Backward Design

SED 509

Fall 2009

What Is It?

� Backward Design is a process of lesson planning created by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe and introduced in Understanding by Design (1998).

� This lesson design process concentrates on developing the lesson in a different order than in traditional lesson planning.

� Treats teachers as designers. “An essential act of our profession is the crafting of curriculum and learning experiences to meet specified purposes.”

� “1too many teachers focus on the teaching and not the learning.”

� Reaction to the “twin sins” of traditional design: activity-focused and coverage-focused teaching.

How Is It Different?

Traditional

� Goals & objectives

� Activities

� Assessments

Backward Design

� Goals & objectives

� Assessments

� Activities

Identify desired

results.

Determine

acceptable

evidence.

Plan learning

experiences and

instruction.

Wiggins, G & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA:

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

� Enduring Understandings: What specific insights about big ideas do we want students to leave with?

� What essential questions will frame the teaching

and learning, pointing toward key issues and

ideas, and suggest meaningful and provocative

inquiry into content?

� What should students know and be able to do?

� What content standards are addressed explicitly

by the unit?

Identify Desired Results.

Enduring Understanding

Wiggins, G & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA:

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Worth being

familiar with.

Important to know

and do.

“Enduring

Understanding”

Taking a closer look at Enduring

Understandings: They are...

� specific generalizations about the “big ideas.”

They summarize the key meanings, inferences,

and importance of the ‘content’

� Require “uncoverage” because they are not “facts”

to the novice, but unobvious inferences drawn

from facts - counter-intuitive & easily

misunderstood

� deliberately framed as a full sentence “moral of

the story” – “Students will understand THAT ”

Examples of Enduring

Understandings� Sometimes the “correct” mathematical answer is not

the best solution to real-world problems.

� Statistical analysis and data display often reveal patterns that may not be obvious.

� Heuristics are strategies that can aid problem solving (e.g. breaking a complex problem into chunks, creating a visual representation, etc.)

� Scientific claims must be verified by independent investigations.

� Standardized measures allow people to more accurately describe the physical world.

� Correlation does not ensure causality.

� Energy flows through ecosystems whereas matter cycles.

Six Facets of Understanding

� Explain - provide thorough,

supported, and justifiable accounts of

phenomena, facts and data.

� Interpret - tell meaningful

stories; offer apt translations; provide a

revealing historical or personal dimension

to ideas and events; make it personal or

accessible through images, anecdotes,

analogies, and models.

� Apply - effectively use and adapt

what is known in diverse contexts.

� Perspective - can see and

hear points of view through critical eyes

and ears; see the big picture.

� Empathize - find value in

what others might find odd, alien, or

implausible; perceive sensitively on the

basis of prior direct experience.

� Self-Knowledge -perceive the personal style, prejudices,

projections, and habits of mind that both

shape and impede our own

understanding; having an awareness of

what one does not understand and why

understanding is so hard.

Brainstorming Essential

Questions Based On the Facets

Interpretation Explanation Application

critique describe build

illustrate express create

judge justify design

translate predict perform

provide metaphors synthesize solve

assume role of be aware of analyze

consider realize argue

imagine recognize compare

relate reflect contrast

role-play self-assess infer

Empathy Self-Knowledge Perspective

Essential Questions

� Go to the heart of the discipline.

� Recur naturally throughout one’s learning and in the history of a field.

� Raise other important questions.

� Provide subject- and topic- specific doorways to essential questions.

� Have no one obvious “right” answer.

� Are deliberately framed to provoke and sustain student interest.

Examples

Determine Acceptable

Evidence.

� How will enduring understanding be measured?

� How will assessments vary?

� Both formal and informal

� Scope

� Time frame

� Setting

� Structure

Assessment ContinuumIn

form

al C

heck

s

for u

nder

stan

ding

Obs

erva

tion/

Dia

logu

eQ

uiz/

Tes

t

Aca

dem

ic p

rom

ptPer

form

ance

task

/pro

ject

Wiggins, G & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA:

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Reliability: Snapshot vs.

Photo Album

�We need patterns that overcome

inherent measurement error

� Sound assessment requires multiple

evidence over time - a photo album vs. a

single snapshot

Curricular Priorities and

Assessment Methods

Worth being

familiar with

Important to

know and do

“Enduring”

understanding

Assessment Types

Traditional quizzes and tests

Paper-pencil

Selected-response

Constructed-response

Performance tasks and projects

Open-ended

Complex

Authentic

Plan Learning Experiences.

� Learning experiences are planned after

desired results and the method of

measurement of those results are identified.

� What will the students need to know in order

to achieve the desired goal, learning, or

understanding?

� Various strategies are used to plan the

learning.

W.H.E.R.E.

��WWhere is it going?

��HHook the students.

��EExplore and equip.

��RRethink and revise.

��EExhibit and evaluate.

Misconception Alert:

the work is non-linear

It doesn’t matter where you start as long as the final design is coherent (all elements aligned)

�Clarifying one element or Stage often forces changes to another element or Stage

�The template “blueprint” is logical but the process is non-linear

Questions