Backward+Design

__Part 1:__ Backwards design, or understanding by design are exactly what they sound like, designing your curriculum backwards. The primary driving force for this new method is to always be guided by the desired student achievement outcomes. What do you want the student to know or be able to do after this lesson, unit, chapter, etc. It is important to think about what you want the students to be able to do. If a teacher plans from activity to activity, the end result/goal is often lost and the students are being tested on things that may or may not have been stressed in the lessons or activities. Every activity, lesson, etc should all stem back to the essential questions for that unit. Having these essential questions keeps both the student and the teacher focused. Using this method you can teach for understanding and assess for learning instead of providing assessments of learning. Since the unit begins at the end, meaning the unit begins with the goals of what the students should be able to do at the end of the unit, the end is the best place to start. Teachers should plan and teach to those goals and not the other way around. In order to do this properly, there are steps and stages to the backwards design process. First, the teacher must think of enduring understandings and essential questions and learnings to guide the students. These are topics and questions that are not easy to answer but can be attempted after the lesson or unit. These understandings and questions are vague, broad, and can relate into many aspects of their life. Second, the assessment for the end of the unit must be developed. Next come alignment to the state standards, then activity planning. This way, everything reverts and reflects back to the enduring understandings and learnings for the unit. By doing this, it provides a clear path towards the knowledge and the understanding. The most important aspect of backwards design is when the teacher is first developing these ideas and benchmarks. If we start with identified results and a definite endpoint, then we can teach to that endpoint. Second most important is investigating how we will assess for this learning. We need to have clear and good assessments to asses the students. We need good ways to collect data to support whether or not they are reaching the benchmarks and how they are getting there. There should be many types of assessments along the learning path and they should very in formality. Both formative and summative assessments should be used. When developing questions and unit themes, it is important to keep the 6 facets of understanding in mind. These are skills that the students need to be able to do. They reach all aspects of Bloom’s Taxonomy from lower level thinking to very high levels of thinking skill. Being able to explain the learning, concepts and ideas is a very important life skill. One needs to be able to answer questions and explain their thought processes both verbally and on paper. Interpreting and applying knowledge and curricular topics and relating them to their lives is a must. Being able to empathize and have self knowledge is huge! This, yet again, promotes the idea of metacognition and students being responsible for their own learning. I have attended a workshop on backwards design and I must say that it makes perfect sense. I like to have a clear goal in mind and I like to share it with my students. We have our essential questions for the course and our enduring understandings for the course posted throughout our rooms at school. They are always visible and accessible to anyone. I have found a lot of success with this type of lesson planning. It keeps me focused on an end result and I don’t get caught up in how many activities I can do. I find it very successful.

Works Cited

"3. Developing Goals and Objectives." //ETS Redirect//. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. .

"Authentic Education - What Is UbD?" //Authentic Education - Welcome to Authentic Education//. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. .

"[Digital] Literacy | Backward Design Process." //[Digital] Literacy | Welcome//. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. .

"District." //Greece Central School District//. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. .

"Understanding by Design." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. .

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__Part 2:__

** Backward Design Lesson Plan Template **

** Due November 14 **

Please review the expectations for this assignment on Blackboard. As you complete the items highlighted below, please copy and paste the lesson chart into your wiki. Then submit the direct link to the assignment in Bb. The lesson should be as complete as possible for any colleague to take and replicate without reservation or question. // TSSBAT create a podcast. // // TSSBAT explain how to treat a specific illness. // || // How does the human body work? // // What illness do I have? // ||
 * Human Body Systems – Systems in Science || The students will be using their knowledge of the human body systems we have been studying to create a radio call-in show podcast for medical advice. ||
 * Student Expectations || // TSSBAT explain how a certain assigned body system works. //
 * Essential (Guiding) Questions || // How are our bodies organized? //
 * Assessment || // The rubric we use for grading is below. The student will create a podcast and a script for the podcast as well. The script will be “conferenced” with me. The student then starts creating their podcast using GarageBand. The final product will be assessed via the rubric below. // ||
 * ** Learning and Teaching Activities ** ||  ||
 * Introductory Activity || // Students will conduct a free-write and discussion of what they know about how the human body works, hat they already know, and how an illness is diagnosed. // ||
 * Instructional Activities || // See word document provided. //

For this project, you are the host of the radio call-in/write-in show “What’s Your Ailment?” You will have one phone call/email to answer. The caller/author will describe symptoms of a disease to you. As the resident Doctor, will have 4-5 minutes to respond to them. You are to tell them: i. How does your system work normally? ii. What does this disease do to change that? iii. How does the system work differently now? Your grade will be based on whether or not you answer the questions above. You must also make this podcast sound as professional as possible. Please use the software GarageBand to do this podcast. Don’t forget intro and exit music, sound effects (if necessary). Remember, you are a doctor, so sound professional! This podcast is work **70 pts**.
 * 1) What disease they have.
 * 2) Common symptoms of the disease.
 * 3) How the disease works:
 * 4) What causes it?
 * 5) How does it start?
 * 6) How does the disease have an affect on your assigned system?
 * 1) What steps they can do on their own to treat the disease/symptoms? (at least 5 things)
 * 2) Remedies (if any?)
 * 3) Medications?
 * 4) Diet?
 * 5) Exercise?
 * 6) What can their doctor do? (list at least 3 things)
 * 7) Medications?
 * 8) Tests?

As a written portion of this assignment, you will write a script of the podcast to help things run more smoothly. This script will be worth **20 pts** and will be due **before** you are allowed to work on/record your podcast. With your script, you must turn in a bibliography with at least 6 sources. 2 of the sources must be written material (books, encyclopedia, etc. 4 must be websites, 3 other than Wikipedia.) Last but not least, you will construct a written reflection of the assignment for **10 pts**. You should describe what worked well, what did not, what did you like about the assignment, what did you dislike? What would you change about it if you had to do it again? This assignment is worth 100 points all together. ||
 * Assessment Activities || // The rubric I use is here: // // [] // ||
 * Student Product || // See sample podcast attached. // ||
 * Extension || // Extended time and pre-conferencing on the script is helpful. // ||





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