{"id":3125,"date":"2013-01-22T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2013-01-22T14:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/tasupport\/?p=3125"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:28:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:28:23","slug":"blog-post-begin-with-the-end-in-mind-backward-design-a-tool-for-effective-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2013\/blog-post-begin-with-the-end-in-mind-backward-design-a-tool-for-effective-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog Post: Begin with the end in mind: Backward Design – A Tool for Effective Teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Blog Post: Begin with the end in mind: Backward Design – A Tool for Effective Teaching\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

by Dahlya Smolash, Department of English<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cinput\u201d to \u201coutput\u201c (Wiggins and McTighe 6). Output is defined as \u201cwhat the student should be able to know, do, and understand upon leaving, expressed in performance and product terms\u201d (Wiggins and McTighe 6).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/em>, that \u201cTo gain students\u2019 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\u201d (110).  Bain argues that this \u201crequires students to begin struggling with an issue from their own perspective even before they know much about it\u201c(110).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Backward Design approach helps to answer questions outlined by Wiggins and McTighe in Understanding By Design.<\/em> These questions include: \u201cWhy are we asking students to read this particular novel \u2013 in other words, what learnings will we seek from their having read it\u201d (15)? \u201cWhat 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\u2019s end\u201d (21)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image courtesy of Humboldt State University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In teaching writing, an example of an \u201coutput\u201d or learning outcome is: students are able to identify strong and weak thesis statements. John Bean, in Engaging Ideas,<\/em> outlines some teaching strategies that can meet this learning outcome: 1) \u201cPresent a Proposition (Thesis) for Students to Defend or Refute\u201d (107). In this strategy the teacher develops arguable positions that the students debate in class. 2) \u201cGive Students a Problem or Question That Demands the Student\u2019s \u2018Best Solution\u2019 Answer\u2019 \u201c (107). In this approach the instructor \u201cprovides a controversial thesis to defend or attack, and invites a variety of thesis statements arguing different conceptual positions\u201d (108).  3) \u201cCreate \u2018Strong Response\u2019 Assignments Based on One or More Scholarly Articles or Other Readings\u201d (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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resources<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiggins and McTighe offer a detailed template for unit planning in the book Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works Cited<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas: The Professors Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom.<\/em> San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008. Print.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Bain, Ken. What the Best College Teachers Do<\/em>. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004. Print.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding By Design<\/em>. Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), 2005. Print.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding By Design Professional Development Workbook<\/em>. Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), 2004. Print.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    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 \u201cinput\u201d to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[759],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ta-blog"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41341,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3125\/revisions\/41341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}