Grant Wiggins is the co-author, with Jay McTighe, of Understanding By Design (UbD). At YU, the Curriculum Development course in the Masters program teaches the UbD model. At first pass, it's difficult to tease apart the related concepts of Big Ideas, Essential Questions, and Enduring Understandings in a practical way. The more you work at it, the easier it gets. Almost a year after taking the course, I sometimes still struggle with defining the Big Idea for the purpose of designing curriculum.
I came across Wiggins' website, called Authentic Education. In it, there are a series of videos with the man himself, in which he explains in his own words what a Big Idea is.
In Wiggins' words, "A big idea... is a signal to the teacher about what we should keep coming back to... it can be thought of as a linchpin... it demands repetition... it permits us to have a focus, a coherence... we would expect to see the big idea occur across lessons, across units, across courses, across years."
For educational purposes, using Wiggins' definition, what would you consider to be THE big idea of Judaism? Which one do we need to keep on coming back to above all else? Of the following four famous psukim, is one the bigger of the big ideas?
I came across Wiggins' website, called Authentic Education. In it, there are a series of videos with the man himself, in which he explains in his own words what a Big Idea is.
In Wiggins' words, "A big idea... is a signal to the teacher about what we should keep coming back to... it can be thought of as a linchpin... it demands repetition... it permits us to have a focus, a coherence... we would expect to see the big idea occur across lessons, across units, across courses, across years."
For educational purposes, using Wiggins' definition, what would you consider to be THE big idea of Judaism? Which one do we need to keep on coming back to above all else? Of the following four famous psukim, is one the bigger of the big ideas?
- “Ve’ahavta lere’acha kamocha,” You should love your fellow neighbour as you love yourself (Vayikrah 19:18)
- "Shema Yisra'el Hashem Eloheinu Hashem Ecḥad," Hear O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is One (Dvarim 6:4)
- Anochi Adonai Elohecha," I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt? (Vayikrah 26:13)
- "V'ahavta et Adonai Elohecha b'chol l'vavcha uvchol nafsh'cha uvchol m'odecha," And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might (Dvarim 6:5)