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Backward design prioritizes the intended learning outcomes instead of topics to be covered. (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005) It is thus “backward” from traditional design because instead of starting with the content to be covered, the textbook to be used, or even the test to be passed, you begin with the goals. The idea in backward design is to teach toward the "end point" or learning goals, which typically ensures that content taught remains focused and organized.
Stage 3: Plan learning activities and instructional materials
Next, turn them into KUDs (students who Know, Understand, Do), so that you can identify how you will be teaching and assessing these skills. Identify exactly what you want them to know (such as being able to define empathy), understand (such as recognizing another’s perspective), and do (like solving a social conflict independently). Our students are struggling, and they need our best work in all aspects of their learning, including SEL. With that in mind, here’s how I use backward design to teach the soft skills our students need as badly as they need to read and write. Objectives, assessments and learning activities are three cornerstones of backward design. In the first stage of backward design, instructors identify what students should know, understand, and be able to do by the end of the course, lesson or module.
The After, Where the Final Product is a Model and a Presentation
Students of all ages know when they are asked to do something pointless in class; they can spot “busy work” from a mile away, and will disengage as they see fit. With this clear target in place, educators are better equipped to teach. The knowledge and skills at this substage are considered important to know and do.
Teaching SEL
In 2020 Californians voted down a ballot measure that could have raised billions of dollars for public schools by raising taxes on big corporations. California’s 2013 Local Control Funding Formula was the linchpin of former Gov. Jerry Brown’s school finance overhaul. Under it, all school districts get a flat grant based on their enrollment. Districts with higher concentrations of low-income students, English language learners and foster youth then receive additional funding through “supplemental” and “concentration” grants. While overall college and career readiness is inching toward improvement, there remain yawning gaps in preparedness for the state’s most disadvantaged students. English learners (16.8% preparedness), foster youth (13.3%) and students with disabilities (10.8%) have the lowest readiness rates in California.
Since students will be only part of the way through the unit, and therefore may not yet have mastered the content, the goal of these mini-assessment will be to gauge abilities like critical thinking, inquiry, problem-solving and foundational knowledge. The backward design approach to curriculum planning enables educators to provide goal-centered instruction. With learning objectives centered, students can appreciate the relevance of the instructional content.
WHY SHOULD I USE BACKWARD DESIGN IN MY COURSES?
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Therefore, it can be stated that teachers often focus more on teaching rather than learning. This perspective can lead to the misconception that learning is the activity when, in fact, learning is derived from a careful consideration of the meaning of the activity. In a sense, this is “teaching to the test.” But, in a subject with well-defined intended learning outcomes and assessments aligned with them, succeeding at these assessments is the evidence that students have met the subject’s goals. The scope of your assessments should be in line with the outcomes, and the balance between concepts and skills in these assessments should match that presented in your ILOs. Moreover, in assessments, you should strive to measure the kind(s) of engagement described in your intended learning outcomes. If your ILO states that students will be able to describe some phenomenon, don’t use a true/false or multiple-choice question to measure their attainment of this outcome.
By creating a curated framework, instructors can teach students how to learn in the discipline rather than focusing on content coverage (Peterson et al. 2020). How will students be able to know they have succeeded in learning the core concepts and competencies? Consider various forms of both formative and summative assessment (see more in the assessment tab below). Furthermore, when a teacher designs a lesson without a plan for the final assessment, they may be tempted to add activities or units to the lesson just for the sake of filling class time.
II. Determine appropriate criteria for evaluating students’ progress
You will explore traditional instructional design models and the progression of the learning design approach to creating online learning experiences. Backward design in education is a lesson planning strategy that starts with the final assessment, then asks teachers to build their lessons toward that goal. This differs from transitional lesson design, in which teachers identify content they need to cover, build relevant lessons, then create the final assessment.
Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction
Supporters of backward design liken the process to using a "road map".[5] In this case, the destination is chosen first and then the road map is used to plan the trip to the desired destination. In contrast, in traditional curriculum planning there is no formal destination identified before the journey begins. When developing your course within a Backward Design framework, it is important to map out your course learning objectives, assessments, and learning activities and instructional materials to ensure alignment across the elements. We suggest using CATE’s Course Map Planning Document to guide your progress. Wiggins and McTighe identify a link between the assessment format and the type of understanding students need to demonstrate. For example, if the goal is for students to learn basic facts and skills, traditional quizzes and tests might be the most appropriate type of assessment to use.
However, it is up to the skilled teacher to emphasize the process of gaining new knowledge, as opposed to acing the final test. While it can be difficult to grasp at first, backward design encourages educators to be intentional with their lesson planning, since it imbues the class time with a specific purpose. Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe introduced backward design in their book Understanding by Design. In contrast to the traditional “forward design” approach, backward design begins by establishing learning goals and then developing assessments and teaching methods to achieve the desired outcomes. The backward design approach to curriculum development first establishes educational goals and then builds assessment and instruction to serve those goals.
So if we re-do this unit plan with backward design, we’ll need to start by developing an assessment that would measure success with that standard. That means the assessment would not be a test where students merely label the moon phases, but a student-developed model of the moon phases along with some kind of presentation where students use that model to explain lunar phases, eclipses, and seasons. In other words, a superior education will teach students to think and practice like scientists. If we don’t plan learning experiences that make that possible, we’re giving them a sub-par education. If we assume that a large portion of a student’s grade is based on the test, then students are not being measured on their achievement of that standard.
Teachers may fear “teaching to the test” and not enabling authentic learning. Education authorities establish a curriculum in a top-down manner that may not fully address the circumstances in a classroom. This teaching guide will explain the benefits of incorporating backward design.
The second question above allows the instructor to focus on more important knowledge, the knowledge and skills that are important to know and do. Finally, with the third question, instructors begin to detail the enduring understandings, overarching learning goals, and big ideas that students should retain. By answering the three questions presented at this stage, instructors will be able to determine the best content for the course. Furthermore, the answers to question #3 regarding enduring understandings can be adapted to form concrete, specific learning goals for the students; thus, identifying the desired results that instructors want their students to achieve. Backward design helps teachers create courses and units that are focused on the goal (learning) rather than the process (teaching). Because “beginning with the end” is often a counterintuitive process, backward design gives educators a structure they can follow when creating a curriculum and planning their instructional process.
Instructional activities are the specific ways in which students interact with the course content. These activities run the gamut from watching educational videos, creating posters or presentations, completing a group project or playing learning-based games. Successful lesson plans often contain a mix of instructional strategies and activities, since asking students to adapt to different modes of learning is an effective way to keep them engaged.
Or perhaps they don’t feel they were able to adequately demonstrate what they did learn based on the types of questions they were asked on the exam. In other words, they don’t see an alignment between what they learned and what they were tested on. Using a process like backward design helps us get better at making these decisions. By making this approach part of our regular practice, we’ll be able to look back on a day, a week, or a year of teaching and say with a lot more certainty that when they were under our care, our students learned.
For related discussions, see achievement gap, equity, and high expectations. Lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to enhance transparency and close these loopholes in 2020. The State Board of Education, however, has made changes intended to make school accountability documents easier to read for parents, and the state Department of Education is studying transparency. Take, for instance, results in the key areas of third-grade reading and eighth-grade math. Smarter Balanced results from showed all groups doing better and some gaps narrowing dramatically when poverty wasn’t an issue, though some disparities remained.
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