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Dear Mo,

These are some of the many benefits of usIng a backwards design model. I know one day in your early teaching career you will look back and be surprised that you already use this in your classrooms. Needless today to say, here are some more things to remember

Backwards design has 3 stages
1. Identify desired results
2. Determine appropriate evidence
3.Plan learning experiences

When your planning your design always look back to curriculum documents and think about the many ways you can use this model in all subjects. Don’t worry it’s ok to make mistakes but you can rest assure that if the order of the model doesint fall into plan that you still have a good basis for the overall learning experience

Good luck

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Some differences between traditional and backward design planning.

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Some differences between traditional and backward design planning.

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Hi, Junmin,

You did wonderful job for learning the article about backwards design. I cannot say that I’m totally understand backwards design, but I just would like to try to remember some differences between traditional and backward design planning. Probably, it helps to understand backwards design.

Backwards design:

-Focusing on the end result is key to backwards design. The idea is to ‘focus first on the desired learnings from which appropriate teaching will logically follow.’ (Wiggins & McTigh,2005, p14). Knowing the destination makes clear the methods and activities to arrive there.

-If lessons are focused on engaging ‘mind on’ activities and materials, students will be able to understand the point, the big idea, why they should learn the material, and how to apply it in other areas.

-Each activity in backwards design will point the student toward the end goal and allow them to use multiple skills from previous lessons. This may require time spent on content to explore the many questions and applications for purposeful tasks.

-Backwards design begins with the ability to think about a unit or course in term of the collected assessment evidence needed to document and validate that the desired learning has been achieved.’ (Wiggins& McTighe, 2005, p.18). Determine the measurement before the activities.

-UbD requires planning to revolve around essential questions. These question keep the lessons focused on the big ideas driving the end result and what the students should understand. They are not concrete, but stimulate thought to provoke inquiry and spark more questions(Wiggins& McTighe, 2005, p.106).

-Because backwards design is driven by essential questions and big ideas, student goals for lessons will be to understand rather than perform. Students can apply knowledge, such as, in addition to knowing what engine parts do, understanding how they function together and can be altered or improved.

Traditional Design:

-Traditional Design wasted on planning activities to do and materials to use while there is no clear destination or results. This leaves the educator hoping the content they used will ‘stick’ with the students.

-When activities and materials are chosen because they seem fun or interesting without essential end-result goals, then their job is to merely engage and the activity has lost meaning and relevancy toward learning.

-Traditional methods attempt to cover as much as possible in content areas. This often leads to skimming and the student’s inability to understand skills and apply them in multiple areas. It also leads to the inability to successfully assess for understanding.

-Traditional design begins with planning what content needs to be covered rather than knowing how the students will display their understanding of that content. Once again, it leads to the ‘hope’ that something from the material has stuck.

-Questions in traditional design are limited to immediate material or content and do not reach across big ideas or understanding. Generally, they are lessons pulled from well-intentional textbooks that supply knowledge, but not fail to inspire critical thinking.

-In staggered lessons, students find their goals begin with what they will be able to do at the completion. While performing is necessary, learning is not apparent unless they can use that knowledge to connect an understanding in multiple areas. This is merely understanding what each part of an engine does.

Good Luck!

Junmin

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Dear Kimberly

The Backward Design should be considered when making applications with curriculum planning. There are three stages of Backward Design. Stage one is when you identify desired results by reviewing goals, content standards and curriculum expectations, and confirm intentions.  The second stage involves determining acceptable evidence by indicating how students will acquire knowledge of concepts and to outline expectations to determine success. Lastly, the third stage is in regard to planning learning experiences and instruction. This can be done by choosing a method of instruction, identifying appropriate instructional activities, and outlining skills required. Moreover, it involves identifying required materials and providing resources. By following these stages, you will know what your plan and assessments are before you even start the lesson.

Keep me posted!

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Dear Nycole,

I am sure that life is treating you well in the primary grade classroom that you are teaching. I hope you have remembered to use the valuable unit planning method that you learned about when you took the online course through the University of Toronto in the summer of 2018. If not, here are the basics of backward design. It’s as easy as 3-2-1 or 1-2-3:

1.       Identifying desired results: What I want the students to understand, know and be able to do?

2.       Determining assessment evidence: How do I check that they have learned?

3.       Planning learning experiences and instruction: Which learning activities will lead students to the desired result?

Don’t forget, it is important to have clearly defined goals prior to planning the instruction as that makes it easier to ensure a complete and directed learning experience. Also, remember that it is highly beneficial to collaborate with colleagues when designing concrete, evidence-based assessments prior to the learning experience as that will maximize curricular coherence and support reliable evaluation across all students.

Miss you. XO

Love, Sharrie

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Dear Victoria,

Awesome job reading that article on backward design. Here are some key point I would like us to remember!

First, backwards design is a purposeful task analysis. The main idea is for teachers to think how can we prepare and equip our students to complete a task.

Here are 3 steps in using the backward design process

1. Identify desired goals: What to do you want students to know, to be able to do. Think abut curriculum expectations. What are the priorities. Think abut enduring understandings.

2. Determine acceptable assessment: how do we document and validate what students have learned? What kind of assessment will you use?

3. Plan the learning experience!: What are some appropriate instructional activities that fit into your plan? What skill will the students need to be successful in completing the task at hand? How will things be taught, through which teaching style? What resources and material will  you need?

In the end, always keep thinking and asking questions about your lesson!

xoxo,
Vic

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Dear Future Jacob,

You're forgetful. We both know it. Let's not forget the time you forgot it was your birthday and showed up two hours late to the party you organized. So, listen up, because you've definitely forgot all about the importance of backwards design.

Unlike typical lesson design, which focuses on content, backwards design focuses on understanding. You start with the learning goals you hope students will achieve. Then, you plan your lessons in a logical order to build upon each other and reach those goals.

The other tendency that backwards design helps prevent is called "coverage." That's where teachers focus too much on factual knowledge or a breadth of pages in a textbook and neglect, again, to consider whether students comprehend the content. You should remember "coverage." It's the form of teaching you experienced as a student for most of your life.

Now let's remember e about why backwards design is better.

A major benefit of backwards design is that it will prevent you from becoming too comfortable with anyone set of strategies or materials. It asks you to consider your learners and what they need to learn in the planning stage. It doesn't take a genius to realize that you'll have different students year-to-year, class-to-class, and so your past activities will not necessarily work as previously planned.

Admittedly, I think backwards design is a difficult concept for teachers. What is this abstract idea of "understanding," especially in the context of a real, diverse student group. How do we ensure students do "understand."

It seems to me an easier way to think about backwards design is to create cool projects where students have to transfer their knowledge in some significant way. The project needs to be relevant, engaging, and realistic. Students need to take the content and do something with it: design, compare, improve, and so on. You learned this idea long ago from Garfield Gini-Newman, though I don't think he ever made the connection to UbD 2.0.

Once you have a great project, introduce it to your students right away. This gives them something concrete to work towards. Then chunk the project into smaller components where students learn the material and then apply it to their project. Over the course of the unit, they work frequently on their project and continually use their new knowledge to improve upon it. This, in my view, makes it easier to track student progress and to ensure you've built content and understanding into your units.

Anyway, I hope you have a full-time position by now.

Love,
Past Jacob

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Here is my postcard:

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Hey Rita,

If you are ever feeling like your lessons or your planning are getting too confusing and scattered, a tip to remember would be to plan backwards. Plan the assessment piece first based on the learners and their needs, and then teach the unit. This will help you stay accountable and on track, and it will also help the students to learn better because there is a clear goal in mind that they are working towards. If you do not plan backwards, it could still be a great unit with wonderful lessons, but you might get distracted half-way through, or you might feel like you are falling behind your unit plan schedule. It might just be easier to plan backwards from the beginning. Backwards planning will also make your end of unit assessment more meaningful for the students, because you will have worked up to it through your lessons because you knew it was coming from the very beginning. This will also give you time to practice it with your students if it is something new, since their assessments should be something that they have seen before. Never lose sight of your goal!

Sincerely,

Rita

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Dear Ritu,
Here are some points to remember as you continue your journey as a teacher.  Plan your lessons using the backward design model.  It is basically planning your lessons with an end goal in mind.  It helps you to stay focused on what your desired results.

You want to make sure you avoid “content- focused design,” where you discuss the content from a book or a text book.  This is basically when you are teaching to assess comprehension, however, you have not gone beyond the scope of the content.  I would advise you to focus your lesson planning to be “result-focused design” where you ask questions to provoke critical thinking.  Examples of such questions are: Why are we having students read this book or section of the textbook? What learning do you expect students to obtain? How does learning this concept affect their everyday life?

To maximize student learning, avoid the “twin sins” while planning.  The first sin is when teaching is activity-oriented without it being intellectually stimulating (hands-on without being minds-on).  The other sin is coverage, which is when you teach through the text book, page by page.  This method does not place any relevance as to why it is important to learn the topic.

I want you to keep in mind, there are three stages of backward design:

1)           Identify desired results: What you hope to accomplish by the end of your lesson.

2)         Determine acceptable evidence: This is based on collected assessments to see if the desired learning has been achieved.  We should “think like an assessor.”

3)         Plan learning experiences and instruction: Determine what knowledge and skills the students will need in order for them to reach your desired result of learning.  What kind of instructional strategies will you employ?

Remember: Backward design is about having a clear goal, which will help you narrow your planning to reach a desired end result.

Love,
Ritu

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Hi Emily (B),
You just read an article by Wiggins and Tighe on backwards planning. You've had some practice with this, but since it can be tempting to "focus on the teaching rather than the learning," here are some helpful guiding questions to use when planning for instruction:

1. What are the learning goals and big ideas? What should students be able to do by the end?
2. How will I know when students have met these goals? What assessments will I use, i.e. what evidence of learning will I examine?
3. How can I plan instruction and learning experiences with these goals and assessments in mind?

Avoid fixating on activities and coverage. Keep asking “why?” and “so what?” and make sure that the answers to these questions are clear to students. They should feel that their learning experience has direction, meaning, and purpose. Good luck!

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Integrated Learning in the Classroom- "More opportunities to differentiate learning". 

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Integrated Learning in the Classroom- "More opportunities to differentiate learning". 

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Hey Amanda,
Did you know that integrated learning has been around in Ontario since 1937?!
Now integrated learning may sound like a lot more work, but once you get used to planning this way you won't be able to go back to discipline based programming. The benefits are far reaching and include:
- greater student engagement.
- increased teacher collaboration and professional growth.
- more opportunities for differentiated learning.

The way to begin planning an integrated approach to learning is by scanning the Ontario Curriculum Documents for recurrcing ideas because ultimately, this is what students will be expected to know. Second, see if you can relate these ideas to a current event or local/national/global issue. This can be your lens for teaching your new big idea. Next, create a concept web to begin planning activities so that you can target as many expectations as possible. Then, design and create a rich culminating task that will encompass expectations from more than one subject area. Finally, now that you know what the culiminating task will be, start planning lessons that will prepare students for the culminating task.

Don't worry. It's completely normal to struggle when integrating math into your big idea. Literacy is often easier to integrate and sometimes math concepts need to be taught separately. DO try to create problems based on your big idea when possible.

Goodluck. Once you begin teaching this way it will be difficult to teach any other way. Stick with it!
- Amanda

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Remember Jerome Bruner's quote "For any subject taught in primary school, we might ask [is it] worth an adult's knowing, and whether having known it as a child makes a person a better adult" (p. 52).

Remember your time crewing on a Ranger 32. Flexibility and the flow of the day are a direct response to adaptation to the constant ebb and flow of the sea, and consistently inconsistent changing of the winds, but there is always a clear transparent goal that is established before the journey begins.

Three Steps of Backwards Design:
1) Identify Desired Results
- Enduring understandings

- Important to know and do
- Worth being familiar with

2) Determine Acceptable Evidence. This is a continuum throughout the unit that works to answer the question, how will we know if the students achieved success?

3) Plan Learning experiences and instructions based on the first two stages, and individual students needs.

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Dear Maja,
These are some important notes you should remember when planning units/lessons. Do not fret if something does not go as planned, you are still learning too!

"what learnings will we seek?"

BACKWARDS DESIGN
"The best designs derive backward from the learnings sought"

Backwards design is a great method to use when planning lessons and units. It helps specify learning results and determines content, method and activities in order to meet the desired end goal.

Avoid what we call the "twin sins" which is activity oreiented design (hands on without minds on) and coverage. These two "sins" lack a specific focus on important ideas, end goals and fail to give evidence of learning.

There are 3 stages when planning a backwards design lesson/unit.
1. Identify desired results
2. Determine acceptable evidence
3. Plan learning experiences and instruction

Follow these 3 steps and you'll be set!!
http://learntbl.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wiggins-mctighe-backward-design-why-backward-is-best.pdf

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Danielle,

Sometimes it can be overwhelming, thinking of all of the curriculum areas that need to be covered in the year and figuring out how to differentiate for so many students with such different needs! Today, I was reading about the idea of Integrated Curriculum, in which you integrate multiple subjects across the curriculum into one large inquiry-based project.

Planning would look something like this:

1. Start with the curriculum. Look for similarities and natural pairings across the subjects, and cluster them into meaningful chunks. Determine what the students should Know, Do, and Be at the end of the project.

2. Choose an appropriate issue or theme to study that ties the subject areas together. Brainstorm possible activities. Consider doing this with the class.

3. Create a rich assessment task for the culminating activity. Align this task with the KDB and curriculum expectations.

4. Create two or three Big Questions. Organize daily instruction around them.

Not only does this planning method increase your ability to simultaneously cover multiple areas of the curriculum, but it will increase student engagement and allow for differentiation. Real world application is as exciting for them as it is for you!

Can’t wait to see how you apply this concept in your planning!

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Always have a reason for what you do: Without answering questions like ‘why are we learning this?’, ‘what is the purpose of this lesson?’ and ‘ what is the overall expectation and what should I be learning?’ in our planning, daily work becomes confusing and frustrating. If there is a clear reason for activities that is transparent to the students, they will be more eager to do the work and will also have a clear understanding of their learning and where they stand in the course as they are able to see the big picture. There must be an overarching goal that activities are geared toward achieving.

How to: Begin by checking out he curriculum and prioritising learning goals. Next, ask what evidence there will be that these goals have been achieved/ lessons learned? What questions will have to be answered, what will the students be able to do at the end? Then, you can plan based on deciding which skills and processes will students need to demonstrate or possess and how you will teach those concepts.

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Hey Alex,

When educators plan their units and lessons, they should always follow the backwards design model.  Backwards design allows educators to specify desired results or learning for their students, determining which content to deliver, methods to employ, and activities to create in order to meet the desired outcome.  In simpler terms, backwards design provides teachers with a map of where they would like to take their students, giving their units/lessons purpose and direction.

When planning, the “twin sins” of traditional design should be avoided.  They include activity-oriented design and coverage.  Both of these methods fail to promote deeper thinking as they lack focus on important ideas fail to engage students.

There are 3 stages to backwards design:

1) Identify desired results-here we consider our goals for students, examine content standards and consult curriculum expectations.  We must clarify our priorities.

2) Determine Acceptable Evidence- we must think in terms of collected assessment that serves as evidence that students have reached desired learning goals. Encourages teachers to think like an assessor.

3) Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction-Here we determine what instructional strategies to use.  We must decide what knowledge students need to develop to succeed, what activities will best help students in developing that knowledge and what will be taught/coached.  We use these decisions to help us put together a sequence of lessons to get students to the desired end point of our unit successfully.

Make sure to use the backwards design model throughout future planning.

Good luck with your teaching career!

Alex

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Marilyn - Things to Know about Backward Design

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Marilyn - Things to Know about Backward Design

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“To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction” (Stephen R. Covey)

It’s been a while that you learned about Backward Design. You practice it often when you do your unit plans. Here’s a quick refresher for you. There are 3 stages.

1. Identify desired results.

What are the overall expectations that students will need to know by the end of the unit?

Which specific expectations will I target?

What are the skills and content that they MUST learn?

What are the is important for them to know and do?

What are some topics that I can touch upon if there is time?

2. Determine acceptable evidence

How will I assess as, of, for learning in this unit?

How should I ensure that I have some assessments that are inquiry based?

3. Plan learning experiences and instructions

How will I incorporate “Empowering Modern Learners” into my lessons?

How will I differentiate to ensure that I meet the needs of all learners in the classroom?

I hope that that’s a good refresher! Keep this and “EML” document in mind for interviews next month. Think back to some strong examples in the classroom. You’ll rock it!

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Module 5.2 - Write a Letter to Myself | Backwards Design

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Module 5.2 - Write a Letter to Myself | Backwards Design

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Salut, Amanda !

Below is what you should remember moving forward in September.

KBG - Know, Skills, Do Brainstorm possible activities based on expectations. Create a concept web as an organizing graphic or use Assistive Technology with the learners - co-created success criteria & planning to their inquiries!

Remember when you wondered how to assess learning in Play & Inquiry?  These questions keep coming back to me for various subject areas.  I'd like to recall my search for meaningful and rich assessment tasks, which can be difficult to plan ahead for before meeting the community you will be in.

I appreciated the focus on collaboration toward the end.  Uncover those who are willing to help you early on.  What big ideas did previous teachers focus on?  Should I pick up there or fill in potential gaps?

Remember that with as much planning as you put in before September, there will be plenty of additional learning as you go with your class.

Dream big: remember to pull from I Think Camp in solving local issues relevant to students.  How can you incorporate numeracy into this planning?  How can you stretch out long camp days into units?  How can a combined class draw upon their strengths?

More thoughts & tips that validated my practice:

Scan and cluster to gain better insight into where they're going and where they're coming from.

Develop concept mapping skills or use Assistive Technology

content (Know), skills (Do) and attitudes/beliefs (Be), the KDB.

Unit umbrella

Identify Desired Results - Determine Acceptable Evidence - Planning Learning experiences and instruction

Decide on culminating task(s)

Decide big questions (sounds like Inquiry) to surround daily lessons.

I want to connect learners to their world.

How can I embed math in these authentic ways?  Won't I need practice beforehand?

Global trade sustainability and social justice

Remember to look back to the Scope and Sequence for ESE and FNMI.

Keep reflecting and try to keep them in the same spots ( :

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Dear Gina,

There are a lot of curriculum expectations to cover over the course of a school year. One way in which you can ensure you and your students address and learn a greater number of expectations across the disciplines is through the use of integration.
When planning for your integrated unit you need to use a backward design approach. This means you will need begin by scanning curriculum expectations across the disciplines and grade levels to identify connections, themes, and similar big ideas. The similarities in knowledge, concepts, and skills across the curriculums will alert you to opportunities to "integrate" and help you identify what is most important for your students to be able Know (big ideas), Do (21st century skills), and Be (habits of mind, attitudes/beliefs, character education) at the end of your integrated unit. Once you have identified the connections in the curriculum and the concepts that tie the curriculum together you can seek out a theme, or issue that can frame your unit. You can also identify the activities and that you would like your students to engage in as a part of the integrated unit. Finally, you can create an authentic task or meaningful inquiry based project that aligns with the key learnings (the KDB) and expectations that you dentified earlier.
The brief daily instruction you engage in will be connected to 2-3 Big Questions and the Enduring Understandings connected to the integrated unit and it will ensure your students have vocabulary and the skill set to meet the expectations of your authentic task. Co-constructing success criteria for specific elements and activities linked to the authentic task will also part of daily instruction.

Teacher and student self-ssessment will be ongoing using observation, checklists, rubrics.

You will also want to give your students an opportunity to share their learning with their peers, their families, and the school community.

Integrated planning is a ton of work "up-front" but it is worth it because your students will be more engaged, you will have more fun learning alongside your students, all students can access the key concepts and skills at a level they feel comfortable with, and you have multiple ways in which you can evaluate your student's progress.

Best of Luck,
Gina

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Hey Lorie

This article had some good tips on things to consider when integrating subjects.

When you are getting ready to create your cross-curricular activity take a look at the expectations two grades below and one grade above your focus grade. Then look at the expectations in each of the subjects for your focus grade. This will help you to figure out the core concepts that you will address (Big Ideas) in the unit.

To narrow your focus each day think of 2 or 3 “Big Questions” and organize your daily instruction around them. Re-use these questions or stretch them out over a few days. There's no need to have too many as that defeats the purpose.

Finally, thinking about any real-world applications. This will help to infuse math seamlessly into the overall unit plan, make it interesting and applicable to the students.

Good luck,
Lorie

P.S. Don't struggle with the Big Questions/Ideas as the overview section of the curriculum usually has some good ideas that you could use. Get your feet wet before you delve into your own (no need to recreate the wheel)!

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Dear Steve,

Great job reading that article on backwards design! Here are a couple notes you wanted yourself to remember!

Backwards design - starting with the end in mind - is a way to deliver a planned sequence of the Curriculum.

There are 3 main sections of the Backwards Design.

1. Identify desired results - by the end of the unit, what should the students know, understand, and be able to do?

2. Determine acceptable evidence  - how will you know that the students know, understand, and are able to do the desired results - and be sure to consider a variety of evidence from the Assessment Continuum - these are done throughout the unit, not just one final assessment at the end.

3. Plan Learning Experiences/Lessons - now that we know what we want students to know, and how we know they’ll demonstrate their learning - now we can put together a sequence of lessons/experiences that will lead to our end goals. What skills, knowledge, activities, materials, resources are needed for students to accomplish the goals.

Be sure to use this design for future planning!

All the best!

Steve

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Dear Daniel,

Remember that backward design is best!

When you do not use backward design you can fall into one of two traps. The first is becoming too activity focused and being hands on without being minds on! The second mistake by not using backward design is just doing coverage and trying to "march" through your material.

Also remember the three steps of backward design! First: Identify the desired results of what you want your students to know/understand/be able to do. Second: Determine what evidence/assessments will let you know that they know/understand. Third: Plan what experiences/activities will give students the ability to provide that evidence!

You'll be a great teacher Daniel.

Love,
Daniel

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Hey Bert,

Wish you could be here on the warm beach, but you decided to do an ABQ this summer!

Anyway, here is some things that my help you understand Integrated Curriculum which is unifying 2 or more subject under one theme or topic.

You may ask why would you do this, it seems like a lot of work.  Well, not only do students perform better and retain knowledge, but teachers also benefit from the process.  And how many times have you complained that there is not enough time to teach all the curriculum.  This is killing two birds with one stone.

Just remember these 6 steps:

1. KDB (Know, Do, Be) – Scan Curriculum documents vertically (one grade above and below) to know the expectations and group reoccurring concepts together. For example Know Big Ideas like systems and structure, Do skill like critical thinking, and Be  the proper attitude like being ethical.

2. Choose a theme for example the life cycle of a butterfly.

3. Brain storm several activities based on expectations – graph the growth, journal the changes, research the stages.

4.  Create a rich assessment task that is challenging and covers the expectations.

5. Create 2 or 3 Big questions to guide the students

6. Create daily instructional activities that matches the Big Questions.

Hey, you should see how this is similar to designing down.

Good luck with that course; I am off to SCUBA diving lessons,

Bert

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Nathan Graham_Universal Design, Top of Mind!

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Nathan Graham_Universal Design, Top of Mind!

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Hey you!

Don’t forget that Universal Design can better your planning of lessons and units for your students. How you may ask? Remember that UD seeks to serve a wider range of learners, especially those with exceptionalities and disabilities. It’s about realizing that not all students learn in the same ways. Therefore, it is important to accommodate how you plan to teach, what you plan to teach, the materials you plan to teach with and even how you plan to assess and evaluate student work. It literally benefits EVERY student, so don’t forget! Here is a little rime to help you remember:

“Universal design should be top of mind!”

Good luck!

Nathan