards should clarify whatacceptable pursuit of, and answers to, the questions actually looks like.• Use a reaso

To get beyond mererote learning and recall, we have to be taught and be assessed on an ability tosee patterns, so that we come to see many “new” problems we encounter asvariants of problems and techniques we are familiar with. That requires aneducation in how to problem solve using big ideas and transferable strategies,not merely how to plug in spe