For the past two months I have undergone extensive training in “Backwards Design” using the principles of Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. It has revolutionized the way that I have thought about planning for understanding rather than planning “activities” and thematic units “just because they are fun and cool”. I have really drank the koolaid here folks! I will discuss more in future posts, but I plan to make this a regular blog feature. Right now I have just finished re-designing some of the units I just taught in trimester 1. Now, as I embark into trimester 2 on Monday, I will have 6 units to complete over the weekend! The process really does get faster, though, with practice.(It’s a good thing I learned perserverance and endurance in my music classes when I was a kid!)

I would like to share my efforts with those interested and welcome comments or questions as I set forth on this journey to re-design my curricular units into ones that provide opportunities for deeper levels of learning and understanding for my students. Feel free to download any of the units below and modify or adapt for your situation. Enjoy!

• Understanding_By_Design_SteadyBeat_Unit_K
• Understanding_By_Design_Listening-VoiceTypes_Unit_K
• Understanding_By_Design_Musical_Opposites Unit-_SameandDifferent_K/1
• Understanding_By_Design_Rhythm_Building_Blocks_Unit_2
• Understanding_By_Design_Q&A_Improvisation Unit_5
• Understanding_By_Design_HOWTOBLUES Unit_5