by Dahlya Smolash, Department of English
Backward Design is an approach to curriculum planning that starts with final learning outcomes, and works backwards to determine activities and assessment tools. A Backward Design approach has the benefit of methodologically ensuring that the objectives and the assignments/activities are in synch. This approach shifts the focus from “input” to “output“ (Wiggins and McTighe 6). Output is defined as “what the student should be able to know, do, and understand upon leaving, expressed in performance and product terms” (Wiggins and McTighe 6).
Backward Design lesson planning usually begins with a hook, or some way to engage students. Ken Bain writes in What the Best College Teachers Do, that “To gain students’ attention, the best teachers start with something that . . . students care about, know, or think they know, rather than just lay out a blueprint or an outline or tale or theory or account of our own” (110). Bain argues that this “requires students to begin struggling with an issue from their own perspective even before they know much about it“(110).
A Backward Design approach helps to answer questions outlined by Wiggins and McTighe in Understanding By Design. These questions include: “Why are we asking students to read this particular novel – in other words, what learnings will we seek from their having read it” (15)? “What kind of intellectual scaffolding is provided to guide students through the important ideas? How are students expected to use those ideas to make meaning of the many facts? What performance goals would help students know how to take notes for maximal effective use by course’s end” (21)?
Image courtesy of Humboldt State University
In teaching writing, an example of an “output” or learning outcome is: students are able to identify strong and weak thesis statements. John Bean, in Engaging Ideas, outlines some teaching strategies that can meet this learning outcome: 1) “Present a Proposition (Thesis) for Students to Defend or Refute” (107). In this strategy the teacher develops arguable positions that the students debate in class. 2) “Give Students a Problem or Question That Demands the Student’s ‘Best Solution’ Answer’ “ (107). In this approach the instructor “provides a controversial thesis to defend or attack, and invites a variety of thesis statements arguing different conceptual positions” (108). 3) “Create ‘Strong Response’ Assignments Based on One or More Scholarly Articles or Other Readings” (109). In this strategy the students read articles and write a rebuttal to the arguments, speaking back to the text. Assessment tools that follow from this approach will identify whether students have integrated new knowledge about strong and weak thesis statements.
There is an initial investment of time to design lessons and units beginning with the learning outcome. Wiggins and McTighe argue that it is worth the effort and will result in increased productivity over the long term (21). This approach will increase student understanding and ability to apply learning in new contexts (7). Student engagement will be high when the purpose of learning is clear, and the outcomes are tied to activities and lecture topics.
Resources
Wiggins and McTighe offer a detailed template for unit planning in the book Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook.
Works Cited
- Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas: The Professors Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008. Print.
- Bain, Ken. What the Best College Teachers Do. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004. Print.
- Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding By Design. Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), 2005. Print.
- Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding By Design Professional Development Workbook. Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), 2004. Print.