If you know where you are going, it doesn’t always follow that you also know how to get there. Understanding by Design (UbD) supports the first part of the statement: knowing where you are going. Its three-stage curriculum planning framework is useful as a general guide for identifying where to lead the students in terms of understanding what they are supposed to be learning.
In Stage 1: Desired Results, teachers think about what goals they would like their students to learn. They also jot down the “big ideas”, “essential questions”, and what students should know after the lesson.
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