HAX UbD Stage 3 — Planning Learning (WHERETO)

Derive and sequence learning experiences from Stages 1 and 2 via WHERETO, enforcing uncoverage over coverage and building feedback + revision cycles. This is Stage 3 of UbD — the learning plan. It comes last in backward design because every activity must be justified by the goals (Stage 1) and the targeted performances (Stage 2).

The core move: resist the comfortable-activity reflex. Test every proposed activity against Stages 1+2 — does it equip learners for the targeted performances? If not, drop it. "Teaching" (direct instruction) is only one learning activity among many.

When to Use

Trigger conditions:

• "Sequence this unit" / "plan the learning activities" / "WHERETO my unit"
• "How do I teach for understanding" / "organize these pages"
• You are hax-ubd-backward-design and have reached step 5 of its methodology

When NOT to use (with redirect):

• Page-level cognitive load / chunking → hax-content-chunking-audit (chunking = page scope; WHERETO = unit scope)
• Cognitive level of an objective → grad-blooms
• Goals → hax-ubd-stage1; evidence/assessments → hax-ubd-stage2

Scope

Mutating. Writes manifest.stage3 + site.json page ordering + a per-page component plan. Does NOT invent new endpoints — Stage 3 points at Stage 2's evidence (the Exhibit references a real stage2.performanceTasks[*].id).

Inputs

• manifest.stage1 + manifest.stage2 — both required. Stage 3 is derived; do not sequence without goals + evidence.

Methodology

1. Resist the comfortable-activity reflex. For every proposed activity, ask: does it equip learners for a Stage 2 performance, or serve a Stage 1 understanding? If neither, drop it. This is where the twin sin of activity-oriented design is avoided.

2. Sequence via WHERETO (UbD Fig 9.1), mapping each letter to HAX (table below). The two E's are distinct: Explore/Equip (build knowledge + coach skills) vs. Exhibit/Evaluate (the final performance).

3. Uncoverage over coverage. Use progressive disclosure (a11y-collapse with heading-button, a11y-tabs) for depth. Never page-march a textbook. Coverage = "teaching by mentioning it"; uncoverage = going into depth on the big ideas. (A purposeful survey is legitimate; coverage is not.)

4. Feedback + revision cycles. Insert self-check / stop-note loops (Rethink/Revise) between Explore and Exhibit. Understanding develops through inquiry + rethinking; build in perform→feedback→revise→perform cycles, as in apprenticeship/coaching.

5. Exhibit points to Stage 2. The Exhibit is the GRASPS task from manifest.stage2.performanceTasks[*] — reference its id in whereto.exhibit.taskRef. Do NOT create a new endpoint here.

6. Organize the site.json child page ordering to match the WHERETO sequence; use map-menu for the unit map. Run page content through hax-content-chunking-audit per-page and apply DDD tokens via hax-design-system.

HAX Component Map (WHERETO)

Letter	Meaning	Component(s)
W	Where/Why — show destination + criteria	progress-donut / simple-progress / promise-progress + page intro
H	Hook — provocative entry	video-player, image-compare-slider, media-quote, stop-note (provocative Q)
E	Explore/Equip — content + coaching	content + flash-card, self-check, lrndesign-imagemap
R	Rethink/Revise — feedback cycles	self-check + stop-note loops, flash-card (retrieval)
E	Exhibit/Evaluate — the performance	GRASPS page (ref Stage 2) + clean-portfolio-theme / glossy-portfolio-theme + grade-book + editable-table rubric
T	Tailor — differentiate / choice	a11y-tabs, a11y-collapse (set heading-button)
O	Organize — sequence + uncoverage	site.json ordering + map-menu + a11y-collapse (set heading-button)

Full map (all stages): ../hax-ubd-backward-design/references/ubd-element-map.md.

Output Format

# Stage 3 — WHERETO: {unit}
## Sequence
1. {page slug} — W: {components} → shows destination
2. {page slug} — H: {components} → hooks into EQ
3. {page slug} — E (Equip): {components} → equips for: {task id}
4. {page slug} — R: {components} → feedback to: {task id}
5. {page slug} — E (Exhibit): {components} → exhibits: {task id}
6. {page slug} — T: {components} → choice options
## Uncoverage plan
{what goes deep vs. what is surveyed; where a11y-collapse/a11y-tabs disclose depth}
## Feedback cycles
{loop placements: self-check/stop-note between Explore and Exhibit}
## site.json ordering
{child node order = WHERETO order}
## HAX handoff
{per-page component list + DDD token note}

Acceptance criteria

• Every sequence[*].evidenceRef resolves to a stage2 item (or is explicitly an Explore/Equip with no evidence target).
• Exactly one Exhibit step; its taskRef resolves to a real stage2.performanceTasks[*].id.
• ≥1 Rethink/Revise loop between Explore and Exhibit.
• No activity in the sequence lacks a Stage 1/2 justification (no orphan activities — the anti-activity-oriented-sin invariant).
• a11y-collapse / a11y-tabs usages set heading-button (PRAW rule).

Gotchas

• "Teaching" is only one learning activity. Don't default to direct instruction. The focus is planning learnings, not teachings.
• Don't duplicate Stage 2's evidence as a new "Exhibit." The exhibit is the GRASPS task. If you find yourself inventing a new culminating task, stop — you're in Stage 2 territory; go back.
• Over-fragmenting hurts. A coherent short argument split into tiny chunks can hurt coherence more than a readable block helps (same caveat as hax-content-chunking-audit). Use progressive disclosure for depth, not to mince cohesive content.
• Uncoverage ≠ never surveying. A purposeful, transparent overview is legitimate. Coverage (content march with no overarching purpose) is the sin.
• WHERETO is a checklist, not a rigid order. The letters ensure nothing is forgotten; the actual order serves the learners. But W (where we're going) almost always comes early, and Exhibit comes last.

Dependencies

• Reads: manifest.stage1 + manifest.stage2 (both required)
• Hands off to: hax-claudehax / hax-site-building (materialization); hax-content-chunking-audit (per-page); hax-design-system (DDD tokens)

References

• ../hax-ubd-backward-design/references/manifest-schema.md — stage3 fields
• ../hax-ubd-backward-design/references/ubd-element-map.md — WHERETO component map
• ../hax-ubd-backward-design/references/design-standards.md — standards 10–12
• PRAW RULES.md: ~/Documents/git/haxtheweb/praw/RULES.md
• Source: Wiggins & McTighe (2005), UbD Ch. 9–10.