Assignment # 3 Backwards Design

View the two videos presented by Design and describe your understanding of Backward design. Post to your blog.

My understanding of backward design is that “it is not meant to replace a curriculum” (Wiggins video 1); the purpose is for planning and designing framework. Lesson planning includes initial critical use of goal orientation to content area adding value. Student are also encourage to make self assessment of their long terms goals at the begin of the year. I thought that was interesting to ask students “what do they think the long term goals are for the course”. Students are required to predict and thick critically in this goal oriented task. Which is obviously a strategy used to get students to think about their own accomplishments. As teachers this is part of our job to foster critical thinking in students so they can apply critical thinking to different situations in life.

Lessons based on backward design are more goals oriented and seems to builds on student autonomy. Goals are assessment based prior to lesson outcomes. Instructions are planed with long term as well as short term goals that students must understand and master. A critical part of backward design is for students to perform with better engagement. Thus with better engagement student will foster critical thinking. On going assessment formative and informative assessment should fit seamlessly into lessons. By no means is the text book used as assessment tools. Books are resource and enrichment applications to enhance lessons. According to Wiggins assessment goes beyond what’s in the text book.

Instructions are to lead towards goals and facilitate what needs to happen in a lesson. Key questioning prior to initial instruction are necessary to expand the pools of students that would not be ordinarily interested.  This helps foster intellectual engagement which is part of the teacher’s job and fostering intellectual engagement is not the student’s problem.

“I want students to leave and be able to transfer their understanding-on their own-to correctly address current and future situations”-Wiggins. Wiggins also so hints on including incentives to keep students interested which should be included in lessons.