Course Description

Designing meaningful learning begins with clarity. This course introduces you to one of the most powerful foundations of Understanding by Design (UbD): identifying big ideas and prioritizing content. Not all topics, facts, or standards have equal importance — the key is knowing what truly matters for long-term understanding and transfer.

Through practical tools and examples, this course helps you unpack standards, distill big ideas, and classify content into clear priority levels. It is the perfect starting point for educators who want to design intentionally — improving 1% at a time.

🔑 Key Highlights:

• Understand the UbD hierarchy of priorities: familiar → important → enduring.

• Learn how to unpack standards to reveal concepts, skills, and essential understandings.

• Identify big ideas that bring coherence and purpose to your lessons and units.

• Shift from teaching topics to teaching for understanding and transfer.

📘 What You Will Learn:

Finding What Truly Matters

Discover practical strategies to identify big ideas that anchor learning and help students connect concepts meaningfully.

Unpacking Standards With Clarity

Learn how to break standards into concepts, skills, and understandings so your teaching becomes focused and intentional.

Setting Priorities That Guide Instruction

Understand how to classify content into UbD’s three priority levels — helping you streamline your curriculum without losing depth.

Teaching for Transfer

Explore how meaningful assessments and tasks reveal student understanding beyond recall — helping you design learning that lasts.