Welcome to the Anoka-Hennepin Curriculum Website.
Currently not all courses have content moved to this site.
The curriculum model used by
Anoka-Hennepin schools is called Understanding by Design. Read the
information and downloadable .pdf files below to better understand the
curriculum template that has been used with all courses.
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What is Understanding by Design?
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Understanding by Design is a curriculum model for writing curriculum and developing unit lesson plans. Although many curricular models exist, this particular one offers a great focus on identifying the major "understandings" for a course, determining acceptable evidence for assessment and provides unique guidelines for planning learning experiences and instruction. This curriculum model has been adopted by Anoka-Hennepin for grades K-12 in all content areas.
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The 3 Stages of Understanding by Design
Stage 1 - Identify Desired Results
What should students know, understand and be able to do. What is worthy of understanding? What enduring understandings are desired? These understandings can be thought of as the "Big Ideas" for the course or unit. Essential questions are constructed to hook and hold student interest for the unit.
Stage 2 - Determine Acceptable Evidence
How does one know when a student understands an idea or concept? What evidence of learning would be considered acceptable? A variety of assessment methods used in the model include checks for understanding, observations/conversations, quizzes/tests, open ended prompts and performance assessments.
Stage 3 - Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction
Once the desired results have been established, and the acceptable evidence of student learning has been determined, teachers can now plan the learning experiences and instruction. In selecting the learning experiences teachers will decide: What facts, concepts and skills students will need to practice to achieve the desired results? What activities will provide students with the needed knowledge and skills? What materials and resources are best suited to accomplish the desired goals.
Having clear goals about what students should understand and what it will look like when they do understand will help us as educators focus our instructional planning.
