Backward Design
Teachers are designers of curriculum and assessments. Teachers are required to provide
meaningful learning experiences for their students and determine students needs and interests in
order to guide their teaching and learning. They must also determine whether the goals of their
students have been achieved demonstrating understanding.
This type of curriculum designing has been described as backward because teachers traditionally
start curriculum planning with interesting activities and textbooks rather than looking at the big
result with the end goals in mind. In the backward design model, the teacher starts with the end,
the desired results, and then derives the curriculum from the evidence of learning called by the
expectations and the teaching needed to equip students to perform.
Common practice of assessing indicates that teachers think about assessment at the end of the
unit, once the teaching is completed.
Teachers determine what they would accept as evidence that students have attained the desired
understanding and proficiencies before proceeding to plan teaching and learning experiences,
enables them to remain focused on the desired results.
The backward design can be used in all kind of plans : a school year, a unit or a lesson . It contains three stages:
I. Identify desired results : Objectives ( what students have to know, understand, do)
II. Determine acceptable evidence :Assessment.(evidence of learning by students)
III. Plan learning experiences and instruction: Activities(sequence of learning- teaching)
There is a guide, UBD Template, which contains all the aspects that should be taken into account
in a plan. Teachers will use them in the design of units that focus on understanding. The three
points mentioned above, essential questions and desired understanding by students have to be
considered by teachers or designers .
On the other hand, the first and most important aspect of backward design is to become familiar
with standards for the level and curriculum area being taught . Once the standards have been
selected , teachers have to decide assessment that will measure the students` understanding.
In this way students will achieve higher levels of learning.
Backward Design provides teachers with really great ideas for attaining real results when teaching English. However, the models states ideas that most English teachers (myself included) do not consider most of the times. To do so would be extremely time consuming and I guess that following the "craft model" your teachers left us, you just go into the classroom, give lost of activities related to the topic you have to develop just hoping that your students walk away with something.
ResponderEliminarStill, reading about this model let us think outside the box and consider new ideas for a new and suitable English curriculum that is required by today's demands
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I agree with you when stating that understanding is one important element to achieve our learners'goals.I think we are aware of this change and it is time to start thinking about our own chilean curriculum , considering our real students' needs not the ones that we have been imposed.
ResponderEliminarChapter 3: Gaining Clarity on our Goals
ResponderEliminarAs a teacher I always have problems with lesson plans and time. Priorities seem to be easy when I have to make decisions or make choices, but it is not really true.
To reach a solution for the aspects mentioned above, we have to focus on the most meaningful and useful tasks. When we are able to establish priorities and we are able to determine what is necessary for students to learn, means that we are not overloading with contents and contents.
In that sense, teachers have to ask essential questions which are connected with BIG IDEAS . They are central to the design. Those BIG IDEAS make our students to work and carry out the goals. In addition, the discussion, reflections, problems solving, research and debate are very important for developing deep understanding of essential ideas.
Authors suggest helping students to “learn how to learn” and “how to perform”. For them is both, a vital mission but a commonly overlooked one. On the other hand, contents are a means and there is not the main AIM in teaching/learning.
BIG IDEAS can help to connect discrete topics and obviously to skills because they are transferable. That means that BIG IDEAS are useful, completely effective and efficient in our students`learning process.
BIG IDEAS must be identified and carefully designed because it can exist the temptation of teaching as much as possible and ignoring the real value of a specific topic. We, as teachers, have always to remember that some is great for us, it is not for our students, so priorities are different too, so BIG IDEAS have to be relevant for them not for us.
Finally, I think, we have to consider challenges for our students: realistic situations, context in which tasks are as faithful as possible to real life opportunities and difficult situations will make our students develop the skills they need to face life.