Curriculum Design

Good curriculum design is essential for being prepared with lessons that will get your students to their goals.
Understanding By Design (UbD) 
Understanding by design, sometimes also referred to as backwards design, is working from the destination of the lesson to the start point to make certain that students will attain the goal. Rather than thinking first from a teaching point about how you as the teacher want to teach the lesson, begin by thinking about what you want your students to be able to accomplish by the end of the lesson. Then ask yourself, what is the best way to get them there? Where are they coming from and how will I get them to this destination. It is logical. Think about it like preparing dinner: do you show up at the grocery store willy-nilly picking out random foods you like? You could. But if you know what you want to eat for dinner, you start there, you figure out what the ingredients are that you will need, you figure out what you have at home, then you make the grocery list, then you go to the store and get what you will need, all with the end goal in mind and a clear plan of how to get there.
When using UbD, it is important to begin by ‘unpacking’ the standard that you will have to teach to. This template can help orient you so that you are clear with your intentions of where you are going and so that your students can be too.
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As you unpack your standards, it is important that you plan essential questions that are explicit to the students so that they also have a clear understanding of where they are going with the lesson and what they are expected to accomplish my the end of the lesson or unit.
Essential Questions should be:
  1. Open ended
  2. Thought provoking & intellectually engaging
  3. Require higher order thinking
  4. Point toward important, transferable ideas
  5. Raise additional questions
  6. Require support and justification
  7. Recur over time
When planning Assessment in UbD, Remember GRASPS:
G= A REAL-WORLD GOAL
R= A MEANINGFUL ROLE FOR THE STUDENT
A=AUTHENTIC (OR SIMULATED) REAL-WORLD AUDIENCE
S=A CONTEXTUALIZED SITUATION THAT INVOLVES REAL-WORLD APPLICATION
P=STUDENT GENERATED CULMINATING PRODUCTS OR PERFORMANCES
​S=CONSENSUS-DRIVEN PERFORMANCE STANDARDS FOR JUDGING SUCCESS
Here is a template by McTighe and Wiggins for UbD, complete with guiding questions to help you fill it out and design your curriculum.
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The 6 Facets of Understanding
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The 6 facets of understanding give guidance, similar to Bloom’s Taxonomy, as students strive for self-knowledge. However, notably they are different, and include aspects such as empathy and perspective, which are critical for students placing their knowledge back into the schema of the world they are living in, rather than allowing it to exist within the boundaries of their school and classroom.
Of course everything is connected and this also relates back to supporting learning differences. In UbD, we also need to be conscious of UDL and DI. 
Throughout the planning of your lesson and assessment, you must ask, what tools and strategies will different students need? How will my lesson meet the needs of all of my learners? For assessment, ask yourself:

  1. What should count as evidence of learning? Of understanding?
  2. How might we differentiate our assessments without sacrificing validity and reliability?
  3. How can we maintain standards without standardization?
  4. How can assessment promote learning, not simply measure it?

See more on UDL and DI in the Supporting Learning Differences page that also explores assessment in the scheme of UDL and DI.
Head to Vanderbilt University's Center for the Teaching's page on Understanding by Design for more helpful information and videos.
Personal Lesson Planning Template
Check out my current personal lesson planning template, designed based on my Teacher Disposition, and incorporating Universal Design for Learning, Differentiated Instruction, and my investment in all my learners. 
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Check out a few of my lessons: