Backward Design Christina Fritz Assessment Manager

RDA/CHF/April To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction. Stephen Covey

RDA/CHF/April Essential Question Why are the best curriculums designed backwards? What is good design? How does backward design support effective curriculum design?

RDA/CHF/April K-W-L on Backward Design KWL What do you know about backward design What do you want to learn about backward design? What did you learn about backward design?

RDA/CHF/April Moving Forward Standards 1st step: Awareness of standards Assessment and Evaluation Teaching/ Learning Strategies Topic/ Theme/ Resources 2nd step: Placing standards first Topic/ Theme/ Resources Teaching/ Learning Strategies Assessment and Evaluation Standards 3rd step: Best practice Standards Assessment and Evaluation Teaching/ Learning Strategies Topic/ Theme/ Resources Adapted from Karen Greenham, Thames Valley District School Board, Ontario, Canada

Two Approaches AssessorActivity Designer What would be sufficient & revealing evidence of understanding? What would be interesting & engaging activities on this topic? What performance tasks must anchor the unit & focus the instructional work? What resources & materials are available on the topic? How will I be able to distinguish between those who really understand & those who don’t (but seem to)? What will students be doing in & out of class? What assignments will be given?

Two Approaches AssessorActivity Designer Against what criteria will I distinguish work? How will I give students a grade (& justify it to their parents)? What misunderstandings are likely? How will I check for these? Did the activities work? Why or why not?

RDA/CHF/April Stages of Backward Design Stage 1: Identify desired results Stage 2: Determine acceptable evidence Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction

3 Stages of Backward Design

RDA/CHF/April Stage 1: Identify desired results Are the targeted understandings… Enduring, based on transferable, big ideas at the heart of the discipline and in need of un-coverage. Questions that spark connections, provoke genuine inquiry and encourage transfer Appropriate goals Valid knowledge and skills identified

Stage 1: Key Design Elements TOPIC or CONTENT STANDARD BIG IDEA UNDERSTANDING ESSENTIAL QUESTION

RDA/CHF/April Big Ideas Central and organizing notion Core idea in a subject Provides a conceptual lens for prioritizing content Serves as an organizer for connecting important facts, skills, and actions Transfers to other contexts Manifests itself in a variety of ways within disciplines Requires uncoverage because its an abstraction

RDA/CHF/April Transferable Big Ideas - samples Abundance or scarcity Adaptation Friendship Communities Defense or protection Courage Harmony Honor Patterns Symbol Technology Wealth Evolution Democracy

RDA/CHF/April Content Priorities Worth Being Familiar With Important to Know and Do Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings

Statistics Sample Worth Being Familiar With Important to Know and Do Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings History of the bell curve Key contributors to the development of statistics (Pascal) Measures of Central Tendency Statistical Terminology Data Displays Statistical Formulas

Statistics Sample Worth Being Familiar With Important to Know and Do Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings Big Ideas: Sampling, Correlation, Patterns, Predictions, Confidence Interval Understandings: Statistical analysis and data displays reveal patterns enabling predictions Statistics can lie as well as reveal

RDA/CHF/April BREAK

RDA/CHF/April Essential Questions Guide the student inquiry and focus instruction for uncovering the important ideas of the content What specifically about the idea or topic do you want student to come to understand?

RDA/CHF/April Essential Questions Have no right answer and are meant to be argued Designed to provoke & sustain student inquiry, while focusing learning & performances Address the conceptual or philosophical foundations of a discipline Raise other important questions Naturally and appropriately recur Stimulate vital, ongoing rethinking of big ideas, assumptions and prior lessons

RDA/CHF/April Sample Essential Questions What is a number? How should we balance the rights of individuals with the common good? Can microeconomics inform macroeconomics? What can we learn from the past? How does art reflect, as well as shape, culture? How does where we live influence how we live? What are the limits of mathematical representation and modeling? What makes a great story?

RDA/CHF/April Tips for Using EQs Organize the unit of study around the questions – make the content answer the question Tasks are linked to the question Make less be more Share your questions with the faculty to promote school wide questions Publish the questions to students and parents

RDA/CHF/April Enduring Understandings Based on transferable big ideas that give the content meaning and connect the facts and skills

RDA/CHF/April Comparing Enduring Understandings PROPERLY FRAMED Students will understand that… In a free-market economy, price is a function of supply and demand Statistical analysis & data display often reveal patterns that may not be obvious IMPROPERLY FRAMED Students will understand that… That the price of long distance calls has declined over the past decade How to calculate mean, median and mode

RDA/CHF/April Knowledge and Skills Discrete objectives that we want students to know and be able to do Three kinds: Building blocks for the desired understanding Knowledge and skills stated or implied in the goals ‘Enabling’ knowledge and skills needed to perform the complex assessment tasks identified in stage 2

RDA/CHF/April Stage 2: Determine acceptable evidence Consider the evidence of learning: Students exhibit understanding through authentic performance tasks Appropriate criterion-based scoring tools are used to evaluate student outcomes A variety of assessment formats Assessments are used as feedback Students self assess

RDA/CHF/April Jay McTighe The primary purpose of classroom assessment is to inform teaching and improving student learning, not to sort and select students or to justify a grade

RDA/CHF/April Stages of Backward Design At Stage 2 there is a departure from conventional practice. Instead of moving from target to teaching ask “What would count as evidence of successful teaching?” Before learning activities are planned ask “What counts as evidence of understanding?”

RDA/CHF/April ALIGNMENT Stage 1 If the desired result is for the learner to… Stage 2 Then, you need evidence of the student’s ability to… So, the assessments need to include something like…

RDA/CHF/April Types of Classroom Assessment DIAGNOSTIC FORMATIVE SUMMATIVE

RDA/CHF/April DIAGNOSTIC Assessment that precedes instruction, checks students’ prior knowledge and identifies misconceptions, interests, and learning style preferences Provide information to assist planning and guide differentiated instruction Pretests, student survey, skills check, K- W-L

RDA/CHF/April FORMATIVE On-going assessments provide information to guide teaching and learning for improving learning and performance Formal and Informal Quiz, oral questioning, observation, draft work, think aloud, dress rehearsal, portfolio review

RDA/CHF/April SUMMATIVE Culminating assessments are conducted at the end of a unit, course or grade level to determine the degree of mastery or proficiency according to identified achievement targets Evaluative in nature resulting in a score or a grade Test, performance task, final exam, culminating project or performance, work portfolio

Worth Being Familiar With Important to Know and Do Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings Assessment Methods Traditional quizzes and tests Paper and pencil Selected response Constructed response Performance tasks and projects Complex Open-ended Authentic

RDA/CHF/April Collecting Evidence Effective evidence requires multiple sources of evidence – a photo album not a single snapshot Performance tasks Academic prompts Quiz and test items Informal checks

RDA/CHF/April Tips for Effective Scoring Goals Includes the most important traits, given the purpose of the assessment and the qualities of effective performance Score the quality not quantity Focus on content, substance and effect rather than on mechanics Look at the overall result

RDA/CHF/April Assessor’s Questions Where should we look and what should we look for to determine the extent of student understanding? What kind of assessment tasks and evidence needs will anchor our curricular units and thus guide our instruction?

RDA/CHF/April Assessor’s Questions Given our account of the facets, what follows for assessment? What evidence of in-depth understanding as opposed of superficial or naïve understanding?

RDA/CHF/April Think like an assessor Where should we look to find hallmarks of understanding? Consider the necessary evidence Kinds of performance or behavior indicative of understanding

RDA/CHF/April Think like an assessor What should we look for in determining and distinguishing degrees of understanding? Focus on the most salient and revealing criteria for identifying and differentiating levels or degrees of understanding using criteria and rubrics to sort work by quality along a continuum

RDA/CHF/April

RDA/CHF/April Six Facets of Understanding Grant Wiggins Explanation Interpretation Application Perspective Empathy Self-Knowledge

RDA/CHF/April Understanding: the capacity to apply facts, concepts and skills in the new situations in appropriate ways. Howard Gardner

RDA/CHF/April Facet 1: Explanation Provide thorough, supported, and justifiable accounts of phenomena, facts, and data

RDA/CHF/April Facet 2: Interpretation 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

RDA/CHF/April Facet 3: Application Effectively use and adapt what we know in diverse contexts

RDA/CHF/April Facet 4: Perspective See and hear points of view through critical eyes and ears; see the big picture

RDA/CHF/April Facet 5: Empathy Find value in what others might find odd, alien, or implausible; perceive sensitively on the basis of prior direct experience

RDA/CHF/April Facet 6: Self-Knowledge Perceive the personal style, prejudices, projections, and habits of mind that both shape and impede our own understanding; we are aware of what we do not understand and why understanding is so hard

RDA/CHF/April Thinking about Understanding… Men don’t understand women Does anyone here understand French? She knows the answer but does not understand why it is correct I now understand that I was mistaken I didn’t really understand it until I had to use it Although I disagree, I can understand the opposition’s point of view

Understanding Misconceptions Facet 1: Explanation If the student gives a correct answer to a complex and demanding question, s/he must have an in-depth understanding. If the student cannot write an explanation of his/her views, she lacks understanding. Facet 2: Interpretation If the student offers an engaged and rich response to literature, he understands that work of literature.

Understanding Misconceptions Facet 3: Applications Any effective performance with knowledge indicates understanding of that knowledge. Any ineffective performance with knowledge indicates a lack of understanding of that knowledge. Application means that the student can correctly answer teacher- assigned problems based on what was taught. Facet 4: Perspective Having an opinion equals having perspective. Perspective implies relativism.

Understanding Misconceptions Facet 5: Empathy Empathy is affect, synonymous with sympathy or heartfelt rapport. Empathy requires agreement with the point of view in question. Facet 6: Self- Knowledge Self-knowledge equal self- centeredness.

RDA/CHF/April Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction Will the students… Know where they are going with their learning goals Know why the materials are important What is required of them Be hooked – engaged Have opportunities to explore and experience big ideas and receive instruction to equip them for the required performances Have opportunities to rethink, rehearse, revise and refine Have an opportunity to evaluate their work and reflect on their learning

WHERETO W Students know WHERE they’re going, WHY and WHAT is required of them H HOOKED – engaged in the big idea E Opportunities to EXPLORE and EXPERIENCE R Opportunities to RETHINK,REHEARSE, and REFINE E Opportunity to EVALUATE their work T TAILORED and flexible for all students O ORGANIZED for engagement and effectiveness

RDA/CHF/April Chinese Proverb I hear, I forget I See, I remember I do, I understand