I would love to see something using ELA. I love teaching standards with a novel. Is that possible? I mean if your standard is context clues…..? It seems there is only one way to assess that. I just really get bogged down, but this article has definitely helped to make things clearer…. As a former ELA teacher, I think it is definitely possible to teach standards through a novel study. The most important thing is to look closely at what the standard is requiring students to know or be able to do and then design your assessment so that it directly measures those skills.
From there, you can select a novel that offers rich opportunities for students to practice those skills. If you take a look at the June 23, comment from Debbie Sachs, her insight may be helpful for you, as well! What a find! Last year forced us to look at many of our science lessons and adapt them for online learning. I feel like we have been using the Backward Lesson Design, but your podcast really spells out why it works!
We will be more intentional with our design strategy. Looking forward to future podcasts! Thank you! All your techniques and ideas are very helpful. Its a whole new approach on how to get students engaged and remain focused. When students can see something visual, they are more than willing to share what they have learned.
Close Can't find what you are looking for? Traditional vs. Backward Planning Traditional Lesson Design For many years, teachers have been planning lessons and units of instruction like this: Step 1: Identify a topic or chunk of content that needs to be covered. Step 2: Plan a sequence of lessons to teach that content.
This random approach creates two problems. Backward Design In their book Understanding by Design , which was originally published in , Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe introduced us to backward design, an approach to instructional planning that starts with the end goal, then works backward from there.
Here are the steps: Step 1: Identify what students should know and be able to do by the end of the learning cycle. Step 2: Create an assessment to measure that learning. One pretty typical way to teach this is as follows: A lecture or video about the phases of the moon, followed by a worksheet to label the phases.
An interactive activity like scraping the filling out of Oreos to represent the lunar phases. A unit test that requires labelling the phases of the moon from memory and answering multiple-choice questions about the lunar cycle, eclipses, and seasons. Direct Instruction: Students still need to know the basics of the lunar system. Active processing with models: Next, give students a chance to work with a model so that they experience the cycle in action.
This will deepen their understanding of the earth-sun-moon system, which will better prepare them to give their own presentations. Something like this interactive model from CK allows students to manipulate the time of day and the position of the moon to see how these variables change what we see in the sky. Using an existing model such as the interactive mentioned in the previous step , have students explain the lunar phases, including information about the seasons and eclipses, to a partner or small group.
Hearing their peers explain the system, along with attempting the explanation themselves, will help them use the language of the lunar cycle more fluently. Model development: Now students begin developing their own models. Give students time in class to work on these models; this will ensure that they do their own work and will allow you to give feedback if a student is heading in the wrong direction.
To cut down on that overall time, only have students present to the whole class if the class is actually participating in the model like in some sort of skit or simulation. Otherwise, students can record their presentations on video or present to you one-on-one while their classmates work on something else independently.
What exactly do your standards require? Do they ask students to memorize and identify facts, or do they ask them to describe, explain, analyze, or create? Do they actually require students to do the describing, explaining, analyzing, or creating which would likely require them to write, present, or create some product , or do they merely ask them to recognize when someone else does it in the form of an answer on a multiple-choice test?
Do you need to adjust your assessments so they more closely align with the standards? If you do, the next step is to rework the lessons that lead up to that assessment. Does every lesson contribute to student success on that assessment? Are you missing anything? For example, if your assessment requires students to write in academic language and support their ideas with evidence, you should include some lessons that give students practice with that kind of writing.
Finally, will the assessment be weighted heavily in your gradebook? It should be. The lessons and activities leading up to the final assessment are there to give students exposure to the knowledge and practice with the skills necessary to perform on that final assessment; ideally, they should receive no grades at all on those activities. If you absolutely must assign some points, be sure the final assessment is worth a heck of a lot more than those smaller tasks.
Reference: National Research Council What to Read Next. How to Use the Reciprocal Learning Strategy. Share: facebook twitter LinkedIn Print 38 Comments. Aubrey Johnson says: June 22, L Mathison says: June 23, Khuguvhila Naledzani says: September 4, Hellen Harvey says: June 22, Kim says: June 22, Debbie Sachs says: June 23, Kim says: June 24, Pamela Kranz says: June 22, Mary says: June 22, Dganit Eldar says: June 24, Joanna M says: June 22, Holly Burcham says: June 29, Heather B.
I can now more clearly specify what knowledge and skills are really essential, given my goals for the unit. Please reach out to us at cndls georgetown. The Teaching Commons Toggle navigation. Designing Backward What goals do you have for your students? NW Washington, DC Before applying the backward design model, understanding the 7 principles and the big picture will support effective planning with clearly defined goals, aligned assessment and coherent lessons.
A framework for planning curriculum, instruction, and assessment is provided in Understanding by Design McTighe , with 2 key ideas:. Focuses on identifying what students will understand, will know and be will be able to do. Focuses on evidence of learning by assessment. Teachers plan the required performance tasks and evidence of understanding. Performance tasks determine what students will demonstrate and what evidence will prove their understanding.
This can include self-reflections and self-assessments on learning. Lists the learning activities that will lead students to the desired results. What should students come away understanding, knowing and being able to do? What will evidence the desired results, such as desired understanding?
Which learning activities promote understanding, knowledge, skill, and student interest? National, state and local standards, teacher expertise and interest. The 6 facets of understanding. Research-based repertoire of learning and teaching strategies. Essential and enabling knowledge and skills.
Filters design criteria. Enduring ideas and opportunities for authentic, discipline-based work. Valid, reliable, authentic and sufficient assessment.
Hook and hold. For this reason, backward design is considered a much more intentional approach to course design than traditional methods of design. This teaching guide will explain the benefits of incorporating backward design. Then it will elaborate on the three stages that backward design encompasses. Finally, an overview of a backward design template is provided with links to blank template pages for convenience.
Curriculum should lay out the most effective ways of achieving specific results… in short, the best designs derive backward from the learnings sought. In Understanding by Design , Wiggins and McTighe argue that backward design is focused primarily on student learning and understanding.
When teachers are designing lessons, units, or courses, they often focus on the activities and instruction rather than the outputs of the instruction. 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.
As previously stated, backward design is beneficial to instructors because it innately encourages intentionality during the design process. It continually encourages the instructor to establish the purpose of doing something before implementing it into the curriculum. Therefore, backward design is an effective way of providing guidance for instruction and designing lessons, units, and courses. Once the learning goals, or desired results, have been identified, instructors will have an easier time developing assessments and instruction around grounded learning outcomes.
The incorporation of backward design also lends itself to transparent and explicit instruction. If the teacher has explicitly defined the learning goals of the course, then they have a better idea of what they want the students to get out of learning activities.
Furthermore, if done thoroughly, it eliminates the possibility of doing certain activities and tasks for the sake of doing them. Every task and piece of instruction has a purpose that fits in with the overarching goals and goals of the course. As the quote below highlights, teaching is not just about engaging students in content.
It is also about ensuring students have the resources necessary to understand. Student learning and understanding can be gauged more accurately through a backward design approach since it leverages what students will need to know and understand during the design process in order to progress.
The shift involves thinking a great deal, first, about the specific learnings sought, and the evidence of such learnings, before thinking about what we, as the teacher, will do or provide in teaching and learning activities.
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