What are essential questions, and how do they differ from other kinds of questions? What's so great about them? Why should you design and use essential questions in your classroom?

Essential questions (EQs) help target standards as you organize curriculum content into coherent units that yield focused and thoughtful learning. In the classroom, EQs are used to stimulate students' discussions and promote a deeper understanding of the content.

Whether you are an Understanding by Design (UbD) devotee or are searching for ways to address standards--local or Common Core State Standards--in an engaging way, Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins provide practical guidance on how to design, initiate, and embed inquiry-based teaching and learning in your classroom.

Offering dozens of examples, the authors explore the usefulness of EQs in all K-12 content areas, including skill-based areas such as math, PE, language instruction, and arts education. As an important element of their backward design approach to designing curriculum, instruction, and assessment, the authors

*Give a comprehensive explanation of why EQs are so important;

*Explore seven defining characteristics of EQs;

*Distinguish between topical and overarching questions and their uses;

*Outline the rationale for using EQs as the focal point in creating units of study; and

*Show how to create effective EQs, working from sources including standards, desired understandings, and student misconceptions.

Using essential questions can be challenging--for both teachers and students--and this book provides guidance through practical and proven processes, as well as suggested response strategies to encourage student engagement. Finally, you will learn how to create a culture of inquiry so that all members of the educational community--students, teachers, and administrators--benefit from the increased rigor and deepened understanding that emerge when essential questions become a guiding force for learners of all ages.

Implementing the popular Understanding by Design^(R) (UbD(TM)) framework is much easier when you use this in-depth resource for workshops, curriculum teams, and teacher training. This collection of templates, design tools, examples, and exercises helps you give all staff members a firm grasp of key UbD principles, including

• How to use backward design to align curriculum with assessment and instruction.
• Why to focus curriculum on the big ideas in your content standards.
• Which learning activities are more apt to enable students to achieve desired results.

• Drafting curriculum units based on essential questions.
• Creating performance tasks and rubrics for assessing student understanding in any subject.
• Organizing, sequencing, and guiding classroom learning experiences.

Included are steps for conducting a peer review of unit designs plus process steps to guide your implementation of UbD systemwide.

Far too often, our students attain only a superficial level of knowledge that fails to prepare them for deeper challenges in school and beyond. In Teaching for Deeper Learning, renowned educators and best-selling authors Jay McTighe and Harvey F. Silver propose a solution: teaching students to make meaning for themselves.

Contending that the ability to earn understanding will equip students to thrive in school, at work, and in life, the authors highlight seven higher-order thinking skills that facilitate students' acquisition of information for greater retention, retrieval, and transfer. These skills, which cut across content areas and grade levels and are deeply embedded in current academic standards, separate high achievers from their low-performing peers.

Drawing on their deep well of research and experience, the authors

- Explore what kind of content is worth having students make meaning about.
- Provide practical tools and strategies to help teachers target each of the seven thinking skills in the classroom.
- Explain how teachers can incorporate the thinking skills and tools into lesson and unit design.
- Show how teachers can build students' capacity to use the strategies independently.

If our goal is to prepare students to meet the rigorous demands of school, college, and career, then we must foster their ability to respond to such challenges. This comprehensive, practical guide will enable teachers to engage students in the kind of learning that yields enduring understanding and valuable skills that they can use throughout their lives.

How can educators leverage neuroscience research about how the human brain learns? How can we use this information to improve curriculum, instruction, and assessment so our students achieve deep learning and understanding in all subject areas? Upgrade Your Teaching: Understanding by Design Meets Neuroscience answers these questions by merging insights from neuroscience with Understanding by Design (UbD), the framework used by thousands of educators to craft units of instruction and authentic assessments that emphasize understanding rather than recall.

Readers will learn

- How the brain processes incoming information and determines what is (or is not) retained as long-term memory;
- How brain science reveals factors that influence student motivation and willingness to put forth effort;
- How to fully engage all students through relevance and achievable challenge;
- How key components of UbD, including backward design, essential questions, and transfer tasks, are supported by research in neuroscience;
- Why specific kinds of teaching and assessment strategies are effective in helping students gain the knowledge, skills, and deep understanding they need to succeed in school and beyond; and
- How to create a brain-friendly classroom climate that supports lasting learning.

Authors Jay McTighe and Judy Willis translate research findings into practical information for everyday use in schools, at all grade levels and in all subject areas. With their guidance, educators at all levels can learn how to design and implement units that empower teachers and students alike to capitalize on the brain's tremendous capacity for learning.

Aimed at the growing number of educators who are looking to move beyond covering the curriculum, Designing Authentic Performance Tasks and Projects provides a comprehensive guide to ensuring students' deeper learning--in which they can transfer their knowledge, skills, and understandings to the world beyond the classroom. Readers will learn how to

* Create authentic tasks and projects to address both academic standards and 21st century skills.
* Apply task frames to design performance tasks that allow voice and choice for students.
* Design and use criterion-based evaluation tools and rubrics for assessment, including those for students to use in self-assessment and peer assessment.
* Incorporate performance-based instructional strategies needed to prepare students for authentic performance.
* Differentiate tasks and projects for all students, including those needing additional support or challenge.
* Effectively manage the logistics of a performance-based classroom.
* Use project management approaches to facilitate successful implementation of tasks and projects.
* Develop performance-based curriculum at the program, school, and district levels.

Authors Jay McTighe, Kristina J. Doubet, and Eric M. Carbaugh provide examples and resources across all grade levels and subject areas. Teachers can use this practical guidance to transform their classrooms into vibrant centers of learning, where students are motivated and engaged and see relevance in the work they are doing.

Redesign education to meet the needs of 21st century students. In the second edition of Leading Modern Learning, authors Jay McTighe and Greg Curtis outline a reworked version of their blueprint for major education reform. More than a simple refresh, the latest edition incorporates new insights, experiences, and tools that will help you implement modern learning practices in your department, school, or district.

Use this book to guide education and curriculum reform and empower modern learners:

• Understand the necessity and value of education reform and updating school curriculum for the 21st century classroom.
• Learn how to use a blueprint for your vision of learning, mission, and curriculum development to establish mission clarity and effective instruction and assessment practices.
• Explore systems thinking and frameworks for backward-design that can be utilized by school leadership to develop action plans and guide school curriculum reform for modern learning.
• Read an all-new chapter on change management and strategic planning for district and school leadership as well as new Notes From the Field, which highlight how to avoid potential missteps and misunderstandings that inhibit progress.
• Utilize the appendices and free reproducibles to further your understanding of education reform, curriculum development, and school leadership for modern learning.

A joint publication of ASCD and Solution Tree

Contents:
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: Creating a Futures-Oriented Vision and Mission
Chapter 2: From Mission to Action
Chapter 3: Curriculum for Modern Learning
Chapter 4: An Assessment System for Modern Learning
Chapter 5: Instruction for Modern Learning
Chapter 6: A Reporting System for Modern Learning
Chapter 7: Leadership for Modern Learning
Appendix A: Sources for Futures-Oriented Thinking Tools and Processes
Appendix B: Sample Sources and Performance Indicators for 21st Century Skills
Appendix C: Sample Map of Cornerstone Performance Tasks and Transfer Goals
References and Resources
Index

Curriculum design experts Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins have reviewed thousands of curriculum documents and unit plans across a range of subjects and grades. In this book, they identify and describe the 25 most common problems in unit design and recommend how to fix them--and avoid them when planning new units.

McTighe and Wiggins, creators of the Understanding by Design(R) framework, help you use the process of backward design to troubleshoot your units and achieve tighter alignment and focus on learning priorities. Whether you're working with local or national standards or with other learning goals, you can rely on their practical and proven solutions to promote deeper and better learning for your students.

How can we help teachers use classroom assessments to gather appropriate evidence for all valued learning goals, and to use those assessments not just to measure learning but to promote it? This book provides an answer in a practical, proven, and unique Assessment Planning Framework that moves away from solely multiple-choice tests toward a wide range of approaches to classroom assessment activities, including performance-based assessments. This user-friendly guide will help pre- and inservice teachers to match assessments to purpose, goals, and content; select appropriate tasks; communicate productive feedback to students and parents; and use assessment results to inform instruction. School leaders will find it a practical guide for improving schoolwide assessment practices, as well as supporting teachers and orienting new staff. Assessing Student Learning by Design encourages educators to use classroom assessment as a way to inform teaching and learning, rather than simply to assign grades.

Book Features:

• Builds on the classic book Understanding by Design, written by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe.
• Offers a practical, nontechnical presentation appropriate for teacher preparation and busy practitioners (K-16).
• Explores different purposes for, and methods of, classroom assessment and grading.
• Addresses assessment of academic standards as well as transdisciplinary outcomes, such as 21st-century skills.
• Describes the principles and practices underlying standards-based grading.

How can we help teachers use classroom assessments to gather appropriate evidence for all valued learning goals, and to use those assessments not just to measure learning but to promote it? This book provides an answer in a practical, proven, and unique Assessment Planning Framework that moves away from solely multiple-choice tests toward a wide range of approaches to classroom assessment activities, including performance-based assessments. This user-friendly guide will help pre- and inservice teachers to match assessments to purpose, goals, and content; select appropriate tasks; communicate productive feedback to students and parents; and use assessment results to inform instruction. School leaders will find it a practical guide for improving schoolwide assessment practices, as well as supporting teachers and orienting new staff. Assessing Student Learning by Design encourages educators to use classroom assessment as a way to inform teaching and learning, rather than simply to assign grades.

Book Features:

• Builds on the classic book Understanding by Design, written by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe.
• Offers a practical, nontechnical presentation appropriate for teacher preparation and busy practitioners (K-16).
• Explores different purposes for, and methods of, classroom assessment and grading.
• Addresses assessment of academic standards as well as transdisciplinary outcomes, such as 21st-century skills.
• Describes the principles and practices underlying standards-based grading.