Backward Design Curriculum

In all three of these artifacts, I have developed relevant, integrative, challenging, and exploratory units of study. The “Preserving the Past” unit incorporates all four core subjects as well as a service learning opportunity. My interdisciplinary unit on geography connects Language Arts with Social Studies with visual art mixed in, and the Greek mythology ELA unit was taught in conjunction with a Social Studies class (1). The Civil War unit and NC geography unit I have created incorporate Common Core standards as well as NC Essential standards. Lesson plans and assessments in all of these units were created using backwards design in which I started by looking at the standards and objectives students would be expected to reach and based my assessment based on those objectives (2,10).

3) Deliver learning: the assessors responsibility is to deliver assessment which is appropriate for the learners, takes account of individual needs and which has clear aims and objectives. The assessment activities should be appropriate and varied to appeal to learners with different learning styles. Assessment resources should be well prepared, sufficient for the number of learners and used to support the learning activities.

For this program outcome I chose my curriculum analysis paper from CUR 512, Curriculum Analysis and Planning. In this course we defined curriculum, the aspects that are considered when writing curriculum, the theoretical perspectives found within curriculum, and the goals of the curriculum. By writing this paper, I was able to focus in on a unit that I teach in third grade social studies to get a full picture of the curriculum. I was also able to see the complex issues surrounding the curriculum that I never previously noticed.

“Backward Design” is the name of a technique used by teachers when designing curriculum. The concept

A teacher’s role is to arrange for suitable assessment for the students to ascertain their current skills and knowledge, to identify any barriers or challenges to learning to assess learning styles and to know the boundaries to work within.

| A good way of exploring a topic in depthUseful to assess a learners knowledge and understanding of the topicAll learners can be encouraged to be involvedDiverse characteristics and backgrounds of learners will ensure a well rounded view

The roles of the assessor may not be strictly that of a teacher but more of a mentor guiding a Learner to there eventual goal of gaining the qualification by giving appropriate feedback.

Recognising that the learner’s needs are important so gathering as much understanding of the learner is important. Gathering information of student’s knowledge/understanding through an initial assessment. Learners can have literacy, numeracy and ICT skills tests prior to being accepted on the course or during the course so that understanding of any learning needs can be determined.

Ms. Johnson request reflected the Understanding level. Explain ideas or concepts. Ms. Johnson wanted to see if the student had a clear understanding of “The Phantom Tollbooth”. Examples: classify, describe, discuss, explain, and identify.

By using the Backward Design approach, my assessment practices have also been positively affected. Now that I know exactly how I am assessing my students before I teach a unit, I am able to address misunderstandings in advance and provide students with rubrics and assessment materials before they start a project or assignment, so they know exactly what is expected of them. I have found that students perform better and are more engaged when they know my expectations in advance. I have also discovered that students are more conscientious about their grade or performance when they are able to look at my assessment tool and ask questions or check off the tasks they have completed.

I anticipate backwards design will be successful because it allows me to analyze the standards and match our materials to them. It will allow me to have a scope and sequence that will outline the content that will be taught in every lesson and it allow me to expose the students to different activities to meet the different standards. By using backwards curriculum design I will keep the standards in mind when designing assessments and planning lessons and will not expose the students to unnecessary material that is not relevant for first grade. This design has strengths that make ideal for this setting. It allows teachers to keep the goals in mind when teaching and assessing students. This helps students achieve their academic goals and teachers

The pedagogies used within the lesson plan and sequence are direct instruction, problem solving and inquiry and explicit teaching. Direct instruction is used to introduce the concept of symmetry; students’ would have been briefly introduced to symmetry in year 3 but as far as the content in the lesson plan it will be fairly new to them. The use of direct instruction to introduce new ideas ensures that the knowledge acquired is accurate; it can then lead to discussion and questioning which draws out students’ prior knowledge and the teacher can build upon what students’ already know. This approach is

From the Rusken College speech in 1976, a whole new approach to education was to be invented and from this came the introduction of the craft based qualifications, his idea of the government putting money into education and seeing very little return, made him concentrate on making people fit for work, in turn helping the economy and paying the government back on their investment. This is the main model used in my specialised curriculum. One of the attractions of this approach to curriculum theory is that it involves detailed attention to what people need to know in order for it to work. Lesson plans are produced with the main theme of ‘by the end of the session the learner will

After examining the Understanding by Design framework by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, I have learned how to develop a unit by working backwards. The development of a unit is multi-layered in its focus on curriculum, instruction, and assessment. In planning I need to first assess what the big ideas are that I want my students to learn and why they are so important. In our study of Mesopotamia, we look at how our world began with the first civilization and the achievements that led to advances throughout history. The big ideas framed as understandings that I want my students to know are that the locations of civilizations and city-states in relation to specific landforms affects development and technology achievements can benefit society in a variety of areas. Then I look at what essential questions are raised and what I want students to know and be able to do. The framework looks to deepen student understanding and transfer that understanding of knowledge and skill into a performance task and other evidence of formative and summative assessments.

As classrooms are complex and at times unpredictable, unit planning is important to ensure a roadmap for focused teaching and learning with flexible engaging lessons. This unit was tailored for a rural setting to meet Australian Curriculum requirements using the backwards design model (Wiggins & McTighe 2005). Desired outcomes were planned in consultation with the Australian Curriculum, then acceptable evidence of learning and assessment determined. Learning experiences were then designed to utilise engaging and genuine real-world activities to relate shape and area to students’ lives outside school. Finally, the instruction was scaffolded to the students’ numeracy skills and zone of proximal development [ZPD]. The unit fits with my own personal pedagogical philosophy of a student-centred classroom, where students learn through in a positive classroom with social constructivism.