Imagine stepping into a classroom buzzing with excitement as students immerse themselves in a book, uncovering its secrets and making connections that stretch far beyond its pages. By crafting book units through the principles of backward design, educators can transform their classroom into a dynamic center for comprehension while encouraging a lifelong passion for reading. 

The Power of Understanding by Design (UbD)

UbD is more than a teaching strategy; it's a transformative approach that ensures every lesson is purposeful and impactful. By prioritizing student understanding, students are empowered to grasp the big ideas and apply these insights in new situations.  

Key Steps:

• Determine big understandings
• Draft essential questions for each text or section
• Create learning goals for each text or section
• List data and evidence that will evaluate learning (including assessments)
• Develop additional assessments, tasks, and evidence that will show learning
• Design learning experiences and activities
• Check that learning plan is aligned with stated goals and assessments (short- and long-term plan)
• Consider scaffolds and differentiation needed for students within lessons (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011; 2005)

Defining the Desired Results

At the heart of every successful book unit are the hoped-for outcomes—what we want our students to truly understand and achieve. After identifying the big understandings and major themes within the unit, essential questions are crafted that push students to ponder and engage with the text on a deeper level.  When creating these questions, teachers should work backwards, starting with the desired answers, then connecting questions to core understandings and themes, and then using grade-level standards to integrate necessary skills—a process known as "think, link, and unpack" (McTighe & Wiggins, 2013). Once the main understandings and essential questions for the unit are established, the next step is to define the specific unit goals. Goals are clearly defined and outline the skills, concepts, and knowledge students should master. 

Demonstrating Understanding Through Evidence

Performance tasks are designed to highlight students’ abilities and showcase their understanding through meaningful assignments, assessments, and discussions. While these tasks can take a variety of forms, having students write about the texts that they have read is strongly supported by research and improves “students’ comprehension of text over and above the improvements gained from traditional reading activities such as reading text, reading and rereading text, reading and discussing text, and receiving explicit reading instruction” (Graham & Hebert, 2010, p. 29).

Cooperative learning can be an important feature of performance tasks and supports time on task, higher-level reasoning, and greater transfer of what has been learned (Johnson & Johnson, 1999). Students work on assignments in pairs or small groups, with each one having a specific role to ensure accountability. Collaboration also lends itself to creative projects, like crafting alternative endings to books or developing a skit for a chapter.

Planning Tips

Story grammar frames can help drive teacher planning and should be prepared in advance of the unit. (To learn more about developing and using story grammar frames, read the blog post, “The Recipe for Understanding Narrative Texts” here.)   

Bookmarks that include character names and relationships as well as other important information to support comprehension can be helpful references for students.

Vocabulary and background knowledge demands and opportunities should be assessed during the planning phase in order to address areas of potential difficulty and maximize instructional opportunities for word learning and knowledge building. (To learn more about leveraging background knowledge to boost comprehension, read the blog post here.)

Multiple sources, such as media and supporting texts, provide extended reading on a topic, build knowledge, and enhance understanding. (To learn about enhancing reading comprehension with text sets, read the blog here.)

Graphic organizers help students visualize and organize information, highlighting key concepts and making complex ideas more accessible. Examples of graphic organizers for narrative text include story grammar frames, character trait webs, compare-contrast charts, and timelines.

Book discussions throughout the unit boost comprehension, develop oral language and expressive vocabulary skills, and provide an opportunity to explore and refine higher-level ideas collaboratively. Discussions should be timed carefully to align with critical junctures in the text, and questions, queries, and prompts should be planned to promote productive discourse with full student participation.

Make the most of book units by planning with the end in mind. Planning backwards ensures lessons align with goals, promoting deeper text interaction.  This approach fosters critical thinking, helping students achieve learning objectives while igniting a lifelong passion for reading.

 

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References

Graham, S., & Hebert, M. (2010). Writing to read: Evidence for how writing can improve reading.
     Carnegie Corporation Time to Act Report. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education

Johnson, David & Johnson, Roger. (1999). Making cooperative learning work.
     Theory Into Practice, 38. 67-73, doi: 10.1080/00405849909543834.

McTighe, J., & Wiggins, G. (2013). Essential questions: Opening doors to student understanding.
     Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2011). The understanding by design guide to creating high-quality units,
     Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA:ASCD.