UbD in a Nutshell
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Backwards Design
What is it?
This simply refers to the concept of starting to plan your lesson/unit/course/program with the end in mind!
If you are asking yourself, "But I thought I already did that,"
You probably do!

What makes UbD a little different is an emphasis on
thinking deeply about not just the skills you want to
teach or the facts you want to impart, but on the
understandings you want the the students to walk away with.
So what is Understanding By Design?
What do you want the students
to know and understand?
"To be elegant and powerful, the design has
to be coherent and focused on clear and worthy
intellectual priorities - on what we call 'big ideas'
and 'core tasks.'
Big Ideas
At the core of a subject
Not obvious
Universal in Application
Timeless
Have great transfer value
Core Tasks:
What does it mean to do the subject?
An authentic 'performance' related to the subject.
Require transfer of essential information.
A big idea must enable the learner to make sense of what has come before; it should be helpful in making new, unfamiliar ideas seem more familiar.
Core tasks reflect the transfer we seek for students over the long term. They are not merely interesting assessments.
Consider the big ideas you want students to have and the core tasks that would demonstrate understanding. What do we do with them? 
Enduring Understandings
Use discrete facts or skills to focus on larger concepts, principles, or processes.
They derive from and enable transfer.
They are applicable to new situations within or beyond the subject.
Need to be 'uncovered.'
Often non-obvious or counterintuitive.
Examples of Enduring Understandings (EUs)
Assumptions are a fundamental part of mathematics that allow us to communicate about ideas.
Good writing requires creativity and technical proficiency. 
Evolution is the concept that unites all of biology.
Price is a function of supply and demand.
EUs can be about facts or skills. In the case of facts, an understanding would be an inference drawn from the facts. In the case of skills, the EU would focus on the skill's underlying concepts, why it is important and what it helps accomplish, what strategies and techniques maximize its effectiveness, and when to use it.
The EUs should be based on the big ideas... it follows that each unit should not have many understandings.

Consider a 3 week unit with 10 EUs. That would be more than 3 a week - this is coverage, not uncoverage.
Rule of thumb: 3-5 EUs per unit is probably enough.
Essential Questions
Cause genuine & relevant inquiry into the big ideas.
Provoke deep thought & lively discussion.
Require consideration of alternatives, evidence and justification of ideas.
Create meaningful connections with prior learning.
Examples of Essential Questions (EQs)
How do you know you mean what you say and say what you mean?
To what extent is truth relative? 
Can a bad person have a good life?
Was the United States justified in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan?
Concerned that your subject focuses too much on skills to have good essential questions?
"... found that essential questions can be fruitfully framed around four categories of big ideas relevant to effective skill learning: (1) key concepts, (2) purpose and value, (3) strategy and tactics, and (4) context of use."
It should go without saying that essential questions, like enduring understandings, should be few. Too many and the effort will be diluted. 
In order to earn the enduring understandings and answer the essential questions, students must have 'stuff' to work with. Facts and skills make up an important part of the process.
When listing the facts, focus on what information they should know that will enable them to develop understanding and justify their answers to the essential questions. Knowledge of a skill is not the same thing as doing a skill.
When determining skills to be learned, think of both the skills that students will learn in pursuit of their understanding as well as those enabling skills that will allow them to demonstrate that understanding.
Key Question:
How will you know that the students know and understand what you want them to?
UbD emphasizes 6 types (facets) of understanding:
Explanation
Interpretation
Application
Perspective
Empathy
Self-Knowledge
Key Idea: Thinking like an Assessor
What evidence can you gather that demonstrates your students' understanding of the big ideas?

Not all facets will be involved in every assessment.
While some assessments can be used to evaluate students factual knowledge and/or ability to perform skills, to what extent do they demonstrate understanding?
How often do you start with the assessment when planning?
Notice that the the first two stages are really concerned with the end!
What do we want the students to know, do, & understand?
How do we know they have accomplished the goals we set?
What do we do to help the students reach the understandings at the heart of our unit?
W  H  E  R  E  T  O
Where are we headed? What is the end product? How will the student be judged?
Hook the students through engaging entry points, provoking issues, and challenging ideas that point to the essential questions, core ideas, and final performance tasks.
Explore and Equip. Allow students to explore the big ideas, experiment with ideas as they pursue answers to essential questions. Prepare them for the final performances.
Rethink and Revise. Give formative feedback and give students a chance to review and refine their work and understandings.
Evaluate understanding. Help students to see what they have accomplished and what still remains.
Tailor the work to ensure maximum interest. Differentiate your approaches and offer variety to maintain engagement.
Organize and sequence the learning for maximal engagement and effectiveness.
What activites we do with students are clearly important - but they are not the end in and of themselves. Activities should be chosen for their ability to move students toward the understandings we want.
So where do you start?
Anywhere you want!
Thanks for your time!
Much of the material on the "UbD in  Nutshell" guide and this presentation were taken from UbD 2nd Ed. by McTighe & Wiggins.
Interested in the presentation tool I used?

It's called Prezi. Go to http://prezi.com to try it out!
Frustrated that you can't get the wording right? Your EU or EQ not  quite right?
The unit design components of goals, assessments, and lessons are interconnected and mutually supporting.
 
How do we maximize student understanding?
What message do you send your students with the work you ask them to do?
Your tests?
Your homework?
Your daily routines?
What makes a good Enduring Understanding?
What makes a good Essential Question?