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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wiggins, Grant P., 1950–
The Understanding by design guide to advanced concepts in creating and reviewing units / Grant Wig‑
gins and Jay McTighe.
   p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-4166-1409-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Curriculum planning—United States. 2. Curriculum-based assessment—United States. 3. Lesson
planning—United States. I. McTighe, Jay. II. Wiggins, Grant P., 1950–Understanding by design. III. Title.
LB2806.15.W547 2012
375'.001—dc23
2011041515

22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

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 The Understanding by Design
Guide to
Advanced Concepts in Creating
and Reviewing Units

•••••

List of Figures..............................................................................................................vi

Introduction................................................................................................................ 1

Module I: Unpacking Standards................................................................................. 3

Module J: Identifying Evaluative Criteria for Assessments..................................... 19

Module K: Refining the Learning Plan in Stage 3.................................................... 37

Module L: Sharpening Essential Questions and Understandings.......................... 53

Module M: Authentic Assessment and Validity....................................................... 70

Module N: Differentiating—Tailoring the Learning Plan to the Learners............. 88

Module O: Designing the Lesson Plan for Your Unit........................................... 104

Module P: Obtaining and Using Feedback.............................................................117

Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 132

About the Authors................................................................................................... 135

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List of Figures

The figures critical to exploring Understanding by Design are printed within and
page numbers are supplied. Additional figures that may be helpful are available
online and are noted with the OO (online only) designation. All figures may be
downloaded for your convenience.

Introduction
1 Outline of Modules.......................................................................................... 1

Module I
I.1 Unpacking Standards Stage 1—Mathematics................................................. 5
I.2 Unpacking Standards Stages 1–3—English Language Arts.......................... 13
I.3 Unpacking Standards Worksheet—Mathematics ........................................ 14
I.4 Unpacking Standards Matrix—Mathematics................................................ 15
I.5 Unpacking Standards Worksheet—Reading .............................................. OO
I.6 Unpacking Standards Worksheet—English Language Arts........................ OO
I.7 Unpacking Standards Matrix—Mathematics.............................................. OO
I.8 Unpacking Standards Matrix—History....................................................... OO
I.9 Unpacking Standards Worksheet—Civics................................................... OO
I.10 Unpacking Standards Worksheet—Social Studies ..................................... OO
I.11 Unpacking Standards Worksheet Stages 1–3.............................................. OO
I.12 Designing Units Based on Content Standards............................................ OO
I.13 Unpacking Standards Worksheet................................................................. OO

Module J
J.1 Evaluative Criteria and Related Evidence for Driver’s Education Unit.........21
J.2 Two Types of Criteria with Related Indicators.............................................. 24
J.3 Four Types of Criteria..................................................................................... 25
J.4 Four Types of Criteria with Sample Questions............................................. 27
J.5 Naive to Expert Understanding: A Continuum............................................ 28
J.6 Descriptive Terms for Differences in Degree................................................. 29
J.7 Holistic and Analytic Rubrics Compared—Examples for Graphing........... 30
J.8 Rubric for Assessing Autonomous Performance............................................31
J.9 Differentiation and Uniformity Within Assessments................................... 33
J.10 Four Types of Criteria with Descriptors/Indicators.................................... OO
J.11 Criterion-Based Performance List for Graphic Display of Data................. OO
J.12 Naive to Expert Understanding: A Continuum Worksheet........................ OO
J.13 An Analytic Scoring Rubric for Understanding........................................... OO

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J.14 An Analytic Rubric Frame............................................................................ OO
J.15 Holistic Rubric for Understanding.............................................................. OO
J.16 Tips for Designing Effective Scoring Tools.................................................. OO

Module K
K.1 WHERETO Considerations for the Learning Plan........................................ 39
K.2 WHERETO Worksheet—Examples for the W (Where?)................................41
K.3 WHERETO Worksheet—Examples for the H (Hook and Hold Interest).... 43
K.4 Making Inferences Organizer—Adding Up the Facts (Pioneer Unit).......... 44
K.5 WHERETO Worksheet—Examples for E (Equip for Performance)............. 46
K.6 WHERETO—Examples for R (Rethink)........................................................ 47
K.7 Brainstorming Ways to Rethink and Revise Using the Six Facets................. 49
K.8 Rubric for Self-Assessment and Teacher Assessment—
Persuasive Essay...............................................................................................51
K.9 WHERETO—Examples for the Second E (Evaluate).................................... 52

Module L
L.1 Essential Questions Versus Knowledge Questions....................................... 55
L.2 Revising Essential Questions.......................................................................... 56
L.3 Overarching Versus Topical Questions.......................................................... 59
L.4 Understandings Versus Knowledge.................................................................61
L.5 Revising Understandings................................................................................ 63
L.6 Anticipating Misunderstandings.................................................................... 64
L.7 Overarching Versus Topical Understandings................................................ 65
L.8 From Skills to Understandings...................................................................... 66

Module M
M.1 Authentic Tasks Versus Simplified Exercises.................................................. 72
M.2 Performance Task Frames............................................................................... 76
M.3 Performance Task for Nutrition—GRASPS Example.................................... 79
M.4 GRASPS Task Scenario Builder....................................................................... 80
M.5 Possible Student Roles and Audiences...........................................................81
M.6 Possible Products and Performances............................................................. 82
M.7 Easier/More Difficult Situations.................................................................... 84
M.8 Brainstorming Realistic Situations................................................................. 85
M.9 Check: Is Every Desired Result Assessed?.................................................... OO
M.10 Matching Stage 1 Goals to Various Assessment Methods.......................... OO
M.11 GRASPS Performance Task Scenario for Social Studies.............................. OO

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M.12 A Collection of Assessment Evidence (Nutrition Unit)............................. OO
M.13 Design Checklist—Stage 2........................................................................... OO
M.14 Assessment Design Tips and Guidelines..................................................... OO

Module N
N.1 Backward Design and Differentiation............................................................91
N.2 Strategies for Differentiating Input................................................................ 94
N.3 Strategies for Differentiating Process and Product....................................... 95
N.4 Differentiating Using the Six Facets............................................................... 96
N.5 Using Information from Pre-assessment...................................................... 99
N.6 General Ideas for Differentiating Instruction and Assessment.................. OO
N.7 Ideas for Differentiating Instruction and Assessment for Reading............ OO
N.8 Ideas for Differentiating Instruction and Assessment for Writing............. OO
N.9 Ideas for Differentiating Instruction and Assessment
for Math and Science.................................................................................... OO
N.10 Ideas for Challenging High Achievers......................................................... OO

Module O
O.1 Beginning and Ending Lessons.................................................................... 109
O.2 Analyzing Sequence: Example and Worksheet............................................115
O.3 Lesson Plan Format...................................................................................... OO
O.4 Alternate Lesson Plan Format...................................................................... OO
O.5 Example of Lesson Plan Coding Using T-M-A:
Algebra Unit on Laws and Rules.................................................................. OO
O.6 Lesson Plan Coding Using WHERETO........................................................ OO
O.7 Using the Textbook Wisely........................................................................... OO
O.8 Sequence Options......................................................................................... OO

Module P
P.1 Unit Design and Feedback Loop..................................................................119
P.2 UbD Feedback Matrix................................................................................... 120
P.3 UbD Design Standards 2.0.......................................................................... 121
P.4 Observable Indicators in the Classroom (General).................................... 126
P.5 Final Self-Assessment Form......................................................................... 127
P.6 Observable Indicators in the Classroom (Learner Focused)...................... OO
P.7 Detailed Rubric for UbD Design Standards 2.0.......................................... OO
P.8 Final Self-Assessment Form Based on Feedback......................................... OO
P.9 Peer Review—Individual or Group Review Form....................................... OO

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P.10 UbD Stage 4/5 Visit Planner........................................................................ OO
P.11 UbD Stage 5 Observation Form................................................................... OO
P.12 UbD Stage 5 Understanding “Look-Fors”—Transfer.................................. OO
P.13 UbD Stage 5 Understanding “Look-Fors”—Meaning................................ OO
P.14 Unit Design Tips and Guidelines................................................................ OO

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 Introduction

The Understanding by Design Guide to Advanced Concepts in Creating and Review-

ing Units is targeted to individuals and groups interested in refining their skills in
designing units of study based on The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating
High-Quality Units. This guide is also organized around a set of modules through
which designers are guided. Figure 1 offers a graphic representation of the organi‑
zation of the modules in this volume.
This guide looks more closely at refinements to the unit designs, while also
introducing new material on self-assessment, peer review, implementation, and
supervision of the unit—under the new headings of Stages 4, 5, and 6.
Each module in both Guides includes the following components:
• Narrative discussion of key ideas in the module
• Guiding exercises, worksheets, and design tips for unit design
• An example of an emerging design

Fi gur e 1

Outline of Modules

Stage 1— Stage 2— Stage 3—

Desired Results Assessment Evidence Learning Plan

Module J: Identifying Evaluative Module K: Refining the Learning

Module I: Unpacking Standards
Criteria for Assessments Plan in Stage 3

Module N: Differentiating—
Module L: Sharpening Essential Module M: Authentic
Tailoring the Learning Plan
Questions and Understandings Assessment and Validity
to the Learners

Module O: Designing the Lesson Plan for Your Unit

Module P: Obtaining and Using Feedback

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2 The Understanding by Design Guide to Advanced Concepts in Creating and Reviewing Units

• Review criteria (design standards) with prompts for self-assessment

• References for further information
In addition to the print format, the Guide features online resources correlated
to the text. Many of the exercises and worksheets are accessible as downloads in
electronic form, as are additional unit examples. The online portion of the Guide
will allow updates (such as more unit examples and new resources) to be readily
accessed.
Users of the Guide, especially beginners, are invited to follow the exercises
and worksheets to assist them in thinking through the unit design process. How‑
ever, it is important to always keep the end—a coherent and well-aligned unit
plan—in mind. If you find an exercise or worksheet unnecessary, feel free to skip
it. Also, think of the exercises and worksheets like the training wheels on a bicycle.
Eventually you’ll find that you no longer need them as your understanding of UbD
deepens and your unit design skills become more effective and automatic.
The modular nature of the Guide means that users need not follow the mod‑
ules in the order presented. Your interests, strengths, and prior experience as a
designer will inevitably dictate how you use this Guide and the sequence you fol‑
low. Think of the Design Guide, then, as a cookbook. In a cookbook there are chap‑
ters devoted first to recipes of appetizers, then to soups and salads, then to fish and
meat, vegetables, and desserts. Similarly, the Guide is organized by the “menu” of
a unit’s parts—the elements of the unit template. But although the cookbook is
organized, you need not read it from cover to cover or make all the recipes in the
order in which they appear. So, too, in unit design. Like the recipe creator, your
path is informed by the need to put the final work in recipe form, but recipe cre‑
ation is inherently nonlinear and messy as you try things out, alter various ingredi‑
ents, and double-back to ensure that the final product works.
 Module I

Unpacking Standards

Purpose: To prioritize and focus on our content obligations appropriately.

Desired Results:
Unit designers will understand that
• Standards by themselves are not a curriculum; a curriculum works with the standards
to frame optimal learning experiences.
• Standards and most goal statements need to be analyzed or unpacked because they
may
–– be ambiguous;
–– be too broad or too narrow; and/or
–– reflect different kinds of goals simultaneously (e.g., knowledge, skill, understanding,
performance indicators).
• Unpacking standards helps to clarify the long-term intentions behind the standards,
distinguish among goal types, and focus unit planning.
Unit designers will be able to
• Unpack standards and other established goals that apply to the unit, and place them
in the proper Stage 1 boxes.
Module Design Goals: In this Module, you will learn various ways to unpack standards and
other goals to properly identify the various Stage 1 elements. The end product will be a refined
set of desired results identified in Stage 1.
You should work on Module I if you are obligated to pre-established standards (state/
provincial/national) or other goals (e.g., from a school or district mission) and if you are
unfamiliar with the process of unpacking standards or other goals into the UbD Template.
You might skim or skip Module I if you are not obligated to use established local, state, or
national standards or other formal goals.

3
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4 The Understanding by Design Guide to Advanced Concepts in Creating and Reviewing Units

Many users of this Guide will need to address externally mandated goals of some
kind—most commonly state, provincial, or national standards. The UbD Template
has a specific box for such established goals, on the left side of Stage 1 (see Figure
I.1). This placement is meant to signal an important idea about state standards
and other such obligations. The standards are not the primary goals of your unit
design. Meeting them is necessary but not sufficient.
Consider an analogy with home building and renovation. The standards are
like the building code. Architects and builders must attend to them but they are not
the purpose of the design. The house to be built or renovated is to meet the needs
of the client in a functional and pleasing manner—while also meeting the build‑
ing code as a part of the larger integrated and coherent whole.
Similarly, although unit designs have to validly address external standards,
we always want to keep the long-term educational ends in mind: an engaging and
meaningful learning experience that develops learner understanding and curiosity
while also meeting standards. That’s why we place standards on the side of Stage 1.
In other words, standards by themselves are not a curriculum. A curriculum works
with the standards in a way to frame optimal learning experiences. The standards
are more like the ingredients list for a recipe than the final meal; they are more
like the rules of the game instead of strategy for succeeding at the game. A curricu‑
lum fleshes out the best ways to honor one’s obligations while making learning as
engaging and effective as possible.

Unpacking Standards
Standards can be somewhat opaque, and they often vary in clarity, complexity,
and specificity. Some standards are broad, cutting across many courses and grade
levels; others are narrow and content-specific. Some refer to content that must be
taught; other standards refer to performance levels that must be achieved.
A standard has to be treated like any other nonfiction text; that is, we have to
carefully analyze and interpret its meaning. A standard poses a challenge similar
to the one posed by determining the meaning of the Bill of Rights in specific situ‑
ations. In fact, a standard represents key principles that demand constant thought
and discussion. That’s what we mean by saying that educators need to “unpack”
standards for local use. The practical meaning of a standard is not self-evident even
if the writing is clear.
Consider this example:
Virginia History 5.7
The student will understand the causes and effects of the Civil War
with emphasis on slavery, states’ rights, leadership, settlement of the
west, secession, and military events. [Source: VA Curriculum Framework
United States History to 1865; Commonwealth of Virginia Board of
Education Richmond, Virginia Approved—July 17, 2008]

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 Fi gu re I .1

Unpacking Standards Stage 1—Mathematics

Stage 1—Desired Results

Established Goals Transfer

Common Core State ­ Students will be able to independently use their learning to . . .
Standards in Math Solve nonroutine problems by persevering: simplify them, interpret expressions, and use equivalent forms based on the properties
of real numbers and the order of operations.
Interpret the structure of
expressions Meaning
1. Interpret expressions that
represent a quantity in terms of its UNDERSTANDINGS ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
context. Students will understand that . . . Students will keep considering . . .
1. In mathematics, we accept certain truths as necessary to 1. What important rules and conventions are required to make
Write expressions in equivalent
permit us to solve problems with logical certainty (e.g., the algebra “work”?
forms to solve problems
properties of real numbers), whereas other rules are conven- 2. How can we simplify this expression?
3. Choose and produce an tions that we assume just for effective communication.
equivalent form of an expression 2. We can use the commutative, associative, and distributive
to reveal and explain properties properties to turn complex and unfamiliar expressions into
of the quantity represented by the simpler and familiar ones when problem solving.
expression.
Acquisition of Knowledge & Skill
Rewrite rational expressions
6. Rewrite simple rational expres- Students will know . . . Students will be skilled at . . .
sions in different forms. 1. The commutative property and to which operation it applies 1. Writing expressions in equivalent forms.
(and when it does not apply). 2. Revealing and explaining properties represented.
Mathematical Practices 2. The associative property and to which operation it applies 3. Rewriting rational expressions in different forms.
1. Make sense of problems and (and when it does not apply). 4. Identifying equivalence that results from properties and
persevere in solving them. 3. The distributive property and to which operation it applies equivalence that is the result of computation.
(and when it does not apply). 5. Justifying steps in a simplification or computation by citing
2. Reason abstractly and 4. The “order of operations” mathematicians use and why is it applicable laws, properties, conventions.
quantitatively. needed.
3. Construct viable arguments and 5. What PEMDAS mean.

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critique the reasoning of others. 6. What it means to “simplify” an expression via equivalent forms.

Source: Goals from high school algebra standards, pp. 63–65. © Copyright 2011, National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers.
Module I: Unpacking Standards

All rights reserved.

5
6 The Understanding by Design Guide to Advanced Concepts in Creating and Reviewing Units

What does “understand” mean here? Does it mean make meaning of and transfer?
Or does it mean something narrower like analyze? Or is the demand far more
modest, namely “Accurately state and explain what others—credible experts—
have analyzed the causes and effects to be, as found in textbooks” (in other words
“understand” = “know”)? As you can see, how we teach and how we assess this
standard is greatly affected by the outcome of our inquiry. Such unpacking is essen‑
tial at the local level if the standards are to be validly and consistently addressed
across teachers, given the ambiguity of the key verb.
Even if we agree on what “understand” means here, there is a second ques‑
tion that must still be considered: What is an adequate understanding for a 5th
grader? In other words, how well must a student understand the causes and effects?
How sophisticated should that understanding be, to be a fair expectation of a 5th
grader? In other words, merely knowing the content to be addressed is not enough
information for local action. We need to analyze all relevant text to infer a reason‑
able performance standard for assessing student work, that is, to know when stu‑
dent work related to the standard is or isn’t meeting the standard.

Structure and Organization of Standards

Another reason for unpacking has to do with the fact that standards are typi‑
cally written in a hierarchical outline form. In many documents, the first level is
the most broad and comprehensive statement, and the second and third levels are
typically more concrete and narrowly focused. Each discrete element and outcome
of learning is listed in an analytic fashion.
Alas, as we well know from experience what seems like a good idea in the‑
ory—a hierarchical list of key elements—has an unfortunate common unintended
consequence. Some educators think that standards, arranged as organized in lists,
need to be covered, one by one, in lessons and units. Not only is this practice
unwise pedagogically; it is not the writers’ intent. Some standards documents offer
explicit cautions against such decontextualized teaching; for example:
Many of the objectives/benchmarks are interrelated rather than sequen‑
tial, which means that objectives/benchmarks are not intended to be
taught in the specific order in which they are presented. Multiple
objectives/benchmarks can and should be taught at the same time.
[emphasis in the original]
Source: 2007 Mathematics Framework, Mississippi Department of Edu‑
cation, p. 8
Here is how the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts are
introduced:
While the Standards delineate specific expectations in reading, writing,
speaking, listening, and language, each standard need not be a separate

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 Module I: Unpacking Standards 7

focus for instruction and assessment. Often, several standards can be

addressed by a single rich task. (Source: Common Core State Standards
for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Sci‑
ence, and Technical Subjects, p. 5)
Alas, this advice is routinely overlooked or ignored in local curriculum work. And
yet the distinction between discrete elements and a more integrated curriculum
plan is just common sense. A good meal is more than just the listed ingredients
in the recipe; a successful home renovation doesn’t merely involve contractors
addressing each isolated piece of the building code; music is not made by learning
hundreds of discrete notes, key signatures, and tempos in isolation from perfor‑
mance. In fact, if transfer and meaning making are the goals of education, they
can never be achieved by a curriculum that just marches through discrete content
elements, no matter how sensible the hierarchical list is as an outline of a subject’s
high points.

Misconception Alert
Standards documents are written in a hierarchical list format. This analytic
framing of standards can easily mislead teachers into the following misconceptions:
• The standard clearly expects me to teach and test each objective in isolation.
• I’ll just focus on the top level (i.e., the broadest) standard. Then, I can jus‑
tify most of what I already do as meeting the standard.
• I’ll just focus on the lowest levels and check off these very specific objectives
that are covered in my normal unit. Then, I have addressed the standard.
Each claim is inaccurate and leads to needlessly isolated and ineffective teaching
and assessment.

Different Goal Types in the Standards

A third reason for unpacking standards results from the fact that standards
not only come in different shapes and sizes, but typically address different types
of learning goals. It is not uncommon for a standard to mix together acquisition,
meaning, and transfer goals in the same list without calling attention to the fact
that each type of goal is different and likely requires different instructional and
assessment treatments. Here is an example from the Common Core State Stan‑
dards for 5th grade math:
Number and Operations in Base Ten—5.NBT
Understand the place value system.
1. Recognize that in a multi-digit number, a digit in one place repre‑
sents 10 times as much as it represents in the place to its right and
1/10 of what it represents in the place to its left.

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8 The Understanding by Design Guide to Advanced Concepts in Creating and Reviewing Units

2. Explain patterns in the number of zeros of the product when multi‑

plying a number by powers of 10, and explain patterns in the place‑
ment of the decimal point when a decimal is multiplied or divided
by a power of 10. Use whole-number exponents to denote powers of
10.
3. Read, write, and compare decimals to thousandths.
4. Use place value understanding to round decimals to any place.

As we interpret the standards, 1 and 2 are really about meaning-making (though

the verb “recognize” may lull some into thinking that this is about low-level acqui‑
sition), 3 is a mixture of acquisition (“read and write”) and meaning-making
(“compare”), and 4 could be either skill focused or transfer focused, depending
upon how novel, complex, and unprompted the tasks given to students. The care‑
ful interpretation is why it is neither redundant to have a separate section on the
Template for unit-relevant standards (or established long-term goals) nor super‑
fluous to place the appropriate parts of a standard into the Stage 1 and 2 boxes,
with additional clarifying language when needed. When completed, Stage 1 provides
evidence that the standards were unpacked in a transparent way, and shows how the vari-
ous goals properly relate to one another.
So, rather than simply lumping all standards together and calling them your
unit goals, we strongly recommend that designers carefully examine each standard
and place its components—whether stated or implied—in the appropriate Stage 1
box: Transfer, Essential Questions, Understandings, Knowledge, or Skill.

Misconception Alert
Be careful if you work in a state that makes reference to “big ideas” and
“essential questions” in their standards. They do not always correspond to how we
define these terms in UbD. For example, Florida highlights certain standards by
labeling them big ideas, but this use of the phrase is meant to simply signal priori-
ties in general rather than specific transferable ideas to be grasped and used.

MA.5.A.2, BIG IDEA 2: Develop an understanding of and fluency with

addition and subtraction of fractions and decimals. (Source: www.­
floridastandards.org/Standards/PublicPreviewIdea196.aspx)

Similarly, some states have listed essential questions in their standards or resource
documents, but most of these would not meet the UbD design standard. For exam‑
ple, consider two listed “essential questions” in The Virginia History and Social Sci-
ence Standards of Learning Curriculum Framework 2008, a companion document to
the 2008 History and Social Science Standards of Learning:

• What are the seven continents?

• What are the five oceans?

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 Module I: Unpacking Standards 9

Although these questions may point toward important knowledge, they are
certainly not essential in the UbD sense because they are factual questions, not
designed to cause in-depth inquiry and discussion. In sum, beware—especially
when familiar jargon is used in the documents.

Turning Standards into Sound Curriculum,

Instruction, and Assessment
Based on these cautions and mindful of the need for practical tools in working
through these issues, we offer the following five tips for unpacking the standards.
Tip 1. Look at all key verbs to clarify and highlight valid student perfor-
mance in which content is used. Carefully analyze the verbs and try to determine
their meaning for assessment and thus instruction. For example, does “respond
to” mean “resonate with” or “write about” or “make a personal connection to the
text”? What counts as “understanding” the causes and effects of the Civil War? For
example, does “understand” in this case mean “accurately recall what the textbook
said” were the major causes? Or are the students expected to make their own analy‑
ses, based on primary and secondary source evidence, and also defend them? Obvi‑
ously, the answers affect the overall unit design and, especially, the assessments.
One would hope, of course, that the language used in standards documents
is consistent and grounded in a valid framework such as Bloom’s taxonomy. For
example, it seems reasonable to assume that phrases like “analyze” or “solve prob‑
lems” are meant to signal more higher-order inferential work than is required by
standards that say “describe” or “identify.”
Our experience from working with standards-writing committees proves that
verbs are not always used in a consistent or appropriate manner. Nor are glossaries
containing operational definitions of key verbs usually provided. Making matters
worse, most standards documents do not state whether there is a pedagogical ratio‑
nale behind the use of specific verbs or instead whether the verbs vary for aesthetic
reasons (to avoid repetition in the text).
We recommend that your committee members scour relevant websites and
communicate with state education departments to clarify this basic issue when
necessary. We also highly recommend that educators look at whatever test specifi‑
cations exist for state standards because the test-maker needs this same information
in order to construct valid measures. In some states, the test specifications found
under the state assessment section are more helpful than the standards themselves.
For example, take a look at Florida Math Test Specifications at http://fcat.fldoe.org/
pdf/G9-10_Math_Specs_1-39.pdf.
Tip 2: Look at the recurring nouns that signal big ideas. A related approach
to unpacking standards involves finding important nouns, that is, key concepts,
principles, themes, and issues that can be turned into essential questions and
understandings. Here is an example from the Common Core State Standards that
illustrate this approach (bold added to key nouns that signify big ideas):

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10 The Understanding by Design Guide to Advanced Concepts in Creating and Reviewing Units

Expressions and Equations 7.EE

Use properties of operations to generate equivalent expressions.
1. Apply properties of operations as strategies to add, subtract, factor,
and expand linear expressions with rational coefficients.
2. Understand that rewriting an expression in different forms in a prob‑
lem context can shed light on the problem and how the quantities
in it are related. For example, a + 0.05a = 1.05a means that “increase by
5%” is the same as “multiply by 1.05.” (p. 49)
Notice how the phrases we boldface also suggest possible essential questions and
Understandings that could be put in the UbD planner:

• How can we simplify this problem by using equivalent expressions and

properties? How can we rewrite this equation to reveal important relation‑
ships and meanings?
• Problem solving often requires finding equivalent expressions in which
complex elements are made simpler and more familiar via the properties
of operations.

Tip 3: Identify and analyze the key adjectives and adverbs to determine valid scor-
ing criteria and rubrics related to successful performance against the standards.
The qualifiers of the verbs and nouns can provide a useful and efficient way
to build a set of local rubrics to ensure that assessment is standards based and con‑
sistent across assignments. Here is an example, using a reading standard, in which
key qualifiers are in bold and implicit qualifiers are added in italics:

Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support an accurate and

justified analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences
drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves mat‑
ters uncertain. (From Common Core State Standards ELA, Grades
11–12. Key Ideas and Details, Informational Text p. 40)

So the rubric titles might be Quality of Evidence Cited and Quality of Analysis
Made.
Tip 4. Identify and/or infer the long-term transfer goals by looking closely
at the highest-level standards and indicators for them, or inferring the transfer
goal from the content and justification for the standard. Even if the standard
stresses important content, it typically states or implies key performance related
to that content. In other words, if that’s the content, what are students eventually
expected to do with it? Long-term transfer goals answer the “Why are we learning
this?” question. Ask yourself
• What should students be able to do well on their own while using this con‑
tent, to truly meet this standard and its purpose? (complex performance ability)

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 Module I: Unpacking Standards 11

• What does “perform well” mean for each standard? (specific performance
standards and criteria for evaluating complex performance)
In the event that the documents for your state, province, or nation do not identify
such long-term performance goals, we recommend that you look at the introduc‑
tory pages for each discipline. Larger goals, purposes, or intentions of the standards
are often presented in the opening section before the specifics are listed.
Tip 5: Consider the standards in terms of the long-term goal of autono­
mous performance. To stress the transfer aspect of the goal, make a point of
highlighting the idea that students are expected to perform with content autono‑
mously. The most concrete and helpful way to do this is to make explicit and write
in a phrase that is unfortunately implicit in most standards: on their own. Students
must be able to use content autonomously, without the need for extensive scaf‑
folding, reminders, and hints. So, add “on their own” to each standard to better
grasp the kind of independent transfer expected.
Now, consider how the use of this phrase could influence assessment and
instruction. For example, it suggests the need for a “gradual release” of teacher
direction over time so that learners develop increasing capacity for independent
performance. The following examples, from the Common Core State Standards, in
which we added the key phrase, underscore this point:

GRADE 5 READING: Key ideas and details.

Students on their own
1. Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says
explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
2. Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are
supported by key details; summarize the text.
3. Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more indi‑
viduals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or techni‑
cal text based on specific information in the text. (Source: Common
Core State Standards, p. 12)

GRADE 8 MATHEMATICS: Functions.

Students on their own
• Define, evaluate, and compare functions.
• Use functions to model relationships between quantities.
(Source: Common Core State Standards, p. 53)
Far too many teachers heavily scaffold learning activities, discussions, exercises,
and assessments right up until the end of the year. Students then get too little prac‑
tice and feedback in identifying main ideas or solving multistep problems on their
own. It should not surprise us, then, when students do poorly on these abilities on
standardized tests.

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12 The Understanding by Design Guide to Advanced Concepts in Creating and Reviewing Units

In fact, the Common Core State Standards document in English Language

Arts explicitly stresses independence as one of seven key traits that present an
emerging “portrait of students who meet the standards”:

They demonstrate independence.

Students can, without significant scaffolding, comprehend and evaluate
complex texts across a range of types and disciplines, and they can con‑
struct effective arguments and convey intricate or multifaceted informa‑
tion. Likewise, students are able independently to discern a speaker’s
key points, request clarification, and ask relevant questions. They build
on others’ ideas, articulate their own ideas, and confirm they have been
understood. Without prompting, they demonstrate command of stan‑
dard English and acquire and use a wide-ranging vocabulary. More
broadly, they become self-directed learners, effectively seeking out and
using resources to assist them, including teachers, peers, and print and
digital reference materials. (p. 7)
Using other Common Core Standards, we offer additional examples about how
the standards can be unpacked to represent every element in Stage 1 of the Tem‑
plate in Figures I.2 and I.3.
Figure I.4 is worksheet designed as a matrix to help you unpack standards.

ÂÂ
Design Tip: Here are some basic rules for interpreting established standards:
• Look closely at verbs, but be aware that not all standards documents use verbs con-
sistently to signal the type of goal or degree of cognitive demand. Check your state or
provincial documents for guidance.
• Some standards statements begin with a low-level verb (identify, describe, state).
Don’t be confused into thinking that this automatically signals a skill. Generally, such
statements call for knowledge. For example, “Identify parts of speech” specifies declara-
tive knowledge because it means that “the student will know the parts of speech,”
despite the action verb in the beginning. Look at the test specifications for the standards
for clarification.
• When higher-order verbs are used (analyze, infer, generalize), the goal can be ambigu-
ous. If the verb is followed by or describes general abilities, it is likely stating a transfer
goal. However, the verb may be used as a performance indicator and thus will be more
useful for determining specific assessment evidence in Stage 2. (See the following sec-
tion for further discussion.)


Online you will find worksheets set up in different ways and with varying examples to
help you unpack standards. Figure I.5, Unpacking Standards Worksheet—Reading; Figure I.6,
Unpacking Standards Worksheet—English Language Arts; Figure I.7, Unpacking Standards
Matrix—Mathematics; Figure I.8, Unpacking Standards Matrix—History; Figure I.9, Unpacking
Standards Worksheet—Civics; Figure I.10, Unpacking Standards Worksheet—Social Studies;
Figure I.11, Unpacking Standards Worksheet Stages 1–3; Figure I.12, Designing Units Based on
Content Standards; Figure I.13, Unpacking Standards Worksheet.

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 Module I: Unpacking Standards 13

Fi gur e I. 2

Unpacking Standards Stages 1–3—English Language Arts

Key Ideas and Details Stage 1: Different Goal Types

1. Read closely to determine what What are the key higher-order VERBS, and what do they suggest the
the text says explicitly and to make general long-term transfer goal is? Students eventually need to be
logical inferences from it; cite spe- able, on their own, to . . .
cific textual evidence when writing • Determine what the text says explicitly and infer what the text
or speaking to support conclu- implies, regardless of text or genre.
sions drawn from the text.
What are the key NOUNt CONCEPTS, and what do they suggest the
big ideas to be mastered and used are? Students will need to orga-
nize their thinking, knowledge, and skill around such ideas/­questions
as . . .
• Logical inferences.
• Textual evidence.

What VERBS state or imply specific skills to be mastered? Students

need to be able to demonstrate such skills as . . .
• Cite specific textual evidence.

What key FACTS must be known and used? Students need to know
such facts as . . .
• Definitions of “logical,” “inference,” “evidence,” “support.”
• The facts stated in the text.

Stage 2: Assessment
What are the key VERBS, and what do they suggest the specific
assessments need to be? Students will need to show they can . . .
• Determine what the text says explicitly.
• Make logical inferences (from the text).
• Support conclusions drawn from the text.
• Cite specific textual evidence.

What are the key ADJECTIVES and ADVERBS, and what do they
suggest the key criteria for judging work should be? Student perfor-
mance and products will need to reveal to what extent students . . .
• Read closely.
• Make logical inferences.
• Cite specific textual evidence.

Stage 3: Learning Plan

What do the verbs, nouns, and verb modifiers imply for instruction?
The standard can only be reached if students are given instruction,
practice, and feedback in . . .
• How to make sense of a text, how inference is different from
inspecting the text, and seeing the difference between sound and
unsound evidence and inference when claims are made about the
text.

Source: Standard excerpt from College and Career Readiness Anchor Standard in Common Core State Standards
for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, p. 35. © Copyright
2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights
reserved.

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14 The Understanding by Design Guide to Advanced Concepts in Creating and Reviewing Units

Fi gur e I. 3

Unpacking Standards Worksheet—Mathematics

Common Core Best Practice #4 Transfer goals in the VERBS: • Apply what they know to
everyday problems.
Model with mathematics. • Make assumptions and
Mathematically proficient students approximations.
can apply the mathematics they
know to solve problems arising • Analyze relationships
in everyday life, society, and the mathematically and draw
workplace. In early grades, this might conclusions.
be as simple as writing an addition • Interpret results in context.
equation to describe a situation. In • Simplify a complicated
middle grades, a student might apply situation.
proportional reasoning to plan a
• Reflect and improve model.
school event or analyze a problem in
the community. . . . • Be able to identify impor-
tant quantities in a practical
Mathematically proficient students situation.
who can apply what they know are
comfortable making assumptions and Criteria in the ADVERBS • Mathematically proficient
approximations to simplify a compli- and ADJECTIVES: • Context-sensitive
cated situation, realizing that these
may need revision later. They are • Comfortable
able to identify important quantities • Important quantities
in a practical situation and map their • Routinely interpret
relationships. . . .
Possible • Plan a school event.
They can analyze those relationships task ideas:
mathematically to draw conclusions. • Analyze a problem in the
They routinely interpret their math- community.
ematical results in the context of the
situation and reflect on whether the Stated or implied big ideas • Simplification of a compli-
results make sense, possibly improv- in the NOUNS: cated situation
ing the model if it has not served its • Proportional reasoning
purpose.
• Problems

Possible Understandings: Possible Essential Questions:

Students will understand • How can I simplify this com-
that . . . plexity without distorting it?
• Mathematical models simplify • How do I know if my model
and connect phenomena so is a good one here (for this
that we might better under- particular situation)?
stand them. • What are the limits of my
• Mathematical models must model?
be viewed critically so that they
do not mislead us into thinking
that reality is that simple.

Source: Standard excerpt from Common Core State Standards, Standards for Mathematical Practice, p. 7. © Copy-
right 2011, National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All
rights reserved.

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 Fi gu re I .4

Unpacking Standards Matrix—Mathematics

Insert (within 1 or more cells) important learning activities and performance tasks that require strategic thought and real-world competence in the use of content. Refer back
to the transfer and meaning goals to determine the kinds of complex work and thinking expected of students.

MATH PRACTICE STANDARDS 3

Construct 8
1 2 viable 5 Look for
Make sense of Reason arguments and Use 7 and express
problems and abstractly critique the 4 appropriate 6 Look for and regularity
MATH CONTENT STANDARDS persevere in and ­ reasoning of Model with tools Attend to make use of in repeated
3rd Grade solving them quantitatively others mathematics strategically precision structure reasoning
Represent and solve problems involving
multiplication and division. 5–6 authentic performance tasks of increasing complexity
Understand properties of multiplication over the course of the year in which students have to figure
and the relationship between multiplication out what the problem is asking, figure out which operation
and division. to use and when to use it, develop a general math model
for such problems, and defend an answer in a realistic
Multiply and divide within 100. situation. For example: prepare a budget for a class trip,
Solve problems involving the four opera- a home renovation, a year’s wardrobe, mindful of budget
tions, and identify and explain patterns in constraints and unit costs, etc.
arithmetic.
Use place value understanding and prop-
erties of operations to perform multidigit
arithmetic.
Develop understanding of fractions as 3–4 authentic tasks
numbers. ­requiring students ON
Solve problems involving measurement THEIR OWN to realize Activities and assessments
and estimation of intervals of time, liquid that fractions are involved, that require students to
volumes, and masses of objects. ­determine the fractions, judge, calculate, and defend
and use operations on the appropriate degree of
the ­fractions to calculate precision in varied contexts

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­solutions, and represent where precision needs vary.
Represent and interpret data. their findings graphically.
Module I: Unpacking Standards

Geometric measurement: understand

concepts of area and relate area to
­multiplication and to addition.

Source: Excerpt from mathematical practices and grade 3 overview standards, p. 22. © Copyright 2010, National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief
15

State School Officers. All rights reserved.

16 The Understanding by Design Guide to Advanced Concepts in Creating and Reviewing Units

Addressing the Standards

A clear understanding of standards is necessary but insufficient because we need
to know what follows for instruction and, especially, assessment. Unless our local
assessments properly assess against the standards, as noted earlier, we will unwit‑
tingly only refer to the standards instead of actually meeting them. Thus, a key
design question is as follows: how much assessment evidence and instruction, and
of what kind, is needed to fully address and meet the standards?
By definition, in UbD any goal (including a standard) is only “addressed”
if we address it explicitly in Stage 2 and Stage 3. Yet, we have observed a tendency
for some designers to list every conceivably relevant standard in Stage 1 that may
come into play, no matter how superficially. Too often, designers simply check
off that the unit relates to a standard without actually teaching and assessing it.
For example, in a high school unit on persuasive writing, the temptation is to list
benchmarks related to rules of grammar or subject-verb agreement—and then, for
good measure, reference all the speaking and listening standards because they will
be discussed. While such skills are certainly related to the unit topic, they are not
the main focus of this unit; and assessments only touch on them incidentally. We
discourage listing all facts, concepts, or skills that might be used within the unit.
Our rule of thumb is straightforward: only list the standards that are explic‑
itly assessed and taught to. Otherwise, you will deceive yourselves about how well
the standards have been addressed and be even more prone to “teaching by men‑
tioning”—that is, listing the standard on a unit plan or posting it on the board
without any in-depth instruction or assessment. Such practices do not constitute a
standards-based system. A standard is only addressed if the unit validly assesses for
its achievement (Stage 2) and if there are multiple relevant learning opportunities to
help students achieve it (Stage 3). In addition, most standards would only be fully
addressed once the standard is addressed in multiple units.

ÂÂ Design Tip: A standard or benchmark should only be listed in Stage 1 if it is explicitly

assessed in Stage 2 and included in one or more learning events in Stage 3. Furthermore, when
sharing units with other teachers, indicate whether the listed standard should receive minor
emphasis and be addressed in a few learning events, or major emphasis and be addressed in
numerous learning events and assessed.

Local Assessment: Where the Rubber Meets the Road

“Addressing” the standards in teaching and assessment design is necessary but
not sufficient. The aim is for student performance to meet the standards or exceed
them. After all, standards aren’t met by what the teacher designs and does, but are
met through the work that students produce. Thus the question when we consider
standards implementation: Is student work up to standard (even if the assessments we
designed validly address the standards)? If we have truly addressed the standards

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 Module I: Unpacking Standards 17

(as reflected in valid assessments) and if students have truly met the standards
locally (as reflected in valid and reliable scoring), then we should be confident
about their ability to perform on tests designed backward from the same standards.
Alas, the inability to make such an accurate prediction is arguably one of the
greatest weaknesses in U.S. education: local tests and grades rarely predict state and
national performance, with dire consequences for students, teachers, and admin‑
istrators. By contrast, think of sports where we can see in weekly results (based on
time) how our team stacks up against local, regional, state, and national competi‑
tion. A coach at a small school does not deceive herself about student performance.
The official times tell a different tale: not one of her runners is likely to place in
the top 50 in the end-of-season regional or sectional meet. The sooner the runners
know this, the better. And the same is true for academic achievement.
That is why more and more schools have signed on to provide Advanced
Placement or International Baccalaureate classes. Our point is not to promote
these or any other programs, but such adoption is sensible if we want to be sure
that local assessment is valid and compares reasonably with assessments used in
other schools. The ideal solution, we think, is to strive for valid and rigorous local
assessment, with regular audits of such validity and rigor, so that students, parents,
and other stakeholders can have confidence in local assessment.
Our students and their coaches, or teachers, need to know where they really
stand week in and week out against established performance benchmarks. Local
assessments must aspire to give us information about that standing, whether or
not we adopt external programs. No surprises, no excuses. We should know where
we stand against standards before it is too late to do anything about it.

Mission-Related (and Other Established) Goals

Whether you are obligated to state or national standards, there are typically other
long-term established goals to consider in Stage 1. For example, the mission state‑
ment of a district or school contains outcomes that can and must be included in
unit plans somewhere. Similarly, some states and districts have committed to cul‑
tivating 21st century skills, which need to be woven into unit designs. As a practical
matter, in almost every state there are subjects and topics taught for which there
are no externally established standards or standardized tests (e.g., physics or draw‑
ing). Presumably there are local program goals for these areas, and they should be
placed in the Goals box and unpacked into the other appropriate Stage 1 boxes on
the Template. While people within and outside schools acknowledge the impor‑
tance of goals like critical thinking and effective teamwork, worthy goals of this
sort often fall through the cracks of day-to-day teaching and assessing. Indeed, in
many schools these important aims become mere platitudes or empty rhetoric on
plaques in the hall rather than obligatory long-term objectives.

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18 The Understanding by Design Guide to Advanced Concepts in Creating and Reviewing Units

Self-Assessment and Peer Assessment

Use the following questions to self-assess the Stage 1 portion of your draft unit
plan. Unit designers can sometimes get too close to their work, therefore we rec‑
ommend that you show your plan to a colleague and ask him or her for feedback
as well. See Module P for an in-depth account of self-assessment and peer review.
• Are all goals (including those derived from standards and other established
goals) properly placed as transfer (T), understandings (U), knowledge (K),
and skill (S)?
• Does Stage 1 include only those goals that will be explicitly taught and
assessed?
• Is there proper alignment among the various Stage 1 goals?

Further Information on the Ideas and Issues in This Module

Understanding by Design, 2nd ed. (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). Chapter 3,
“Gaining Clarity on Our Goals,” offers an extended discussion of the issues raised
in this module. A review of Chapter 1 on backward design may be useful for nov‑
ices to this approach to unit design. The most practical discussion of goals and
what they imply is found in Chapter 11 on the design process, in which the origi‑
nal template is described and a typical unit is shown before (without using) under‑
standing by design, and how that unit is transformed by using UbD.
Understanding by Design: Professional Development Workbook (McTighe & Wig‑
gins, 2004). Examples, worksheets and design tools for unpacking standards to
identify understandings and essential questions derived from standards can be
found on pages 81–83, 104–105, and 120–125.
Schooling by Design: Mission, Action, and Achievement (Wiggins & McTighe,
2007). Chapter 1 discusses mission and standards to show how many state stan‑
dards at the highest level focus on transfer as a goal. Chapter 2 discusses the idea
of the curriculum “blueprint” and purpose as separate from “meeting the building
code”—addressing content standards. Chapter 3 discusses how district/school cur‑
riculum should be developed with a focus on transfer goals and big ideas.

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 Conclusion

Congratulations on completing this Guide! No doubt you’ll agree that UbD unit
design is challenging work. Nonetheless, we trust that the tools, tips, exercises, and
examples have been helpful. In this concluding section, we offer tips for moving
forward with UbD and cautionary notes to help you avoid unintentionally under‑
mining your efforts.

Tips for Moving Forward

Start small. As with any other skill, practice in designing units will improve
your ability and efficiency. In fact, if you keep at it, we predict that your experi‑
ence will parallel that of thousands of other teachers who have found that UbD
unit design becomes a way of thinking. However, we caution against trying to
plan everything you teach using UbD, at least at first. Because this design process
is demanding, we recommend planning two or three units a year as a start. Then
expand to additional units in future years.
Work collaboratively. If possible, work with a colleague or two when plan‑
ning UbD units. Most designers find it valuable to bounce ideas around during
design, give each other feedback along the way, and examine student work together.
Once you and your teammates get the hang of it, you can “work smarter” by divid‑
ing up the planning work among department or grade-level teams; perhaps you
take the lead in developing Units 1 and 3, while your teammate plans Units 2 and
4. Then you share.
Think big. As you now know, the Guide has focused on designing units of study
within which individual lessons are planned. However, you may have wondered:
If we truly apply backward design, wouldn’t it make sense to design the overall
curriculum and courses before units and lessons? Well, yes. In an ideal world, unit
designers would be able to draw upon overarching elements (transfer goals, under‑
standings, essential questions, cornerstone assessments, and multigrade rubrics)
that had already been established at the programmatic, departmental, and course
levels. Indeed, that is the approach to district and school curriculum planning
that we advocate and describe in Schooling by Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 2007).

132
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 Module P: Conclusion 133

­ owever, our experience in introducing the understanding by design framework to

H
teacher-designers favors the Goldilocks approach; that is, begin in a design space
that is just right: bigger than a daily lesson but smaller than a year-long curriculum.
Once you become comfortable planning at the unit level, it makes sense to
think bigger and map the entire year using UbD elements. Indeed, this is a natural
evolution for school teams as well as district curriculum committees.
Plan to adjust based on results. As noted in Module P, unit design is a
means to an end—engaging and effective learning. Consequently, the most effec‑
tive teachers constantly monitor the effects of their designs, along the way through
formative assessments and at the conclusion by analyzing student performance.
We recommend that you get in the habit of planning adjustments to your design
(during and after) in real time. Working with electronic design templates makes
ongoing revision a natural part of the overall process.

How Not to “Kill” UbD

We end on a cautionary note, suggested by the section title. Alas, too many well-
meaning administrators and enthusiastic teachers have unwittingly killed UbD
instead of helping it flourish and grow. Here are six potential problems with cor‑
responding recommendations for avoiding them, presented in chart form:

Ways to Kill UbD from the Start Ways to Nurture UbD

1. Mandate that all teachers must use 1. Think big, but start small:
UbD for all of their planning imme‑ • Work with volunteers at first.
diately (without sufficient training,
•A
 sk all teachers to plan one unit
ongoing support, or structured plan‑
per semester to start.
ning time).
•E
 ncourage teachers to work with a
colleague or team, and begin with a
familiar unit topic.
•P
 rovide some designated planning
time.
2. Introduce UbD as this year’s focus 2. Develop and publish a multiyear
(suggesting that UbD can be fully plan that shows how UbD will be
implemented in a year and that last slowly yet systematically implemented
year’s initiative bears no relation to it). as part of a strategic plan.
This approach fosters a “this too shall
pass” attitude among staff.

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134 The Understanding by Design Guide to Advanced Concepts in Creating and Reviewing Units

Ways to Kill UbD from the Start Ways to Nurture UbD

3. Attempt to implement too many 3. Develop a multistage, multiyear
initiatives simultaneously (e.g., UbD, plan to improve a current initiative via
differentiated instruction, curriculum UbD; for example:
mapping, and professional learning • Curriculum mapping
communities).
•D ifferentiation via essential
­questions and authentic tasks
•U
 npacking standards via “big
ideas”
Develop a one-page graphic showing
how all initiatives are really inter‑
connected parts of an overall effort
(using analogies such as the limbs of
a tree, pieces of a puzzle, supports of a
building).
4. Assume that staff members under‑ 4. Establish the need for a change (the
stand the need for UbD or will diagnosis) before proposing UbD as
­naturally welcome it. the prescription. Make sure that staff
see UbD as an appropriate response to
a need they recognize and own.
5. Provide one introductory presenta‑ 5. Design professional development
tion on UbD and assume that teachers backward from your goals. Build a year
can implement UbD well. with design workshops, study groups,
and action research, during which staff
go through many cycles of learning,
trying, and getting feedback and then
adjusting according to feedback.
6. Offer UbD training for teachers but 6. Establish parallel tracks of training
not for administrators. Conversely, for administrators in which they learn
administrators and supervisors need how to supervise and support UbD—
the same training as teachers. for example, how to conduct in-class
look-fors, establish peer reviews of
units, form PLC teams to analyze
assessment results.

References
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2007). Schooling by design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

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 About the Authors

Grant Wiggins is president of Authentic Education in Hopewell,

New Jersey. He earned his EdD from Harvard University and his
BA from St. John’s College in Annapolis. Grant and his colleagues
consult with schools, districts, and state and national education
departments on a variety of reform matters. He and his colleagues
also organize conferences and workshops, and develop print and
web resources on key school reform issues.
Grant is perhaps best known for being coauthor, with Jay
McTighe, of Understanding by Design, the award-winning and highly successful pro‑
gram and set of materials on curriculum design used all over the world, and of
Schooling by Design. He is also a coauthor for Pearson Publishing on more than
a dozen textbook programs in which UbD is infused. His work has been sup‑
ported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and the
National Science Foundation.
For 25 years, Grant has worked on influential reform initiatives around the
world, including Ted Sizer’s Coalition of Essential Schools; the International Bac‑
calaureate Program; the Advanced Placement Program; state reform initiatives in
New Jersey, New York, and Delaware; and national reforms in China, the Philip‑
pines, and Thailand.
Grant is widely known for his work in assessment reform. He is the author of
Educative Assessment and Assessing Student Performance, both published by Jossey-
Bass. He was a lead consultant on many state assessment reform initiatives, such
as the portfolio project in Vermont and performance assessment consortia in New
Jersey and North Carolina.
Several journals have published Grant’s articles, including Educational Leader-
ship and Phi Delta Kappan. His work is grounded in 14 years of secondary school
teaching and coaching. Grant taught English and electives in philosophy, coached
varsity soccer and cross country, as well as junior varsity baseball and track and field.
He also plays in the Hazbins, a rock band. Grant may be contacted at ­­gwiggins@
authentic­education.org.

135

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136 The Understanding by Design Guide to Advanced Concepts in Creating and Reviewing Units

Jay McTighe brings a wealth of experience developed during a

rich and varied career in education. He served as director of the
Maryland Assessment Consortium, a state collaboration of school
districts working together to develop and share formative perfor‑
mance assessments. Prior to this position, Jay was involved with
school improvement projects at the Maryland State Department
of Education where he directed the development of the Instructional Framework,
a multimedia database on teaching. Jay is well known for his work with thinking
skills, having coordinated statewide efforts to develop instructional strategies, cur‑
riculum models, and assessment procedures for improving the quality of student
thinking. In addition to his work at the state level, Jay has experience at the district
level in Prince George’s County, Maryland, as a classroom teacher, resource spe‑
cialist, and program coordinator. He also directed a state residential enrichment
program for gifted and talented students.
Jay is an accomplished author, having coauthored 10 books, including the
best-selling Understanding by Design series with Grant Wiggins. He has written
more than 30 articles and book chapters, and has published in leading journals,
including Educational Leadership (ASCD) and The Developer (National Staff Devel‑
opment Council).
Jay has an extensive background in professional development and is a regular
speaker at national, state, and district conferences and workshops. He has made
presentations in 47 states within the United States, in 7 Canadian provinces, and
18 other countries on 5 continents.
Jay received his undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary,
earned his master’s degree from the University of Maryland, and completed post-
graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University. He was selected to participate in
the Educational Policy Fellowship Program through the Institute for Educational
Leadership in Washington, D.C., and served as a member of the National Assess‑
ment Forum, a coalition of education and civil rights organizations advocating
reforms in national, state, and local assessment policies and practices. Contact
information: Jay McTighe, 6581 River Run, Columbia, MD 21044-6066 USA.
E-mail: [email protected].

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Related ASCD Resources: Understanding by Design

At the time of publication, the following ASCD resources were available (ASCD
stock numbers appear in parentheses). For up-to-date information about ASCD
resources, go to www.ascd.org.

ASCD EDge Group

Exchange ideas and connect with other educators interested in Understanding by
Design on the social networking site ASCD EDge® at http://ascdedge.ascd.org/ or
log onto ASCD’s website at www.ascd.org and click on Research a Topic.

Print Products
Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design: Connecting Content
and Kids Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe (#105004)
Making the Most of Understanding by Design John L. Brown (#103110)
Schooling by Design: An ASCD Action Tool (#707039)
Schooling by Design: Mission, Action, and Achievement Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
(#107018)
Understanding by Design Expanded 2nd edition Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
(#103055)
The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units Grant Wiggins and
Jay McTighe (#109107)
The Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook Jay McTighe and
Grant Wiggins (#103056)

DVDs
Connecting Differentiated Instruction, Understanding by Design, and What Works in
Schools: An Exploration of Research-Based Strategies with Carol Ann Tomlinson, Jay
McTighe, Grant Wiggins, and Robert J. Marzano (#609012)

The Whole Child Initiative helps schools and communities create

learning environments that allow students to be healthy, safe, engaged,
supported, and challenged. To learn more about other books and resources that
relate to the whole child, visit www.wholechildeducation.org.

For more information: send e-mail to [email protected]; call 1-800-933-2723 or

703-578-9600, press 2; send a fax to 703-575-5400; or write to Information Ser‑
vices, ASCD, 1703 N. Beauregard St., Alexandria, VA 22311-1714 USA.

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Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
he cared. Of course he did not care. But still there was a little pique in his
rapid reflection as he came up to them. And they were all three a little
embarrassed, which, on the whole, seemed uncalled for, considering the
perfectly innocent and ordinary circumstances, which the boating-party
immediately began with volubility to explain.
“We have been on the river,” said Kate. “Mr Mitford so kindly offered to
take me before I went away. And we hoped to have Mrs Mitford with us;
but at the last moment she could not come.”
I daresay not, indeed, Fred Huntley said in his heart; but he only looked
politely indifferent, and made a little bow.
“Perhaps it was better she did not, for the boat is very small,” said John,
carrying on the explanation. Was it an apology they were making for
themselves? And so all at once, notwithstanding Kate’s romance about the
knight on the white horse, all the enchantment disappeared from the fairy
wood. Birds and rabbits and squirrels, creatures of natural history, pursued
their common occupations about, without any fairy suggestions. It was only
the afternoon sun that slanted among the trees, showing it was growing late,
and not showers of golden arrows. The wood became as commonplace as a
railroad, and Kate Crediton related to Fred Huntley how she was going
home, and what was to happen, and how she hoped to meet his sisters at the
Camelford ball.
Thus the crisis which John thought was to decide everything for him
passed off in bathos and commonplace. He walked on beside the other two,
who did all the talking, eating his heart. Had she been playing with him,
making a joke of his sudden passion? But then she would give him a glance
from time to time which spoke otherwise. “There is still an evening and a
morning,” John said to himself; and he stood like a churl at the Rectory
gate, and suffered Huntley to ride on without the slightest hint of a
possibility that he should stay to dinner. Such inhospitable behaviour was
not common at Fanshawe Regis. But there are moments in which
politeness, kindness, neighbourly charities, must all give way before a more
potent feeling, and John Mitford had arrived at one of these. And his heart
was beating, his head throbbing, all his pulses going at the highest speed
and out of tune—or, at least, that was his sensation. Kate disappeared while
he stood at the gate, shutting it carefully upon Fred, and heaven knows what
frightful interval might be before him ere he could resume the interrupted
conversation, and demand the answer to which surely he had a right!
John’s mind was in such a whirl of confusion that he could not realise
what he was about to do. If he could have thought it over calmly, and asked
himself what right he had to woo a rich man’s daughter, or even to dream of
bringing her to his level, probably poor John would not only have stopped
short, but he might have had resolution enough to turn back and leave his
father’s door, and put himself out of the reach of temptation till she was safe
in her own father’s keeping. He had strength enough and resolution enough
to have made such a sacrifice, had there been any time to think; but sudden
passion had swept him up like a whirlwind, and conquered all his faculties.
He wanted to have an answer; an answer—nothing more. He wanted to
know what she meant—why it was that she was so eager with him to bring
his doubtfulness to a conclusion. If he took her advice, what would follow?
There was a singing in his ears, and a buzzing in his brain. He could not
think, nor pause to consider which was right. There was but one thing to do
—to get his answer from her; to know what she meant. And then the Deluge
or Paradise—one thing or the other—would come after that, but were it
Paradise, or were it the Flood, John’s anchors were pulled up, and he had
left the port. All his old prospects and hopes and intentions had vanished.
He could no more go back to the position in which he had stood when he
first opened his heart to Kate than he could fly. Fanshawe Regis, and his
parents’ hopes, and the old placid existence to which he had been trained,
all melted away into thin air. He was standing on the threshold of a new
world, with an unknown wind blowing in his face, and an unknown career
before him. If it might be that she was about to put her little hand in his, and
go with him across the wilderness! But, anyhow, it was a wilderness that
had to be traversed; not those quiet waters and green pastures which had
been destined for him at home.
“How late you are, John!” his mother said, meeting him on the stair. She
was coming down dressed for dinner, with just a little cloud over the
brightness of her eyes. “You must have stayed a long time on the river. Was
that Kate that has just gone up-stairs?”
“Miss Crediton went on before me. I had to stop and speak to Huntley at
the gate.”
 “You should have asked him to stay dinner,” said Mrs Mitford. “My
dear, I am sure you have a headache. You should not have rowed so far,
under that blazing sun. But make haste now. Your papa cannot bear to be
kept waiting. I will tell Jervis to give you five minutes. And, oh, make
haste, my dear boy!”
“Of course I shall make haste,” said John, striding past—as if ten
minutes more or less could matter to anybody under the sun!
“It is for your papa, John,” said Mrs Mitford, half apologetic, half
reproachful; and she went down to the drawing-room and surreptitiously
moved the fingers of the clock to gain a little time for her boy. “Jervis, you
need not be in such a hurry—there are still ten minutes,” she said, arresting
the man-of-all-work who was called the butler at Fanshawe, as he put his
hand on the dinner-bell to ring it; and she was having a little discussion with
him over their respective watches, when the Doctor approached in his fresh
tie. “The drawing-room clock is never wrong,” said the deceitful woman.
And no doubt that was why the trout was spoiled and the soup so cold. For
Kate did not hurry with her toilette, whatever John might do; and being a
little agitated and excited, her hair took one of those perverse fits peculiar to
ladies’ hair, and would not permit itself to be put up properly. Kate, too, was
in a wonderful commotion of mind, as well as her lover. She was tingling
all over with her adventure, and the hair-breadth escape she had made. But
had she escaped? There was a long evening still before her, and it was
premature to believe that the danger was over. When Kate went down-
stairs, she had more than one reason for being so very uncomfortable. Dr
Mitford was waiting for his dinner, and John was waiting for his answer;
she could not tell what might happen to her before the evening was over,
and she could scarcely speak with composure because of the frightened
irregular beating of her heart.
 CHAPTER X.
Dinner falling in a time of excitement like that which I have just
described, with its suggestions of perfect calm and regularity, the unbroken
routine of life, has a very curious effect upon agitated minds. John Mitford
felt as if some catastrophe must have happened to him as he sat alone at his
side of the table, and looked across at Kate, who was a little troubled too,
and reflected how long a time he must sit there eating and drinking, or
pretending to eat and drink; obliged to keep at that distance from her—to
address common conversation to her—to describe the boating, and the
wood, and all that had happened, as if it had been the most ordinary
expedition in the world. Kate was very kind to him in this respect, though
perhaps he was too far gone to think it kind. She took upon herself the
weight of the conversation. She told Mrs Mitford quite fluently all about the
boat and her bad steering, and all the accidents that had happened, and how
John had jumped into the water. “I know you will never forgive me if he has
caught cold,” Kate said, glibly, with even a mischievous look in her eye;
“but I must tell. And I do hope you changed your stockings,” she said,
leaning across the table to him with a smile. It was a mocking smile, full of
mischief, and yet there was in it a certain softened look. It was then that
poor John felt as if some explosion must take place, as he sat and restrained
himself, and tried to look like a man interested in his dinner. Nobody else
took any notice of his agitation, and probably even his mother did not
perceive it; but Jervis the butler did, as he stood by his side, and helped Mr
John to potatoes. He could not dissimulate the shaking of his hand.
“My dear, I should never blame you,” said Mrs Mitford, with a little
tremor in her voice; “he is always so very rash. Of course you changed,
John?”
“Oh, of course,” he said, with a laugh, which sounded cynical and
Byronic to his audience. And then he made a violent effort to master
himself. “Miss Crediton thought the river was rather pretty,” he added, with
a hard-drawn breath of agitation, which sounded to his mother like the first
appearance of the threatened cold.
 “Jervis,” she said, mildly, “will you be good enough to fetch me the
camphor from my cupboard, and two lumps of sugar? My dear boy, it is not
nasty; it is only as a precaution. It will not interfere with your dinner, and it
is sure to stop a cold.”
John gave his mother a look under which she trembled. It said as plainly
as possible, you are making me ridiculous; and it was pointed by a glance at
Kate, who certainly was smiling. Mrs Mitford was quick enough to
understand, and she was cowed by her son’s gravity. “Perhaps, on second
thoughts,” she said, faltering, “you need not mind, Jervis. It will do when
Mr John goes to bed.”
“The only use of camphor is at the moment when you take a cold,” said
Dr Mitford; “identify that moment, and take your dose, and you are all safe.
But I have always found that the great difficulty was to identify the
moment. Did you point out to Miss Crediton the curious effect the current
has had upon the rocks? I am not geological myself, but still it is very
interesting. The constant friction of the water has laid bare a most
remarkable stratification. Ah! I see he did not point it out, from your look.”
“Indeed I don’t think Mr John showed me anything that was instructive,”
said Kate, with a demure glance at him. At present she was having it all her
own way.
“Ah! youth, youth,” said Dr Mitford, shaking his head. “He was much
more likely to tell you about his boating exploits, I fear. If you really wish
to understand the history and structure of the district, you must take me
with you, Miss Crediton. Young men are so foolish as to think these things
slow.”
“But then I am going away to-morrow,” said Kate, with a little pathetic
inflection of her voice. “And perhaps Mrs Mitford will never ask me to
come back again. And I shall have to give up the hope of knowing the
district. But anybody that steers so badly as I do,”—Kate continued, with
much humility, but doubtful grammar, “it is not to be wondered at if the
gentleman who is rowing them should think they were too ignorant to
learn.”
“Then the gentleman who was rowing you was a stupid fellow,” said the
Doctor. “I never had a more intelligent listener in my life; but, my dear
young lady, you must come back when the Society is here. Their meeting is
at Camelford, and they must make an excursion to the Camp.”
 “And you will come and stay with us, Dr Mitford,” said Kate, coaxingly;
“now, promise. It will be something to look forward to. You shall have the
room next the library, that papa always keeps for his learned friends, he
says. And if Mrs Mitford would be good, and let the parish take care of
itself, and come too——”
“Oh hush! my dear; we must not look forward so far,” said Mrs Mitford,
with a little cloud upon her face. She had found out by this time that John
was in trouble, and she had no heart to enter into any discussion till she
knew what it was. And then she opened out suddenly into a long account of
the Fanshawe family, apropos de rien. Mrs Fanshawe had been calling that
afternoon, and they had heard from their granddaughter, Cicely, who was
abroad for her health—for all that family was unfortunately very delicate.
And poor Cicely would have to spend the winter at Nice, the doctor said.
Kate bent her head over her plate, and ate her grapes (the very first of the
season, which Mr Crediton’s gardener had forced for his young mistress,
and sent to Fanshawe Regis to aid her cure), and listened without paying
much attention to the story of Cicely Fanshawe’s troubles. Nobody else
took any further part in the conversation after Mrs Mitford had commenced
that monologue, except indeed the Doctor, who now and then would ask a
question. As for the two young people, they sat on either side of the table,
and tried to look as if nothing had happened. And Kate, for one, succeeded
very well in this laudable effort—so well that poor John, in his excitement
and agitation, sank to the depths of despair as he twisted one of the great
vine-leaves in his fingers, and watched her furtively through all the
windings of his mother’s story. He said to himself, it is nothing to her. Her
mind is quite unmoved by anything that has happened. She could not have
understood him, John felt—she could not have believed him. She must have
thought he was saying words which he did not mean. Perhaps that was the
way among the frivolous beings to whom she was accustomed; but it was
not the way with John.
While the mother was giving that account of the young Fanshawes, and
the father interposing his questions about Cicely’s health, their son was
working himself up into a fever of determination. He eyed Kate at the other
side of the table, with a certain rage of resolution mingling with his love.
She should not escape him like this. She should answer him one way or
another. He could bear anything or everything from her except this silence;
but that he would not bear. She should tell him face to face. He might have
lost the very essence and joy of life, but still he should know downright that
he had lost it. This passion was growing in him while the quiet slumberous
time crept on, and all was told about Cicely Fanshawe. Poor Cicely! just
Kate’s age, and sent to Nice to die; but that thought never occurred to the
vehement young lover, nor did it occur to Kate, as she sat and ate her
grapes, and gave little glances across the table, and divined that he was
rising to a white heat. “I must run off to my own room, and say it is to do
my packing,” Kate said to herself, with a little quake in her heart; and yet
she would rather have liked—behind a curtain or door, out of harm’s way—
to have heard him say what he had to say.
Mrs Mitford was later than usual of leaving the table—and she took Kate
by the arm, being determined apparently to contrarier everybody on this
special evening, and made her sit down on the sofa by her in the drawing-
room. “My dear, I must have you to myself for a little while to-night,” she
said, drawing the girl’s hands into her own. And then she sat and talked. It
seemed to Kate that she talked of everything in heaven and earth; but the
old singing had come back to her ears, and she could not pay attention.
“Now he is coming,” she said to herself; “now I shall be obliged to sit still
all the evening; now I shall never be able to escape from him.” By-and-by,
however, Kate began to feel piqued that John should show so little
eagerness to follow her. “Yes, indeed, dear Mrs Mitford, you may be sure I
shall always remember your kindness,” she said, aloud. But in her heart she
was saying in the same breath, “Oh, very well; if he does not care I am sure
I do not care. I am only too glad to be let off so easy;” which was true, and
yet quite the reverse of true.
But then Kate did not see the watcher outside the window in the
darkness, who saw all that was going on, and bided his time, though he
trembled with impatience and excitement. Not knowing he was there, she
came to have a very disdainful feeling about him as the moments passed on.
To ask such a question as that, and never to insist on an answer! Well, he
might be very nice; but what should she do with a man that took so little
pains to secure his object. Or was it his object at all? He might be cleverer
than she had taken him for; he might be but playing with her, as she had
intended to play with him. Indignant with these thoughts, she rose up when
Mrs Mitford’s last words came to a conclusion, and detached herself, not
without a slight coldness, from that kind embrace. “I must go and see to my
things, please,” she said, raising her head like a young queen. “But, my
dear, there is Parsons,” said Mrs Mitford. “Oh, but I must see after
everything myself,” replied Kate, and went away, not in haste, as making
her escape, but with a certain stateliness of despite. She walked out of the
room in quite a leisurely way, feeling it beneath her dignity to fly from an
adversary that showed no signs of pursuing; and even turned round at the
door to say something with a boldness which looked almost like bravado.
He will come now, no doubt, and find me gone, and I hope he will enjoy the
tête-à-tête with his mother, she mused, with a certain ferocity; and so went
carelessly out, with all the haughtiness of pique, and walked almost into
John Mitford’s arms!
He seized her hand before she knew what had happened, and drew it
through his arm, first throwing a shawl round her, which he had picked up
somewhere, and which, suddenly curling round her like a lasso, was Kate’s
first indication of what had befallen her. “I have been watching you till I am
half wild,” he whispered in her ear. “Oh come with me to the garden, and
say three words to me. I have no other chance for to-night.”
“Oh, please, let me go. I must see to my packing—indeed I must,” cried
Kate, so startled and moved by the suddenness of the attack, and by his
evident excitement, that she could scarcely keep from tears.
“Not now,” said John, in her ear—“not now. I must have my answer. You
cannot be so cruel as to go now. Only half an hour—only ten minutes—
Kate!”
“Hush! oh hush!” she cried, feeling herself conquered; and ere she knew,
the night air was blowing in her face, and the dark sky, with its faint little
summer stars, was shining over her, and John Mitford, holding her close,
with her hand on his arm, was bending over her, a dark shadow. She could
not read in his face all the passion that possessed him, but she felt it, and it
made her tremble, woman of the world as she was.
“Kate,” he said, “I cannot go searching for words now. I think I will go
mad if you don’t speak to me. Tell me what I am to hope for. Give me my
answer. I cannot bear any more.”
His voice was hoarse; he held her hand fast on his arm, not caressing,
but compelling. He was driven out of all patience; and for the first time in
her life Kate’s spirit was cowed, and her wit failed to the command of the
situation.
“Let me go!” she said; “oh, do let me go! you frighten me, Mr John.”
 “Don’t call me Mr John. I am your slave, if you like; I will be anything
you please. You said just now we belonged to each other; so we do. No, I
can’t be generous; it is not the moment to be generous. I have a claim upon
you—don’t call me Mr John.”
“Then what shall I call you?” Kate said, with a little hysterical giggle.
And all at once, at that most inappropriate moment, there flashed across her
mind the first name she had recognised his identity by. My John—was that
the alternative? She shrank a little and trembled, and did not know whether
she should laugh or cry. Should she call him that just as an experiment, to
see how he would take it?—or what else could she do to escape from him
out of this dark place, all full of dew, and odours, and silence, into the light
and the safety of her own room? And yet all this time she made no attempt
to withdraw her hand from his arm. She wanted something to lean on at
such a crisis, and he was very handy for leaning on—tall, and strong, and
sturdy, and affording a very adequate support. “Oh, do let me go!” she burst
out all at once. “It was only for your own good I spoke to you; I did not
mean—this. Why should you do things for me? I don’t want—to make any
change. I should like to have you always just as we have been—friends.
Don’t say any more just yet—listen. I like you very very much for a friend.
You said yourself we were like brother and sister. Oh, why should you vex
me and bother me, and want to be anything different?” said Kate, in her
confusion, suddenly beginning to cry without any warning. But next
moment, without knowing how it was, she became aware that she was
crying very comfortably on John’s shoulder. Her crying was more than he
could bear. He took her into his arms to console her without any arrière
pensée. “Oh, my darling, I am not worth it,” he said, stooping over her. “Is
it for me—that would never let the wind blow on you? Kate! I will not
trouble you any more.” And with that, before he was aware, in his
compunction and sympathy, his lips somehow found themselves close to
her cheek. It was all to keep her from crying—to show how sorry he was
for having grieved her. His heart yearned over the soft tender creature. What
did it matter what he suffered, who was only a man? But that Kate should
cry!—and that it should be his fault! He felt in his simplicity that he was
giving her up for ever, and his big heart almost broke, as he bent down
trembling, and encountered that soft warm velvet cheek.
How it happened I cannot tell. He did not mean it, and she did not mean
it. But certainly Kate committed herself hopelessly by crying there quite
comfortably on his shoulder, and suffering herself to be kissed without so
much as a protest. He was so frightened by his own temerity, and so
surprised at it, that even had she vindicated her dignity after the first
moment, and burst indignant from his arms, John would have begged her
pardon with abject misery, and there would have been an end of him. But
somehow Kate was bewildered, and let that moment pass; and after the
surprise and shock which his own unprecedented audacity wrought in him,
John grew bolder, as was natural. She was not angry; she endured it without
protest. Was it possible that in her trouble she was unconscious of it? And
involuntarily John came to see that boldness was now his only policy, and
that it must not be possible for her to ignore the facts of the case. That was
all simple enough. But as for Kate, I am utterly unable to explain her
conduct. Even when she came to herself, all she did was to put up her hands
to her face, and to murmur piteously, humbly, “Don’t! oh, please, don’t!”
And why shouldn’t he, when that was all the resistance she made?
After this, the young man being partly delirious, as might have been
expected, it was Kate who had to come to the front of affairs and take the
lead. “Do, please, be rational now,” she said, shaking herself free all in a
moment. “And give me your arm, you foolish John, and let us take a turn
round the garden. Oh, what would your mother say if she knew how
ridiculous you have been making yourself? Tell me quietly what it is you
want now,” she added, in her most coaxing tone, looking up into his face.
Upon which the bewildered fellow poured forth a flood of ascriptions of
praise and pæans of victory, and compared Kate, who knew she was no
angel, to all the deities and excellences ever known to man. She listened to
it all patiently, and then shook her head with gentle half-maternal tolerance.
“Well,” she said, “let us take all that for granted, you know. Of course I
am everything that is nice. If you did not think so you would be a savage;
but, John, please don’t be foolish. Tell me properly. I have gone and given
in to you when I did not mean to. And now, what do you want?”
“I want you,” he said; “have you any doubt about that? And, except for
your sake, I don’t care for anything else in the world.”
“Oh, but I care for a great many things,” said Kate. “And, John,” she
went on, joining both her hands on his arm, and leaning her head lightly
against it in her caressing way, “first of all, you have accepted my
conditions, you know, and taken my advice?”
 “Yes, my darling,” said John; and then somehow his eye was caught by
the lights in the windows so close at hand, the one in the library, the other in
the drawing-room, where sat his parents, who had the fullest confidence in
him; and he gave a slight start and sigh in spite of himself.
“Perhaps you repent your bargain already,” said impetuous Kate, being
instantly conscious of both start and sigh, and of the feeling which had
produced them.
“Ah! how can you speak to me so,” he said, “when you know if it was
life I had to pay for it I would do it joyfully? No; even if I had never seen
you I could not have done what they wanted me. That is the truth. And now
I have you, my sweetest——”
“Hush,” she said, softly, “we have not come to that yet. There is a great
deal, such a great deal, to think about; and there is papa——”
“And I have so little to offer,” said John; “it is only now I feel how little.
Ah! how five minutes change everything! It never came into my mind that I
had nothing to offer you—I was so full of yourself. But now!—you who
should have kingdoms laid at your feet—what right had a penniless fellow
like me——”
“If you regret you can always go back,” said Kate, promptly; “though,
you know, it is a kind of insinuation against me, as if I had consented far
too easy. And, to tell the truth, I never did consent.”
Here poor John clutched at her hand, which seemed to be sliding from
his arm, and held it fast without a word.
“No, I never did consent,” said Kate. “It was exactly like the savages
that knock a poor girl down and then carry her off. You never asked me
even—you took me. Well, but then the thing to be drawn from that, is not
any nonsense about giving up. If you will promise to be good, and do
everything I tell you, and let me manage with papa——”
“But it is my business to let him know,” said John. “No, my darling—not
even for you. I could not skulk, nor do anything underhand. I must tell him,
and I must tell them——”
“Then you will have your way, and we shall come to grief,” said Kate;
“as if I did not know papa best. And then—I am not half nor quarter so
good as you; but in some things I am cleverer than you, John.”
 “In everything, dear,” he said, with one of those ecstatic smiles peculiar
to his state of folly, though in the darkness Kate did not get the benefit of it.
“I never have, never will compare myself to my darling. It is all your
goodness letting me—all your sweetness and humility and——”
“Please don’t,” said Kate, “please stop—please don’t talk such nonsense.
Oh, I hope I shall never behave so badly that you will be forced to find me
out. But now about papa. It must be me to tell him; you may come in
afterwards, if you like. I know what I shall do. I will drive the phaeton to
the station to meet him. I will be the one to tell him first. John, I know what
I am talking of, and I must have my own way.”
“Are you out there, John, in the dark? and who have you got with you?”
said Mrs Mitford’s voice suddenly in their ears. It made them jump apart as
if it had been the voice of a ghost. And Kate, panting, blazing with blushes
in the darkness, feeling as if she never could face those soft eyes again,
recoiled back into the lilies, and felt the great white paradise of dew and
sweetness take her in, and busk her round with a garland of odour. Oh, what
was she to do? Would he be equal to the emergency? Thus it will be seen
that, though she was very fond of him, she had not yet the most perfect
confidence in the reliability of her John.
“Yes, mother, I am here,” said John, with a mellow fulness in his voice
which Kate could not understand, so different was it from his usual tone,
“and I have Kate with me—my Kate—your Kate; or, at least, there she is
among the lilies. She ought to be in your arms first, after mine.”
“After yours!” His mother gave a little scream. And Kate held up her
head among the flowers, blushing, yet satisfied. It was shocking of him to
tell; but yet it settled the question. She stood irresolute for a moment,
breathing quick with excitement, and then she made a little run into Mrs
Mitford’s arms. “He has made me be engaged to him whether I will or not,”
she said, half crying on her friend’s shoulder. “He has made me. Won’t you
love me too?”
“O Kate!” was all the mother could say. “O my boy! what have you
done?—what have you done? John, her father is ten times as rich as we are.
He will say we have abused his trust. Oh! what shall I do?”
“Abused his trust indeed!” said Kate. “John, you are not to say a word;
she does not understand. Why, it was I who did it all! I gave him no peace. I
kept talking to him of things I had no business with; and he is only a man—
indeed he is only a boy. Mamma, won’t you kiss me, please?” said Kate, all
at once sinking into the meekest of tones; upon which Mrs Mitford, quite
overcome, and wanting to kiss her son first, and with a hundred questions in
her mind to pour out upon him, yet submitted, and put her arm round the
stranger who was clinging to her and kissed Kate—but not with her heart.
She had kissed her a great deal more tenderly only yesterday, just to say
good-night; and then the three stood silent in the darkness, and the scene
took another shape, and John’s beatitude was past. The moment the mother
joined them another world came in. The enchanted world, which held only
two figures, opened up and disappeared like a scene at a theatre; and lo!
there appeared all round a mass of other people to whom John’s passion
was a matter of indifference or a thing to be disapproved. Suddenly the
young pair felt themselves standing not only before John’s anxious mother,
but before Mr Crediton, gloomy and wretched; before Dr Mitford, angry
and mortified; before the whole neighbourhood, who would judge them
without much consideration of mercy. John’s reflections at this moment
were harder to support than those of Kate, for he knew he was giving up for
her sake the vocation he had been trained to, and the awful necessity of
declaring his resolution to his father and mother was before him. Whereas
the worst that could be said of Kate was that she was a little flirt, and had
turned John Mitford’s head—and she had heard as much before. But,
notwithstanding, they were both strangely sobered all in a moment as they
stood there, fallen out of their fairy sphere, by Mrs Mitford’s side.
“My dears, I must hear all about this after,” she said, with a kind of
tremulous solemnity, “but in the mean time you must come in to tea.
Whatever we do, we must not be late for prayers.”
 CHAPTER XI.
The room was in its usual partially lighted state, with darkness in all the
corners, half-seen furniture, and ghostly pictures on the walls. A minute ago
the servants had been there in a line kneeling at prayers—dim beings,
something between pictures and ghosts. And now they had just stolen out in
procession, and Dr Mitford had seated himself at the table for the regulation
ten minutes which he spent with his family before retiring for the night.
Kate had drawn a low chair close to the table, and was looking up at him
with a little quiver of anxiety about her lips and eyes. These two—the old
man’s venerable white head throwing reflections from it in the soft
lamplight, the young girl all radiant with beauty and feeling—were alone
within the circle of light. Outside of it stood two darker shadows, John and
his mother. Mrs Mitford was in a black gown, and the bright tints of her
pleasant face were neutralised by the failure of light. Two in the brightness
and two in the gloom—a curious symbolical arrangement. And behind them
all was the great open window, full of darkness, and the garden with all its
unseen sweetness outside.
Dr Mitford was the only unconscious member of this curious party. He
had no suspicion and no alarm. He stretched his legs, which were not long,
out comfortably before him, and leant back composedly, now on the
elbows, now on the back, of his chair.
“Well, Miss Kate, and what have you been doing with yourself all the
evening?” he said, in his blissful ignorance. The other three gave a
simultaneous gasp. What would he think when he heard? This thought,
however, pressed hardest upon John. His mind was laden with a secret
which as yet nobody divined, and speech almost forsook him when he had
most need of it. Neither Kate nor his mother could see how pale he grew,
and even if there had been light enough, John was not a handsome pink-
and-white youth upon whom a sudden pallor shows. He might have shirked
it even now, or left it to his mother, or chosen a more convenient moment.
But he was uncompromising in his sense of necessities, and now was the
moment at which it must be done. He went round quickly to his father’s
right hand—
 “Father,” he said, “I have got something to tell you. I have done what
perhaps was not prudent, but I trust you will not think it was not
honourable. I have fallen in love with Kate.”
“God bless my soul!” said Dr Mitford, instantly abandoning his
comfortable attitude, and sitting straight up in his bewilderment. He was so
startled that he looked from one to another, and finally turned to his wife, as
a man does who has referred every blunder and surprise of a lifetime to her
for explanation. It was an appealing half-reproachful glance. Here was
something which no doubt she could have prevented or staved off from
him. “My dear, what is the meaning of this?” he said.
“It is I who must tell you that,” said John, firmly. “I have a great deal to
tell you—a great deal to explain to my mother as well as you. But this
comes first of all—I love Kate. I saved her, you know; and then it seemed
so natural that she should be mine. How could she have taken any one else
than me who would have died for her? And see, father, she has consented,”
said the poor fellow, taking Kate’s hand, and holding it in both his. His eyes
were full of tears, and there was a smile on his face. It was that mingling of
pathos and of triumph which marks passion at the highest strain.
“God bless my soul!” said Dr Mitford again, and this time he rose to his
feet in his amazement. “My dear, if you heard this was going on, why did
not you tell me? Consented! why, she is a mere child, and her father trusted
her to us. Miss Kate, you must perceive he is talking nonsense—you must
have turned his head. This can’t go any further. The boy must be mad to
think of such a thing.”
“Then I am mad too,” said Kate, softly. “Oh, please, do not be angry
with us—we could not help it. Oh, Mrs Mitford, say a word for John!”
And then there came a strange pause. The mother said nothing. She
stood in the shade holding back, insensible, as it seemed, to this appeal; and
on the other side of the table were the young pair, holding each other fast.
As for Dr Mitford, he came to himself slowly as Kate spoke. A ray of
intelligence passed over his face. He was a sensible man, and not one to
throw away the good the gods provided. Gradually it became apparent to
him that there are times when youthful folly brings about results such as
mature wisdom could scarcely have conceived possible. From the first
stupefaction his look brightened into surprise, then into interest and half-
disguised approval. He drew a long breath, and when he spoke again, his
voice was wonderfully changed.
“Then you must be more to blame than he is, my dear young lady, for
you have not the same temptation,” he said, with a little flurry and
excitement, but not much apparent displeasure. And then he made a pause,
and looked at them with his brow contracted as if they were a book. “I don’t
understand all this. Do you mean to tell me you are engaged, and it is not
three weeks yet——”
“It did not want three weeks,” said John, “nor three days. Father, you see
it is done now; she has consented, and she ought to know best.”
“I am utterly bewildered,” said Dr Mitford, but his tone softened more
and more. “My dear, have you nothing to say to this? is it as unexpected to
you as it is to me? Miss Kate, you understand it is no reluctance to receive
you that overwhelms me, but the surprise—and—— My dear, is it possible
you have nothing to say?”
“It is her father I am thinking of,” said Mrs Mitford, suddenly, with a
sharp jarring sound of emotion in her voice. And so it was; but not entirely
that. She seized upon the only feasible objection that occurred to her to
cover her general consternation and sense of dismay.
“Yes, to be sure,” said Dr Mitford. “John, I wish you had spoken to Mr
Crediton first. I shall explain to him that I knew nothing about it—nothing
at all till the last moment. I fear you have taken away from me even the
power of pleading your cause; though, Miss Kate,” he said, rising, and
going up to her with the urbanity which was so becoming to him, “if you
had no fortune, I should take the liberty to kiss you, and tell you my son had
made a charming choice.”
“Then kiss me now,” said Kate, suddenly detaching herself from John,
and holding out her hands to his father. Dr Mitford gave a little irresolute
glance behind him to see what his wife was thinking; and then after a
moment’s hesitation, melted by the pretty face lifted to him, by the fortune
which he had thus set forward as a drawback to her, and by the mingled
sentiment, false and true, of the occasion, took her hands into his and bent
over her and kissed her forehead.
“My dear,” he said, with effusion, “I could not have hoped for so sweet a
daughter-in-law. You would be as welcome to me as the flowers in May.”
And then Dr Mitford paused, and the puckers came back to his forehead,
and he turned round on his heel as on a pivot, and faced his son. “But don’t
for a moment suppose, John, that I can approve of you. I will not adopt your
cause with Mr Crediton. Good heavens! he might think it was a scheme. He
might think——”
“That he could never think,” said Mrs Mitford, not able to restrain her
impatience. “He may be angry, and blame everybody, and do away with it
—but he could not think that.”
“If I have done wrong, let it come upon me,” said John, hoarsely. “But,
Kate, come! you have had enough to bear.” He was thinking of her only, not
of what any one else had to bear; and it was hard upon Mrs Mitford. And it
was hard upon her, very hard, to take the interloper into her arms again, and
falter forth a blessing on her. “He is everything in the world to me,” she
whispered, with her lips on Kate’s cheek. “And what should his wife be?
But my heart seems dead to-night.” “Dear mamma, don’t hate me. I will not
take him away from you; and I have no mother,” Kate whispered back. And
Mrs Mitford held her close for a moment, and cried, and was lightened at
her heart. But this little interlude was unknown to the two men who stood
looking on. John led his betrothed away into the hall, where he lingered one
moment before he said good-night. What he said to her, or she to him, is not
much to our present purpose. They lingered and whispered, and clung to
each other as most of us have done once in our lives—and could not make
up their minds to separate. While this went on, Dr Mitford made a little turn
about the table in his excitement, and thrust up the shade from the lamp, as
if to throw more light upon the matter. He was in a fidget, and a little
alarmed by what his son had done, yet prepared to feel that all was for the
best.
“My dear, is it possible you knew of this?” he said, rubbing his hands.
“What a very odd thing that it should have happened so! Bless my soul! she
is a great heiress. Why, Mary,” giving a glance round him, and lowering his
voice a little, “who could have thought that lump of a boy would have had
the sense to do so well for himself?”
“Oh, Dr Mitford, for heaven’s sake don’t speak so! Whatever he intends,
my boy never thought of that.”
“I don’t suppose he did,” said the father, still softly rubbing his hands; “I
don’t suppose he did—but still, all the same. Why, bless my soul! Mary
—— To be sure it may be unpleasant with Mr Crediton. If he could think
for one moment that we had any hand in it——”
“He cannot think that,” said Mrs Mitford. A sense that there was
something more to be told kept her breathless and incapable of speech. But
it gave her a little consolation to be able to defy Mr Crediton’s suspicions. It
was a safety-valve, so far as it went.
“I hope not—I sincerely hope not. I should tell him at once that it is—
well—yes—contrary to my wishes. Of course it would be a great thing for
John. He is not the sort of boy to make his way in the world, and this would
give him such a start. Unless her father is very adverse, Mary, I should be
inclined to think that everything is for the best.”
“You are so ready to think that, Dr Mitford,” said his wife, sitting down
suddenly in her excitement, feeling that her limbs could no longer support
her. “But I am afraid I am not so submissive,” she added, with a little burst
of feeling, putting up her hand to her eyes.
“You don’t mean to say you don’t see the advantages of it?” said her
husband; “or is it the girl you object to? She seems to me to be a very nice
girl.”
“Oh, hush!” said Mrs Mitford; “do not let him hear you. Oh my boy! my
boy!”
John came in with his face just settling out of the melting tenderness of
his good-night into the resolution which was necessary for what was now
before him. He saw that his mother, half hidden in her chair, had covered
her eyes with her hand; and his father stood by the table, as if he had been
arguing, or reasoning, or explaining something. It was not an attitude very
unusual with Dr Mitford; but explaining things to his wife, notwithstanding
her respect for him, was not an effort generally attended with much success.
“I tell you, my dear,” he said, as John approached, with the air of
concluding an argument, “that if Mr Crediton does not object, I shall think
John has made an excellent choice.”
“Thank you, father,” John said, and held out his hand; while the mother,
whose anxieties on the subject went so much deeper, sat still on her chair
and covered her face, and felt a sharp pang of irritation strike through her.
She had trained the boy to be very respectful, very dutiful, to his father; but
Dr Mitford spent much of his time in his study, and there could not be much
sympathy between them; yet the two stood clasping hands while she was
left out. It was the strangest transposition of parts. She could not understand
it, and it jarred through her with sudden pain. Nor did John seek her after
that, as surely, she thought, he must do. He stood between them in front of
the table, and kept looking straight, not at either of them, but at the light.
“I have had something else on my mind for a long time,” he said, and his
lips were parched with excitement. “Father, it is a long affair: will you sit
down again and listen to what I have to say?”
“If it is about this business,” said his father, “I have told you already,
John, that nothing can be done without her father’s consent; and I have not
time, you know, to waste in talk. Tell your mother what it is; I shall have it
all from her. I have given you my consent and approbation conditionally.
Your mother, surely, can do all the rest.”
“Wait,” said John; “pray, wait a little. It is not about this. I want to tell
you and my mother both together. I should not have the courage,” he added,
with the excitement of self-defence, “to speak to you separately. It has
nothing to do with this. It was a burden upon my mind before I ever saw
Kate. And now that everything has come to a crisis, I must speak. It cannot
be delayed any longer. Hear me for this once.”
Mrs Mitford gave a stifled groan. It was very low, but the room was very
silent, and the sound startled all of them—even herself. It sounded
somehow as if it had come in through the window out of the dark. She
raised herself up suddenly and opened her eyes, and uncovered her face,
and looked at them both, lest any one should say it was she. Yes, she had
foreseen it all the time; she had felt it, since ever that girl came to the house
—which was not, it must be admitted, entirely just.
“You have brought me up to be a clergyman,” said John, still more and
more hurried, “and there was a time when I accepted the idea as a matter of
course; but since I have grown older, things are different. I cannot bear to
disappoint you, and overturn all your plans; but, father, think! Can I
undertake to say from the altar things I cannot believe? Ought I to do that?
If I were a boy, it might be different, and I might learn better; but at my age
——”
“Age!” said the Doctor, impatiently, “what is all this about? Age? of
course you are a boy, and nothing else. And why shouldn’t you believe?
Better men than you have gone over all that ground, and settled it again and
again.”
 “But, father, I cannot be guided by what other people think. I must judge
for myself. I cannot do it! I have tried to carry out your expectations until
the struggle has been almost more than I could bear. Forgive me: it has
come to be a question of possibility——”
“A question of fiddlestick!” cried the Doctor, angrily, walking about the
room. “I tell you, better men than you have settled all that. Of course you
think your doubts are quite original, and never were heard of before.
Nonsense! I have not the slightest doubt they have been refuted a hundred
times over. Stuff! Mary, is it to be expected I should give in to him?—just
when it was a comfort to think he was provided for, and all that. Are you
such a fool as to think you can meet Mr Crediton with this story? Is he to
understand at once that you mean to live on your wife?”
“I will never live on my wife,” said John, stung in the tenderest point.
“Oh, Dr Mitford, don’t speak to him so,” said his mother, rising up and
throwing herself metaphorically between the combatants. “Do you think if
he had not had a very strong reason he would have said this to us, knowing
how it would grieve us? Oh, let him tell us what he means!”
“I know what he means,” said Dr Mitford, “better than he does himself.
He thinks it is a fine thing to be a sceptic. His father believes what he can’t
believe, and that makes him out superior to his father. And then here is Kate
Crediton with all her money——”
“Father!” cried John, pale with rage.
“Oh, hush, hush!” said Mrs Mitford; “that has nothing to do with it. Oh,
don’t let us bring her name in to make bitterness. John, John, do not say
anything hasty! We had so set our hearts upon it. And, dear, your papa
might explain things to you if you would but have patience. He never knew
you had any doubts before.”
“Mother,” said John, with tears in his eyes, turning to her, “it is like you
to take my part.”
“But he must have a very strong reason,” she went on, without heeding
him, addressing her husband, “to be able to make up his mind to disappoint
us so. Don’t be hard upon our poor boy. If you were to argue with him, and
explain things—I am sure my John did not mean any harm. Oh, consider,
John!—Fanshawe, that you were born in—how could you bear to see it go
to others? And the poor people that know you so well—— Dr Mitford,
when all this is over, and—strangers gone, and we are quiet again, you will
take the boy with you, and go over everything and explain——”
“The fact is,” said the Doctor, suddenly going to the side table and
selecting his candle, “that I have no time to waste on such nonsense. You
can have what books you want out of my library, and I hope your own sense
and reflection will carry the day. Not a word more. You are excited, I hope,
and that is the cause of this exhibition. No; of course I don’t accept what
you have said. Speak to your mother—that is the best thing you can do. I
have got my paper to finish, so good-night.”
John stood aghast, and watched his father go out at the door, impatient
and contemptuous of the explanation it had cost him so much to make. And
when he turned to his mother, expecting her sympathy, she was standing by
him transformed, with a gleam of fire in her eyes such as he had never seen
there; a flush on her face, and her hand held up with indignant, almost
threatening, vehemence.
“How could you do it?” she cried—“how could you have the heart to do
it? To us that have had no thought but for you! Look what sacrifices we
have made all your life that you should have everything. Look how your
father has worked at his papers—and all that we have done to secure your
prosperity. And for the sake of a silly girl you had never seen a month ago!
Oh, God forgive me! what shall I do?”
And she sank down on her chair and covered her face, and burst into
angry weeping. It was not simple sorrow, but mortification, rage,
disappointment—a combination of feelings which it was impossible for
John to identify with his mother. She had been defending him but a moment
before. It had given him a sense of the most exquisite relief to find her on
his side. He had turned to her without doubt or fear, expecting that she
would cry a little, perhaps, and lament over him, and be wistfully respectful
of his doubts, and tender of his sufferings. And to see her confronting him,
flushed, indignant, almost menacing! His consternation was too great for
words. “Mother,” he said, faltering, “you are mistaken—indeed you are
mistaken!” and stopped short, with mingled resentment and humiliation.
Why should Kate be supposed to have anything to do with it? And yet in his
heart he knew that she had a great deal to do with it. Her—but not her
fortune, as his father thought. Curse her fortune! John, who had always
been so gentle, walked up and down the room like a caged lion, with a
hundred passions in his heart. He was wild with mortification, and with that
sense of the intolerable which accompanies the first great contrariety of a
life. Nothing (to speak of) had ever gone cross with him before. But now
his mother herself had turned against him—could such a thing be possible?
—and the solid earth had been rent away from under his feet.
Neither of them knew how long it was before anything more was said.
Mrs Mitford sobbed out her passion, and dried her tears, and remained
silent; and so did John, till the air seemed to stir round him with wings and
rustlings as of unseen spectators. It was only when it had become
unbearable that he broke the silence. “Mother,” he said, with a voice which
even to his own ears sounded harsh and strange, “you have always believed
me till now. When I tell you that this has been in my heart ever since I left
Oxford—and while I was at Oxford—and that I have always refrained from
telling you, hoping that when the time of decision came I might feel
differently—will you refuse to believe me now?”
Mrs Mitford was incapable of making any reply. “Oh, John,” she said
—“oh, my boy!” shaking her head mournfully, while the tears dropped from
her eyes. She did not mean to imply that she would not believe him. Poor
soul! she did not very well know what she meant, except utter confusion
and misery; but that was the meaning which her gesture bore to him.
“I have done nothing to deserve this,” he said, with indignation. “You
have a right to be as severe upon me as you like for disobeying your wishes,
but you have no right to disbelieve your son.”
“Oh, John, what is the use of speaking?” said Mrs Mitford. “Disbelieve
you! why should I disbelieve you? The best thing is just to say nothing
more about it, but let me break my heart and take no notice. What am I that
I should stand in your way? Your father will get the better of it, for he has
so many things to occupy him; but I will never get the better of it. Don’t
take any notice of me; the old must give up, whatever happens—I know
that—and the young must have their day.”
“Yes; the young must have their day,” said John, severely; and then his
heart smote him, and he came and knelt down by his mother’s side. “But
why should you be in such despair?” he said. “Mother, I am not going away
from you. Though I should not be curate of Fanshawe Regis, may not we all
be very happy together?—as happy in a different way? Mother, dear, I
thought you were the one to stand by me, whoever should be against me.”
 “And so I will stand by you,” she sobbed, permitting him to take her
hand and caress it. “Nobody shall say I do not stand up for my own boy.
You shall have your mother for your defender, John, if it should kill me. But
oh, my heart is broke!” she cried, leaning her head against his shoulder.
“Now and then even a boy’s mother must think of herself. All my dreams
were about you, John. I have not been so happy, not so very happy, in my
life. Other women have been happier than me, and more thought of, that
perhaps have done no more than I have. But I have always said to myself, I
have my John. I thought you would make it up to me; I thought my
happiness had all been saving up—all waiting till I was growing old, and
needed it most. Don’t cry, my dear. I would not have you cry, you that are a
man, as if you were a girl. Oh, if I had had a girl of my own, I think I could
have borne it better. But she would have gone off and married too. There,
there! I am very selfish speaking about my feelings. I will never do it again.
What does anything matter to me if you are happy? My dear, go to bed now,
and don’t take any more notice. It was the shock, you know. In the morning
you will see I shall have come to myself.”
“But, mother, it matters most to me that you should understand me,”
cried John—“you who have been everything to me. Do you think I am
going to forget who has trained me, and taught me, and guided me since
ever I remember? What difference will this make between you and me?
Does giving up the Church mean giving up my mother? Never, never! I
should give up even my own conscience, whatever it cost me, could I think
that.”
“Oh, John, my dear, perhaps if things were rightly explained——?” she
faltered, raising her voice with a little spring of hope, and looking anxiously
in his face. But she saw no hope there, and then her voice grew tremulous
and solemn. “John, do you think it will bring a blessing on you to turn back
after you have put your hand to the plough, and forsake God for the world?
Is that the way to get His grace?”
“Will God be better pleased with me if I stand up at the altar before Him
and say a lie?” said John. “Mother, you who are so true and just, you cannot
think what you say.”
“But it is truth you have to speak, and not lies,” said the unused
controversialist, with a thousand wistful pleas, which were not arguments,
in her eyes; and then she threw her tender arms round her son, and clasped
him to her. “Oh, my boy, what can I say? It is because of the shock and my
not expecting it. I think my heart is broken. But go to bed, my dear, and
think no more of me for to-night.”
“I cannot bear you saying your heart is broken,” cried John. “Mother,
don’t be so hard upon me. I must act according to my conscience, whatever
I may have to bear.”
“Oh, John! God knows I don’t mean to be hard upon you!” cried Mrs
Mitford, stung with the reproach. And then she rose up trembling, her pretty
grey hair ruffled about her forehead, her eyes wet and shining with so great
a strain of emotion. Thus she stood for a moment, looking at him with such
a faint effort at a smile as she could accomplish. “Perhaps things will look
different in the morning,” she said; softly, “if we say our prayers with all
our hearts before we go to bed.”
And with that she drew her son to her, and gave him his good-night kiss,
and went away quickly without turning round again. John was left master of
the field. Neither father nor mother had any effectual forces to bring against
him—they had both retired with a postponement of the question, which
weakened their power and strengthened his. And he had attained what
seemed to him the greatest happiness in life—the love of the girl whom he
loved. And yet he was not happy. He walked slowly up and down the
deserted room, and stood at the open window, and breathed in the breath of
the lilies and the dew, and remembered that Kate was his, and yet was not
happy. How incredible that was, and yet true! When he left the room he
caught himself moving with stealthy footsteps, as if something lay dead in
the house. And something did lie dead. The hopes that had centred in him
had got their death-blow. The house had lost what had been its heart and
strength. He became vaguely, sadly conscious of this, as he stole away in
the silence to his own room, and shut himself up there, though it was still so
early, with his heart as heavy as lead within his breast.
 CHAPTER XII.
Next morning the household met at breakfast with that strange
determination to look just as usual, and ignore all that had happened, which
is so common in life. Kate, to be sure, did not know what had happened.
She was aware of nothing but her own engagement which could have
disturbed the family calm; and it filled her with wonder, and even irritation,
to see how pale John looked, who ought to have been at the height of
happiness, and how little exultation was in his voice. “He is thinking of
what he is to say to papa,” was the thought that passed through her mind;
and this thought fortunately checked her momentary displeasure. Mrs
Mitford was paler still, and her eyes looked red, as if she had been crying;
but instead of being subdued or cross, she was in unusually gay spirits, it
seemed to Kate—talking a great deal more than usual, even laughing, and
attempting little jokes which sat very strangely upon her. The only
conclusion Kate could draw from the general aspect of affairs was that they
were all extremely nervous about the meeting with Mr Crediton. And, on
the whole, she was not very much surprised at this. She herself was nervous
enough. His only child, for whom he might have hoped the most splendid of
marriages—who was so much admired, and had so little excuse for
throwing herself away—that she could engage herself thus, like any school-
girl, to a clergyman’s son, with no prospects, nor money, nor position, nor
anything! Kate looked at John across the table, and saw that he was very far
from handsome, and owned to herself that it was next to incredible. Why
had she done it? Looking at him critically, he was not even the least good-
looking, nor distinguished, nor remarkable in any way. One might say he
had a good expression, but that was all that could be said for him. And Kate
felt that it would be incredible to her father. Dr Mitford was the only one of
the party who was like himself; but then he was an old man, and naturally
had not much feeling left.
“I want you to let me drive the phaeton over to the station to meet papa,”
she said. “Please do, Dr Mitford. Oh, I am not in the least afraid of the
pony. I have been making friends with him, and giving him lumps of sugar,
and I do want to be the first to see papa.”
 “My dear Miss Kate, I am so sorry the phaeton has only room for two,”
said the Doctor. “If you were to go there would be no seat for your excellent
father; but it is only half an hour’s drive—cannot you wait till he reaches
here?”
“But, dear Dr Mitford, I always drive him from the station at home,”
cried Kate.
“You are not at home now, my dear young lady,” said the Doctor,
shaking his head. “We must give you back safe and sound into his hands.
The groom will go. No, Miss Kate, no—we must not frighten your worthy
father. You must consider what had so nearly happened a month ago. No,
no; it requires a man’s hand——”
“But the pony is so gentle,” pleaded Kate.
“I know the pony better than you do,” Dr Mitford said, shaking his head,
“and he wants a man’s hand. My dear, you must be content to wait your
good father here.”
The Doctor was the only one who appeared unmoved. He had put on all
his usual decorous solemnity along with his fresh stiff white tie, and highly-
polished creaking boots. But even he made no allusion to the changed state
of affairs. Sometimes Kate felt as if she must laugh, sometimes as if she
must cry, sometimes disposed to be angry, sometimes wounded. She was
glad to escape from the table to the garden, where John found her—glad,
poor fellow, to escape too. And then, as they wandered among the rose-
bushes arm-in-arm, she found out how it was.
“But they have no right to be so hard on you,” cried Kate, impetuously.
“Suppose you had never seen me or thought of me—would it be right to be
a clergyman, just like a trade, when you felt you could not in your heart
——”
“My Kate!—you understand me at least; that is what I said.”
“And when you can do so much better for yourself,” said Kate, with
emphasis. “Mrs Mitford and the Doctor should think of that. One way you
never could have been anything but a clergyman; while the other way—
why, you may be anything, John.”
He shook his head over her, half sadly, half pleased. He knew his
capacities were far from being beyond limit, but still that she should think
so was pleasant. And then there was the sense, which was sweet, that he and
she, spending the summer morning among the flowers, were a little faction
in arms against the world, with a mutual grievance, mutual difficulties, a
cause to maintain against everybody. Solitude à deux is sweet, and
selfishness à deux has a way of looking half sublime. It was the first time
either of them had experienced this infinitely seductive sentiment. They
talked over the hardness of the father and mother, with a kind of delight in
thus feeling all the world to be against them. “They cannot blame me, for
you were thinking of that before you ever saw me,” said Kate. “Blame you!
it is one thing the more I have to love you for,” said John. “I should never
have been awakened to free myself but for you, my darling. I should have
gone stupidly on under the sway of custom.” And for the moment he
believed what he said. Oh, what a difference it made! the wide world before
him where to choose, and this creature, whom he loved more than all the
world, leaning on him, putting her fate in his hands; instead of the dull
routine of parish duties, and the dull home life, and the stagnation around,
and all his uneasy restless thoughts.
It was about twelve o’clock when Kate went up-stairs to get her hat, with
the intention of setting out on foot to waylay her father. It was absolutely
indispensable, she felt, that she should be the first to see him; but up to that
time the two lovers had wandered about together unmolested, not caring
who saw them, arm-in-arm. This was the first advantage of the engagement.
Dr Mitford saw them from his library, and Mrs Mitford looked down upon
them with a beating heart from her chamber-window, but neither interfered.
Twenty-four hours before Mrs Mitford would have gone out herself to take
care of them, or would have called Kate to her; but now that they were
engaged, such precautions were vain. And other people saw them besides
the father and mother. Fred Huntley, for instance, who reined in his horse,
and peered over the garden-wall as he passed, with a curiosity he found it
difficult to account for, saw them standing by the lilies leaning on each
other, and said “Oh!” to himself, and turned back and rode home again,
without giving the message he had been charged with. He had come to ask
the Fanshawe Regis people to a garden-party—“But what is the use?” Fred
had said to himself; and had turned, not his own head, but his horse’s, and
gone back again. Parsons, too, saw the pair from Kate’s window, where she
was finishing her packing. “Master will soon put a stop to that,” was
Parsons’ decision. But everybody perceived at once that a new relationship
had been established between the two, and that everything was changed.
 When Kate ran up-stairs to put on her hat, it was after two hours of this
consultation and mutual confidence. It was true she had not taken much
advice from him. She had closed his lips on that subject, telling him frankly
that she knew her papa a great deal better than he did, and that she should
take her own way; but she had given a great deal of counsel, on the other
hand. He had found it impossible to do more than make a succession of
little fond replies, so full had she been of advice and wisdom. “You must be,
oh, so kind and gentle and nice to her,” Kate had said. “I will never forgive
you if you are in the least cross or disagreeable to mamma. Yes; I like to say
mamma. I never had any mother of my own, and she has been so good to
me, and I love her so—not for your sake, sir, but for her own. You must
never be vexed by anything she says; you must be as patient and gentle and
sweet to her—but, remember, you must be firm! It will be kindest to all of
us, John. If you were to appear to give in now, it would all have to be done
over again; now the subject has been started, it will be much kinder to be
firm.”
“You need not fear in that respect,” John replied. “I think nothing but the
thought of you up-stairs, and the feeling that you understood me, would
have given me courage to speak; but the moment one word had been said,
all had been said. Nothing can bring things back to their old condition
again.”
“I am so glad,” said Kate; “but, remember, you must be gentleness itself
to her. If you were rude or undutiful or unkind, I should never, never look at
you again.”
“My darling!” said John. It was so sweet of her thus to defend his
mother. If Mrs Mitford had heard it, her soft heart would have been filled
full of disgust and bitterness to think of this stranger taking it upon herself
to plead for her, his mother, with her own son! But John only thought how
sweet it was of his darling to be so anxious for his mother, and felt his heart
melt over her. What was all his mother had done for him in comparison
with Kate’s dominion, which was boundless, and of divine right? Thus they
discussed their position, the very difficulties of which were delicious
because they were mutual, and felt that the other persons connected with
them, parents and suchlike, were railed off at an immense distance, and
were henceforward to be struggled against and kept in subjection. It was
with this resolution full in her mind, and thrilling with a new impulse of
independence and activity, that Kate went up-stairs. Parsons had gone down
to seek that sustenance of failing nature which the domestic mind finds
necessary between its eight o’clock breakfast and its two o’clock dinner;
but Lizzie, whom Kate had seen but little of lately, inspired on her side by a
resolution scarcely less strong than the young lady’s, was at her bedroom
door, waylaying her. Lizzie rushed in officiously to find the hat and the
gloves and the parasol which Miss Crediton wanted, and then she added,
humbly, “Please, miss!” and stood gaping, with her wholesome country
roses growing crimson, and the creamy white of her round neck reddening
all over, like sunrise upon snow.
“Well, Lizzie, what is it?—but make haste, for I am in a hurry,” said
Kate. She was a young lady who was very good-natured to servants, and, as
they said, not a bit proud.
“Oh, please, miss!—it’s as I can’t a-bear to see you going away.”
“Is that all? I am sure it is very kind of you, Lizzie—everybody has been
so very kind to me at Fanshawe Regis that I can’t bear to go away,” said
Kate; “but I daresay I shall come back again—probably very often; so you
see it is not worth while to cry.”
“That’s not the reason, miss,” said Lizzie; “I’ve been thinking this long
and long if I could better myself. Mother’s but poor, miss, and all them big
lads to think of. And you as has so many servants, and could do such a deal
—— It aint as I’m not happy with missis—but service is service, and I feel
as I ought to better myself——.”
“Oh, you ungrateful thing!” cried Kate; “after Mrs Mitford has been so
good to you. I would not be so ungrateful for all the world. Better yourself
indeed! I can tell you, you are a great deal more likely to injure yourself.
Oh, Lizzie, I should not have thought it of you! You ought to be so happy
here.”
“It aint as I’m not happy,” cried Lizzie, melting into tears. “Oh, miss,
don’t you go and be vexed. It’s all along of what Miss Parsons says. She
says in the kitchen as how she’s going to be married, and all the dresses you
gives her, and all the presents, and takes her about wherever you go. Oh,
miss, when Miss Parsons is married, won’t you try me? I’ll serve you night
and day—I will. I don’t mind sitting up nights—not till daylight—and I’d
never ask for holidays, nor followers, nor nothing. You’d have a faithful
servant, though I says it as shouldn’t,” said Lizzie, with her apron at her
eyes; “and mother’s prayers, and a blessin’ from the Lord—oh, miss, if
you’d try me!”
“Try you in place of Parsons!” cried Kate, in consternation. “Why,
Lizzie, are you mad? Can you make dresses, you foolish girl, and dress hair,
and do all sorts of things, like Parsons? You are only Mrs Mitford’s
housemaid. Do you mean to tell me you can do all that too?”
“I could try, miss,” said Lizzie, somewhat frightened, drying her eyes.
“Try!—to make me a dress!” cried Kate, her eyes dancing with fun and
comic horror. “But, Lizzie, I will try and find a place for you as housemaid,
if you like.”
“I don’t care for that, miss,” said Lizzie, disconsolately; “what I want is
to better myself. And I know I could, if I were to try. When I’ve tried hard
at anything, I’ve allays done it. And, please, I don’t know what Miss
Parsons is, as she should be thought that much of—I could do it if I was to
try.”
“Then you had better try, I think,” said Kate, with severe politeness,
“and let me know when you have succeeded; but in the mean time I will
take my gloves, which you are spoiling. I have no more time to talk just
now.”
Poor Lizzie found herself left behind, when she had hoped the argument
was just beginning. Kate ran down with her gloves in her hand, half
annoyed, half amused. The girl was so ready to transplant herself anywhere
—to reach out her rash hands to new tools, and to take upon her a
succession of unknown duties, that Kate was quite subdued by the thought.
“How foolish!” she said to herself. “When she has been brought up to one
thing, why should she want to try another? It is so silly. What stupids
servants are! If I had been brought up a housemaid, I should have remained
a housemaid. And to be willing to leave her good mistress and her home
and all her past life—for what?” said Kate, moralising. Had she but known
what a very similar strain of reasoning was going on in Mrs Mitford’s mind!
“To give up his home, and all his associations, and his prospects in life, and
the work God had provided for him—for what?” John’s mother was
musing. The school, and the old women in the village, and all her parish
work, had slid out of her thoughts. She had shut herself up in her own room,
and was brooding over it—working the sword in her wound, and now and
then crying out with the pain. And Dr Mitford in his study paused from time