Backward Design
SED 509
Fall 2009
What Is It?
Backward Design is a process of lesson planning
created by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe and
introduced in Understanding by Design (1998).
This lesson design process concentrates on
developing the lesson in a different order than in
traditional lesson planning.
Treats teachers as designers. “An essential act of our
profession is the crafting of curriculum and learning
experiences to meet specified purposes.”
“1too many teachers focus on the teaching and not
the learning.”
Reaction to the “twin sins” of traditional design:
activity-focused and coverage-focused teaching.
How Is It Different?
Traditional
Backward Design
Goals & objectives
Goals & objectives
Activities
Assessments
Assessments
Activities
Identify desired
results.
Determine
acceptable
evidence.
Plan learning
experiences and
instruction.
Wiggins, G & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Identify Desired Results.
Enduring Understandings: What specific insights
about big ideas do we want students to leave
with?
What essential questions will frame the teaching
and learning, pointing toward key issues and
ideas, and suggest meaningful and provocative
inquiry into content?
What should students know and be able to do?
What content standards are addressed explicitly
by the unit?
Enduring Understanding
Worth being
familiar with.
Important to know
and do.
“Enduring
Understanding”
Wiggins, G & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Taking a closer look at Enduring
Understandings: They are...
specific generalizations about the “big ideas.”
They summarize the key meanings, inferences,
and importance of the ‘content’
Require “uncoverage” because they are not “facts”
to the novice, but unobvious inferences drawn
from facts - counter-intuitive & easily
misunderstood
deliberately framed as a full sentence “moral of
the story” – “Students will understand THAT ”
Examples of Enduring
Understandings
Sometimes the “correct” mathematical answer is not
the best solution to real-world problems.
Statistical analysis and data display often reveal
patterns that may not be obvious.
Heuristics are strategies that can aid problem solving
(e.g. breaking a complex problem into chunks,
creating a visual representation, etc.)
Scientific claims must be verified by independent
investigations.
Standardized measures allow people to more
accurately describe the physical world.
Correlation does not ensure causality.
Energy flows through ecosystems whereas matter
cycles.
Six Facets of Understanding
Explain -
Perspective -
Interpret -
Empathize -
provide thorough,
supported, and justifiable accounts of
phenomena, facts and data.
tell meaningful
stories; offer apt translations; provide a
revealing historical or personal dimension
to ideas and events; make it personal or
accessible through images, anecdotes,
analogies, and models.
Apply - effectively use and adapt
what is known in diverse contexts.
can see and
hear points of view through critical eyes
and ears; see the big picture.
find value in
what others might find odd, alien, or
implausible; perceive sensitively on the
basis of prior direct experience.
Self-Knowledge perceive the personal style, prejudices,
projections, and habits of mind that both
shape and impede our own
understanding; having an awareness of
what one does not understand and why
understanding is so hard.
Brainstorming Essential
Questions Based On the Facets
Interpretation
Empathy
Explanation
Application
critique
describe
build
illustrate
judge
translate
provide metaphors
express
justify
predict
synthesize
create
design
perform
solve
assume role of
consider
imagine
relate
role-play
be aware of
realize
recognize
reflect
self-assess
analyze
argue
compare
contrast
infer
Self-Knowledge
Perspective
Essential Questions
Go to the heart of the discipline.
Recur naturally throughout one’s learning and
in the history of a field.
Raise other important questions.
Provide subject- and topic- specific doorways
to essential questions.
Have no one obvious “right” answer.
Are deliberately framed to provoke and
sustain student interest.
Examples
Determine Acceptable
Evidence.
How will enduring understanding be
measured?
How will assessments vary?
Both
formal and informal
Scope
Time frame
Setting
Structure
Pe
tas rform
k/p an
r o ce
jec
t
pt
pr
om
ic
Ac
ad
em
In
fo for
ru m
nd al C
er h
st ec
an ks
di
ng
O
bs
er
va
tio
n/
Di
al
og
Qu
ue
iz/
Te
st
Assessment Continuum
Wiggins, G & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Reliability: Snapshot vs.
Photo Album
We need patterns that overcome
inherent measurement error
Sound
assessment requires multiple
evidence over time - a photo album vs. a
single snapshot
Curricular Priorities and
Assessment Methods
Assessment Types
Traditional quizzes and tests
Paper-pencil
Selected-response
Constructed-response
Performance tasks and projects
Open-ended
Complex
Authentic
Worth being
familiar with
Important to
know and do
“Enduring”
understanding
Plan Learning Experiences.
Learning experiences are planned after
desired results and the method of
measurement of those results are identified.
What will the students need to know in order
to achieve the desired goal, learning, or
understanding?
Various strategies are used to plan the
learning.
W.H.E.R.E.
Where is it going?
Hook the students.
Explore and equip.
Rethink and revise.
Exhibit and evaluate.
Misconception Alert:
the work is non-linear
It doesn’t matter where you start
as long as the final design is
coherent (all elements aligned)
Clarifying
one element or Stage
often forces changes to another
element or Stage
The template “blueprint” is logical
but the process is non-linear
Questions