Backward Design

My industrial experience is in chemical engineering and I feel that is where my preference for the backwards design curriculum design comes from. It makes sense to fully understand what you expect in the end whether that is a product to sell or a piece of material to understand.

 

As a new teacher I will lean on the first section of the backward design very much. Here is where I will flesh out the big goals, the big “enduring questions” that I need to understand before undertaking the rest of the planning. Before learning of this curricular model I feel I would have just jumped in with the lesson planning. I think many teachers do this simply because they do not know any other techniques. I feel using the backward design model forces me to really grapple with where I want my students to be at the end of a unit and throughout the unit as well. After solidifying some of these enduring questions I will be able to use the standards mentioned above to really examine the content I want to the students to be able to understand.

 

An example of this is in my curriculum, specifically in the “Periodic Table” unit.  Standard 3.2.10.A1 states “Predict properties of elements using trends of the periodic table.” I have addressed this in my unit by first allowing the students to explore various elements of the table through a group project and then combining this knowledge to predict trends of the table.”

 

Learning about the second part of utilizing the backward design model has been the most illuminating for me. Planning the assessment beforehand was something I hadn’t really thought of before that I will definitely employ in my classroom. It is imperative to know how, as the teacher, you will know how you are “performing.” The performance of the students is often talked about and I want to be able to use their performance as a lens into their learning. I also want to use their performance as a lens into the effectiveness of my teaching, perhaps illuminating areas in which I can improve. Just like we plan exams in advance for our students, I think it is important to plan ways for our own performance to be assessed as well. This could be done qualitatively or quantitatively depending on the material being taught. Quantitatively this could take the form of a quick data survey or a more qualitative questionnaire that asked for descriptions.  This is definitely an area I would like to explore.