Using Understanding by Design in the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classroom

How can today's teachers, whose classrooms are more culturally and linguistically diverse than ever before, ensure that their students achieve at high levels? How can they design units and lessons that support English learners in language development and content learning—simultaneously? Authors Amy Heineke and Jay McTighe provide the answers by adding a lens on language to the widely used Understanding by Design® framework (UbD® framework) for curriculum design, which emphasizes teaching for understanding, not rote memorization.

Readers will learn

• the components of the UbD framework;
• the fundamentals of language and language development;
• how to use diversity as a valuable resource for instruction by gathering information about students' background knowledge from home, community, and school;
• how to design units and lessons that integrate language development with content learning in the form of essential knowledge and skills; and
• how to assess in ways that enable language learners to reveal their academic knowledge.

Student profiles, real-life classroom scenarios, and sample units and lessons provide compelling examples of how teachers in all grade levels and content areas use the UbD framework in their culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. Combining these practical examples with findings from an extensive research base, the authors deliver a useful and authoritative guide for reaching the overarching goal: ensuring that all students have equitable access to high-quality curriculum and instruction.

Amy Heineke is an associate professor of Bilingual and Bicultural Education in the School of Education at Loyola University Chicago, specializing in teacher preparation for English learners. She earned a master's and a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from Arizona State University, as well as an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University. Coming from a family of educators, Amy started her career as a kindergarten teacher in the Roosevelt School District in Phoenix, Arizona, where she began developing her advocacy and expertise for teaching English learners. In the last 15 years, she has facilitated students' learning in both elementary and secondary classroom settings and supported a wide array of practitioners working with linguistically diverse students in English-medium and bilingual settings around the United States and Latin America.

Jay McTighe brings a wealth of experience from a rich and varied career in education. He served as director of the Maryland Assessment Consortium, a collaboration of school districts working together to develop and share formative performance assessments. Previously he was involved with school improvement projects at the Maryland State Department of Education, where he helped lead standards-based reforms, including development of performance-based statewide assessments. He directed development of the Instructional Framework, a multimedia database on teaching. Well known for his work with thinking skills, Jay coordinated statewide efforts to develop instructional strategies, curriculum models, and assessment procedures for improving the quality of student thinking. In addition to his work at the state level, Jay has experience at the district level in Prince George's County, Maryland, as a classroom teacher, resource specialist, and program coordinator. He also directed a state residential enrichment program for gifted and talented students.