Essential Questions
Frame your unit plan or year-long plan with thought-provoking, provocative questions that delve straight into the heart of your subject matter. An English unit on the book The Things They Carried might ask the question, "When, if ever, is violence justified?" A geometry class might frame the entire year with the question, "How is geometry used in the real world?"
Enduring Understandings
This is where Ubd gets difficult. Articulate the concepts and ideas you want your students to understand and remember 30 years from now. They will forget the details, dates, and math formulas, but they will remember the "big ideas" that ultimately anchor your unit plan. A sample enduring understanding in a history class might be, "Freedom is not free; it is achieved through struggle and carries responsibilities." Another for a science class would be, "Species have changed, are changing and will continue to evolve over time."