Backwards Design
Throughout this year, my knowledge of planning for instruction has vastly changed. I have implemented different components of backwards design such as using learning progressions and concept maps to be metacognitive about what my students need to know, and the various stages of learning for a specific content area. At the beginning of the year, I did not implement backwards design using these types of components, I only used backwards design by planning my assessment first through thinking about what I wanted students to know. After analyzing data from the unit that I planned using a concept map and learning progression, I saw that students performed better on the exam than previous exams and I am confident that it was because of the improved backwards design process.
Concept Mapping
Concept maps are a tool that can be used as an instructional strategy to assist students in organizing information and pushing metacognition about a topic. I used a concept map as a planning tool for my unit on contemporary issues in Africa. By using a concept map, I was able to succinctly lay out what my students needed to know for the unit. Another benefit to using concept maps in planning is that I was able to make connections between content. Planning using a concept map improved my content knowledge, and enabled me to effectively plan the unit.
Learning Progression
Another tool that I utilized during the Africa unit that supported my thinking about planning and student performance was a learning progression. Learning progressions display in words and examples what it means to move over time toward expert understanding. In my learning progression, I depict what students will be able to do at each stage of learning starting with novice, progressing to practitioner, and finally becoming experts. By looking at my learning progression, one can see the skills that students can do at each level as well as examples of those skills. Through adding this extra step in backwards design, I was able to more effectively plan for my students and identify progress towards mastery of the skills.
Planning The Assessment
Following the backwards design model, I plan my assessment prior to teaching the unit. I used the above tools to organize the content and create the assessment. My assessments consist of multiple parts that evaluate students and are aligned with the standards-based grading scale used at my training site. The standards students are assessed on are writer, reader, speaker, and historian. On my tests, students are evaluated on historian, reader, and writer. The speaker standard is assessed several times within the unit. Below is an example of an assessment I created for this unit using the above tools to drive my backwards design.
