Backward Design from a Teacher's Perspective

Another year and another new hoop to jump through. If you're a teacher, you know what this means. Every year we are presented with the newest educational fad. We spend a lot of time learning it and trying to implement it and then, next year, it's old news and we have something new. As an educator, buzz words are are something we get used to, mulling through information, picking and choosing what works, what doesn't, and what is usually, just another word for something we do already, but now it's been researched by someone new and has different lingo. We just navigate, take what we can, and move on.

Well, I was presented with one of these ideas a little over a year ago, backwards design. I had heard of it, I vaguely understood it, and I was ready to put my teacher had on and work my way through it with little enthusiasm, until I realized that it was something that actually worked. I'm here to say that backwards design is not only something that a lot of us do, but it's something that really works in the world of modern education where we are trying to teach our students to survive in a career world that requires them to have many different skills and where TV is teaching them to only have one. As a teacher, I can say that I love the concept of backwards design and all that comes with it and I'll tell you why.

What is it?
First, before I explain how well it works, I'll briefly explain what it is. Backwards design is starting with your end task (assessment) and objectives in mind. Duh. I'm sure that's what everyone who is reading this just said, but I don't think we always do this. I think that usually we have favorite subjects or units or a really cool lesson idea or a good book we want to teach and then cater everything else to this. Backwards design says that we should start with what the students are supposed to get out of it, what skills and core objectives they will fulfill and then figure out how we're going to get there. We then use this to help create an overarching question that we answer, helping kids to remember skills and ideas that are applicable to them and their future.

How does it work?
To start backwards design, we need to choose our objectives. This usually comes from our core objectives set forth by the state, or national core, depending on where you are. We pick the ones that we're going to work with. That's the easy part. Then, we decide what we really want them to know. Let's face it. Teaching our students plot and literary terms is not something that they're going to necessarily use when they're working in an office answering phones or programming computers in 15 years. However, teaching students to look beneath the surface and see true themes and messages behind the things they view, read, and listen to is. This is where we look and see what real world skills our kids can use. An example would be, as an English teacher, I teach dystopian literature to my students. I do this in an attempt to show them to be critical consumers of the news, the government, and media. While I show them this we look at literary ideas of theme, character, plot, etc., but the real world knowledge is becoming critical consumers and questioning authority. That is what we call the overarching understanding. This is real world knowledge.

After I have found the overarching understanding, I then choose a question to help my students explore this idea and practice their skills. This is called the unit question. This should be a question based on your overarching understanding that will guide your students and that they can address in many different ways and apply to many different things. An example would be, "What happens when you give up personal freedom?" or "How does power change people?" Another possibility would be, "How does media and technology affect my perspective of the world?" What this does is allow me to now use many different things to apply the knowledge to my students. I can now not only read a book like 1984 or Fahrenheit 451 and look at the characters and the totalitarian systems, but I can have students read news articles, short stories, scientific studies, etc., which helps me to not only work on their literary skills, but work on reading non-fiction, writing arguments or persuasion, and all other manner of things. Your question should be used over and over in many different ways. It should be open-ended and thoughtful and general. It opens up my unit to be more applicable and interesting.

I then need to figure out what kinds of skills I will use to help my students answer the question. This would be things like comparing and contrasting, analyzing text features, creating presentations, etc. These are the ways you want your students to address the question.

After I have my overarching understanding and unit question, I design a final project or task that will show me that my students got it. Your end task can be a test, a paper, a project, or any other idea that you can follow, but should address your unit question and show the skills and objectives you want them to use.

Only after you've established these things do you create your lessons. After you have the base, then you move on.

Backwards design is a great way to bring in real world knowledge and bring in resources that will really engage your students. It allows math teachers to bring in writing and English teachers to bring in data and charts. Using backwards design to help you create thematic units really does work and really does help you to create meaningful and engaging units that your students remember. This is a hoop you won't mind jumping through and that will create some great habits if you dare to try it out.