“Backward Design”

THE BAD NEWS: Public schools in the United States are failing miserably.

THE GOOD NEWS: What we need to

change is in our control.

“A guaranteed and viable

curriculum is the #1 school-level

impacting student achievement.”

THE PROBLEM:Traditional curriculums are dysfunctional.

Toss

Question

For more information go to:

commoncore.org

Architects, moviemakers, cooks, lawyers, doctors, and software coders are totally focused on achieving very specific effects, and they

keep adjusting their plans and actions to ensure the product, performance, or result sought.

What specific performance goals

do we have for students?

Real Life Example:

Conventional schooling is fixated on coverage of discrete

content; teachers work in isolation from other teachers; teachers work with textbooks

relating only to their particular content, not the institution’s

goals; no mechanism exists to ensure that assessments and

grades reflect coherent practice related to mission.

The idea of school has no meaning if each teacher, even a hardworking and

highly qualified one, is free to teach and assess as he

wishes.

The course CANNOT be the textbook!

The textbook should be used as a resource, like the Encyclopedia.

We rarely have to justify what we teach, how we teach, or how we assess students’

progress.

What is the point

of school?

Toss

Question

The point is NOT to “get good at

school” or “know stuff” in each

subject.

A list of content and activities is not a plan; marching

through material can never ensure habits of mind and

genuine ability.

Content mastery is NOT the

ultimate goal of school.

The point of education in a single phrase: Worthy accomplishment,

achieved by causing thoughtful and effective understanding that

enables transfer.

To learn in school how to make sense of learnings in order to lead better lives out of school; to learn

now to apply lessons to later challenges, effectively and

thoughtfully.

“Transfer”

60 SecondChallenge!

What high level thinking skills are we teaching?

When transferring skills, students should

be able to integrate their knowledge and

skills, along with various mature habits

of mind, to successfully perform in situations “that they have never before encountered.”

“Transfer Skills”First Example: After learning about the

three branches of government, students should propose a policy/solution to a current related issue.

Second Example: After reading Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” students should be able to write a persuasive letter for a different purpose to a different audience.

What do

teachers need?

1) We need a clear and powerful vision of where

we want to end up, based on our mission

and agreed-upon learning principles.

2) A constant and unflinching assessment of

where we stand at present against the

mission.

3) Timely adjustments based on regular analysis of the gap between vision and reality, between goals

and results.

What do students

need?

Students need to see the

relationship between what they

study and its application in the

real-world contexts.

The POINTof Content!I want students to

learn__________ so that, in the long run, they will be

able, on their own, __________________________.

 Students can RARELY answer these questions:

Why are we learning this?

How is this going to benefit me in the real world?

What should

curriculum achieve?

Curriculum should spiral in two ways: (1) courses and units

would be organized around a few cornerstone disciplinary

tasks, towards which all teaching and learning would be focused and prioritized; and (2) the same essential questions

would recur, in different forms, over the course of the entire

education.

Sample Essential Questions:

How is written language different from spoken language? What makes writing worth reading?

What is this voice thing, anyway?

Why am I writing? For Whom? What am I trying to achieve through my writing? Who will read my writing? What will work best for my audience?

Why do we need grammar?

How do effective writers hook and hold their readers? What makes writing easy to follow? What

is the best beginning? What is the best ending? What is the best order (sequence)? What is a

complete thought?

A successful curriculum shows teachers how to use the content.

What does success look like?The curriculum must show how learners are expected to use content to

accomplish meaningful performances.

If we were successful, students would have:- Accomplished…- Developed autonomy in…- Used their learning to…- Faced and overcome such key challenges as…- Created…- Overcome such misconceptions and habits of thinking as…

This means far more emphasis on making clear the purpose of every exercise, every lesson

plan, every unit, every term, every education.

Examples ofBackward Design:

What is fair? Can math help?Four 6th grade classes had a race of all the students. Devise at

least 2 different ways to determine a fair ranking of the four classes, given the results in the table.

What is the most fair way to score these

students? Be ready to defend your answers.

Mrs. G Mr. W Mr. S Mrs. G4 6 1 29 7 3 511 10 14 1520 16 19 1721 22 23 3125 24 28 3326 27 30 3639 34 * ** 35 * *

Assessment Problems!

“Tests must involve situations new to the student…Ideally we are seeking a problem which will test the extent to which the student has learned to apply an abstraction in a practical way.”

Final Assessment – “Transfer Task”

Based on our study in this unit on the various measures of central tendency,

and the pros and cons of using “averages” in various situations, propose

a “fair” grading system for use in this class. How should everyone’s grade be calculated? Why is your system fair? How does math help us answer this

question with specific reference to when and where to use mean, median, and

mode.

Backwards from Goals: MeaningI want students to leave my course having understood that –

•The Constitution was a solution, based on compromise, to real problems of balance and limit of powers.

•That the compromise has long, sometimes bitter history – with many fights that are with us and will always be with us.

Backwards from Goals: TransferI want students to transfer that understanding, on their own, to concretely address current situations:

•Design a government for Iraq •Design a school government

• Role play a Constitutional Convention

What information do you strongly agree

with?

Toss

Questions

Why haven’t most curriculums been setup this way?

What are teachers doing wrong?

What other thoughts do you have?