What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment? Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K-16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum. Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, this new edition of Understanding by Design offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.

Revised, expanded, and up-to-the-minute—the leading guide to serving the modern organization's onboarding needs It's a challenge overlooked by many: The need to bring recent hires into the fold, smoothly, effectively, and rapidly. And in this state-of-the-art multi-phased guide to integrating new employees into an organization, Doris Sims, longtime HR and onboarding guru again redefines the expectations of what effective HR training and succession management can do for your business. Fully updated with new case studies of best practices from successful companies, Creative Onboarding is the edge your business needs. The most complete resource for helping employees do their best work from the minute they first walk in the door, this book delivers an arsenal of high-end strategies and skills, including: Activities and checklists to help focus your onboarding efforts Advice on designing and implementing programs for employees at any level that mesh with existing organizational cultures The latest tools, technologies that create programs with impact Ways to measure results-and make positive adjustments on the fly In today's hyper-competitive business environment, seamless onboarding is an absolute necessity. And Creative Onboarding puts within easy reach the benefits of improved retention and performance, along with drastically reduced HR-related overhead. Topics covered include: Designing New Employee Onboarding: Companies Who Do it Right • New Tools and Technologies to Make Your Program Fun and Memorable • Onboarding New Managers • Onboarding FAQs • and more

BUSINESS STRATEGY. "The 4 Disciplines of Execution "offers the what but also how effective execution is achieved. They share numerous examples of companies that have done just that, not once, but over and over again. This is a book that every leader should read! (Clayton Christensen, Professor, Harvard Business School, and author of "The Innovator s Dilemma)." Do you remember the last major initiative you watched die in your organization? Did it go down with a loud crash? Or was it slowly and quietly suffocated by other competing priorities? By the time it finally disappeared, it s likely no one even noticed. What happened? The whirlwind of urgent activity required to keep things running day-to-day devoured all the time and energy you needed to invest in executing your strategy for tomorrow. "The 4 Disciplines of Execution" can change all that forever.