For example: â« Why should students ... Examples - math. â« There are many ... Fractions, decimals, and percents expre
Backward Design
SED 509
What Is It? n Backward Design is a process of lesson planning
n
n
n n
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.” “…too 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
Backward Design
n Goals & objectives
n Goals & objectives
n Activities
n Assessments
n Assessments
n 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.
Identify Desired Results. n Enduring
Understandings: What specific insights about big ideas do we want students to leave with?
n What
Essential Questions will frame the teaching and learning, pointing toward key issues and ideas, and suggest meaningful and provocative inquiry into content?
n What n What
should students know and be able to do?
content standards are addressed explicitly by the unit?
Why goals?
Starting with standards n Standards (benchmarks, learning results, performance
indicators, etc.) n A Nation At Risk (1983) n Distributed nature of U.S. education n 1990’s – federal funds used to pay for drafting of national curriculum standards n n
Science – National Science Education Standards (NRC), Benchmarks for Science Literacy (AAAS) Math – Curriculum and Evaluation Standards (NCTM)
n State standards n No Child Left Behind (2002) n Common Core Standards
Using standards n Purpose – guides, not prescriptive n Unpacking standards n General structure: n Nature/history
of discipline n Unifying concepts and processes n Content
How can we take a mass of content knowledge and shape it into engaging, thoughtprovoking, and effective work?
Essential Questions n n n
n n n n
Serve as doorways through which learners explore the key concepts, themes, theories, issues, and problems that reside within the content (p. 106) Center on major issues, problems, concerns, interests, or themes relevant to students’ lives and to their communities. Go to the heart of the discipline and highlight big ideas. Are open-ended, non-judgmental, meaningful and purposeful with emotive force and intellectual bite, and invite an exploration of ideas. Encourage collaboration amongst students, teachers, and the community. Raise other important questions. Have no one obvious “right” answer. Are deliberately framed to provoke and sustain student interest.
Essential Questions n For example: n Why
should students read the novel, Lord of the Flies? Why this book and not another? What will they gain from this experience that will make a difference to them? What are the ‘big ideas’ in this work? What makes this book a classic? n Essential questions relevant to ‘Lord of the Flies’ might include: n What does it mean to be civilized? Are modern civilizations more civilized than ancient ones? What is necessary to ensure civilized behavior? Do children need to be taught to be civilized? What causes us to lose civilized behavior?
Essential Questions – E.G.s n Mathematics: n What
makes an estimate reasonable? n How can change be described mathematically? n What kinds of questions can be answered using proportional reasoning? n Why do we use roots and powers? n When is multiplication useful? n How does an architect use geometry? n What makes a mathematical argument convincing?
Essential Questions – E.G.s n Science: n n n n n n n n n n n n n
Is it possible to make a list of the characteristics of living things that fits all known organisms? How does an organisms structure affect its ability to survive? How can you tell that energy has transformed? Why is a perpetual motion machine impossible? How is life on earth affected by the universe around it? How are water and air related? Do animals need plants to survive? Do plants need animals? Is the earth unique? Do all scientists follow the scientific method? How does the ocean affect someone living in Corvallis? What would happen if all of the worms disappeared? Why is there order to the periodic table? Is Corvallis in any danger from natural disasters?
Essential Questions n Overarching essential questions n Unifying concepts and processes (science) n Practices (math) n Topical essential questions n Content
standards
A good unit requires both
Your turn…
Enduring Understanding Worth being familiar with Important to know and do “Enduring Understanding”
Wiggins, G & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Taking a closer look at Enduring Understandings: They... n Are
specific generalizations about the “big ideas.” They summarize the key meanings, inferences, and importance of the ‘content’ n Require “uncoverage” because they are not “facts” to the novice, but unobvious inferences drawn from facts - counter-intuitive & easily misunderstood n Are what students should remember 20 years from now. n Are deliberately framed as a full sentence “moral of the story” – “Students will understand THAT…”
Examples - math n There are many ways to represent a number. n In certain situations, an estimate is as useful as an exact answer. n Real-world situations can be represented symbolically and graphically. n Algebraic expressions and equations generalize relationships from n n n n n n
specific cases. Proportional relationships express how quantities change in relationship to each other. Fractions, decimals, and percents express a relationship between two number. Relationships among quantities can often be expressed symbolically in more than one way. Linear functions arise when there is a constant rate of change. Geometric models are useful in representing algebraic relationships. Inductive and deductive reasoning can be used to formulate mathematical arguments.
Examples - science n n n n n n
n n n n n
Systems have cycles and patterns that allow us to make predictions. All living things are made from cells that carry on chemical reactions necessary to sustain life. Life depends on energy flow within systems. An ecosystem transfers matter and energy from one organism to another. The diversity of life is the result of ongoing evolutionary change. Species alive today have evolved from ancient common ancestors. DNA is the universal code for life; it enables an organism to transmit hereditary information and, along with the environment, determines an organism’s characteristics. All changes in and interactions of matter are associated with changes in energy. Scientific ideas evolve as new information is discovered. The periodic table is arranged in a logical sequence that can be used to predict the properties of elements. Energy not only provides the ability to do work, but drives systems and cycles of our universe, solar system, Earth, and life. Acids and bases and the pH scale are important to understanding the environment, household chemicals, and homeostasis in the body.
Your turn…
Determine Acceptable Evidence n How will the enduring understandings
be measured? n Use your essential questions! n Match the goals to the appropriate type of assessment
Assessment Continuum
Wiggins, G & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Reliability: Snapshot vs. Photo Album n We need patterns that overcome inherent measurement error n Sound
assessment requires multiple evidence over time - a photo album vs. a single snapshot
Curricular Priorities and Assessment Methods Assessment Types
Traditional quizzes and tests
Paper-pencil
Selected-response
Constructed-response
Performance tasks and projects
Open-ended
Complex
Authentic
Worth being familiar with
Important to know and do
“Enduring” understanding
Your turn…
Plan Learning Experiences n Learning experiences are planned after
desired results and the method of measurement of those results are identified. n What will the students need to know and be able to do in order to achieve the desired goal, learning, or understanding? n These will then be translated to the specific lesson plans that make up your unit.
Lesson objectives - science n Students will know that… n n n
Cells are the basic unit of life and combine themselves into increasingly complex levels of organization. The cell membrane is involved in protection, transport, and maintenance of the internal cell environment. Plants transform light energy into chemical energy for storage and use in the process of photosynthesis.
n Students will be able to… n n n
Mount and stain onion root tip cells. Utilize a microscope to identify the parts of the cell. Design a controlled experiment.
Lesson objectives - math n Students will know that… n Students will be able to… n Students will know that solving linear
inequalities utilizes inverse operations that maintain the relationship between quantities in an inequality. n Students
will be able to solve linear inequalities using inverse operations, properties of addition and multiplication, and the distributive property.
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) n Clarifying
one element often forces changes to another element n The template “blueprint” is logical but the process is non-linear
Questions
