Hello
again,
Today I am going to talk to you about something called
backward design. Backwards design is a new approach to designing lesson plans
and unit plans. The term may appear complex but it simply means that teachers will create their lessons
with an end goal in mind. Teachers will decide what the students need to get out
of the lesson, then the teacher will create the day to day lessons needed to
get the students to the end goal. Before this idea, it is thought that
teachers would plan lessons on a day-to-day basis.
Meaning they would not know what they were working towards rather, they would
create a lesson with a goal for that particular day.
Personally, it seems obvious to work in the
backwards design model. In so many things we do we always work towards a goal in
mind. As students we know how to plan ahead and what it takes to stay on top of
things or else we would not be in a fourth-year education course. For example,
my end goal of my entire university career is to get a job teaching physical
education and I would like to travel to different countries and teach. Since I
know this is my end goal I have been working towards this every day since I
was accepted into my program. I know I need to study for exams, attend class and
do my part as a student. Although this is a goal that will take five years to
complete I know the importance in it and I am willing to work towards it. Also,
on a smaller scale, thinking about end goals in terms of school work, when I go about writing an essay, I decide my end goal
first. My essays would not be very strong if I decided at
the end of my essay what I was going to argue.
When students become teachers I do not
understand why the skill of planning ahead is lost. Backwards design seems to fit with lesson planning better than any approach to lesson planning.
Teachers must know what the students are expected to get out of the course and
this is done by scanning the curriculum expectations for the students. From
there the teacher can create a final project that encompasses all of the
expectations the teacher wishes to achieve and finally design day to day lesson
plans where the students will explore and learn the material necessary to be
successful.
Why don't teachers use backwards design? Well I came up with
some reasons and I will also give you my opinion on why the excuses of avoiding backwards design are not valid.
Excuse 1: Backwards design takes too
much planning.
Initially, it may seem that backwards design does demand a lot
more work from the teacher because the teacher must plan out every aspect of a
lesson before they go in to teach it. However, I believe if you were to add up
all the time it would take for a teacher to come up with a lesson every day
then at the end add the time the teacher needed squeeze in any extra important
curriculum expectations that may have been overlooked in a day to day planning style, the times allotted would be similar. On top of time, with backwards
design it removes the stress and worry that could come with arriving at the end
of a unit and having overlooked important curricular expectations. When I was a
gymnastics coach it was part of my job to give a report
card to every student in my recreational class. I took the day to day approach
and taught the kids what I thought they needed to learn. However, always
on the last month of teaching I would check the report cards and realize many
skills of the gymnasts needed to pass on their report card I had overlooked. Then
this would lead to a big struggle at the end trying to determine if these
gymnasts could physically do the skills or I could teach the gymnasts the
skills before the report cards were due. If I would have taken the backwards
design approach, my gymnasts would have had a better chance of passing their
report cards because they would have known from the beginning what skills they
needed to work on and how to be successful in my class. So, does backwards
design take “way more” planning? Depends who you ask, but the panning will be purposeful
and will ensure students receive a fair opportunity to arrive at the end goal.
Excuse 2: It is easier to stick to what
we know.
Some teachers are not open to change. They feel that the way they have
been doing things have been working and they don't see a purpose in changing
it. Backwards design is a good tool for teachers to have to get organized. They
can go about their days with a bit more ease knowing that they have planned
their classes in a way that can allow for all students to be exposed to the
tools necessary to reach the end goal. Yes, some teachers will need to be
educated on how to properly use the backwards design model but my argument is,
how do you know what model is better if you never give it a try? Why "fix what
aint broke" you say? Well, how do you know it isn’t broken, when I was coaching, backwards design had never even crossed my mind but now that I understand it, I
would have to say my methods of lesson planning while coaching were very
broken.
Excuse 3 : Backwards design model will
make no difference on the students. In the end they learn the same things
anyways.
Yes, this may be true. However the ways a teacher will come to the end goal
is drastically different. With daily planning the teacher may seem unorganized
and stressed due to the lack of goal they are working on. With backwards design
the teacher has a set guideline for what needs to be achieved, this way if
unexpected things occur, such as a student missing a lot of class the teacher
will be prepared because they can inform the student about what they will be
missing and a proactive student may even return to school prepared and almost
at the same level as the other students. Also what if there are many
disruptions during class time such as
many fire drills occurring during that class time, the teacher can plan
ahead by leaving a few extra days for these interruptions so the class can stay
on track. An unprepared teacher would get flustered and annoyed when their class
was interrupted or a student was taking a lot of time off.
This
video also gives very good insight on why backwards design is a step in the
right direction:
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