Backwards Design

Backwards Design (BWD) is a method of planning instruction that we have used in the St. Mary's masters program.  It works almost exactly how the name describes it.  Instead of focusing first on individual lessons, you focus on overall ideas for the unit and then the assessment that will be used in the unit and then finally individual lessons.  The most helpful part of BWD for me is the first stage.  This past summer I took an elective class that focused only on the first stage.  It was helpful for me to look at what I really wanted my students to learn in that unit.  I wrote essential questions and overall enduring understandings more thoroughly and made it more clear for myself what I needed to focus on.  The unit I focused on was for my honors geometry class and it is a fairly simple unit that mainly introduces students to introductory vocabulary that is used throughout the class.  It was really nice to take time to think about how I could enhance that unit with better essential questions.  When I taught it this year, I was able to get students to think about two and three dimensions more deeply.  By planning the unit using the BWD method, I was able to better implement critical thinking in the class, which is one of my goals for the year.