Unit 2: Program Planning with the End in Mind€¦ · Unit 2: Program Planning with the End in Mind. Unit Objective ... “Backward Design ... Sample learning outcomes: • Describe

Unit 2: Program Planning with the End in Mind

Unit Objective

•To explore Wiggins’ and McTighe’s concept of backward design

“Backward Design” Program Planning

Stage 1: Identify targeted understandings or essential learning

Stage 2: Determine appropriate assessment of those understandings

Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction that make such understanding possible

Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design

The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment

2. Assessment (and curriculum) must be planned and purposeful.

Why is “Backward Planning” an Essential Skill for Teachers?

• Time• Changing mission of schools• Curriculum overload• Differentiation• Excellence


Stage 1: Identify targeted understandings




Design Down Planning

“To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you are going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.”

Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People






Carol Beatson: Backward Planning



Plan Backward from What’s Essential…

Worth being

familiar with

Important to know and do

Enduring understandings/

essential skillsWiggins and McTighe,

Understanding by Design

Grade 4 – Pulleys and Gears

Sample learning outcomes:

• Describe how rotary motion in one system is transferred to rotary motion in another

• Describe how gears operate in one plane (e.g., spur gears, idle gears) and in two planes (e.g., crown, bevel, or worm gears)

• Why do we need pulleys and gears?

Essential Question: Why Do We Need Pulleys and Gears?

Grade 4 – Pulleys and Gears

Sample learning outcomes:

• Describe how rotary motion in one system is transferred to rotary motion in another

• Describe how gears operate in one plane (e.g., spur gears, idle gears) and in two planes (e.g., crown, bevel, or worm gears)

• Why do we need pulleys and gears?

• They make work easier (the big idea!)

What is a Big Idea/Enduring Understanding?

• Not a topic or concept—e.g., “conflict”

BUT• A generalization

• Broad in scope • Fundamental for a deep understanding of a

given subject• Usually identifies a relationship between 2 or

more topics or concepts—e.g., “Conflict is essential to fiction because it engages the reader’s emotions.”

A Question is Essential When It:

• Causes genuine and relevant inquiry into the big ideas and core content

• Provokes deep thought, lively discussion, sustained inquiry, and new understanding as well as more questions

• Requires students to consider alternatives, weigh evidence, support their ideas, and justify their answers

• Stimulates vital, on-going rethinking of big ideas, assumptions, and prior lessons

• Sparks meaningful connections with prior learning and personal experiences

• Naturally recurs, creating opportunities for transfer to other situations and subjects

Grant Wiggins, 2008

Which Are Big Ideas/Enduring Understandings/Essential Questions?

• Where we live affects how we live. • The objective of this activity is to identify who

committed a crime and provide evidence to successfully prosecute the suspect.

• What are the mouth parts of a grasshopper called?

• Mathematical relationships are everywhere in the real world. These relationships are represented in a variety of ways: words, equations, tables, graphs.

Topic INTU…

Testing Consumer Products on Animals I need to understand both sides of the debate concerning whether it is right to test consumer products on animals.

Video Gaming I need to understand whether video gaming is helpful or harmful to learning for teenagers.

Downloading Music I need to understand the arguments for and against downloading music made by consumers, record companies and artists.

Topics Compared to Essential Questions

Consider how these “topics” differ from the corresponding INTU questions:

Albert Boutin: Backward Planning

What Is An “Essential Skill”?

• A skill that is fundamental to student success in a given subject domain

• May be demonstrated across a wide range of units within a year/course, throughout an entire year/course, as well as from year to year—e.g., problem solving

Which Are Essential Skills?

• Draw conclusions & make judgments based on a text

• Count backwards from 100,000 in tens• Use qualitative & quantitative data to

understand patterns and trends in the social sciences

• Identify the mouth parts of a grasshopper

Classroom Example: Backward Design


Stage 2: Determine appropriate assessment of those understandings“What evidence would show beyond a reasonable doubt‘that students have achieved the desired understandings?”

Critical Evidence of Learning

Critical Evidence of Learning






Backward Design: Step 2

Albert Boutin: Backward Design



“What learning experiences and instruction will promote understanding?

What prerequisite (enabling) knowledge and skill must be learned if understanding is to occur (and the performance is to succeed)?”


Backward Design: Step 3

Unit 2: Program Planning with the End in Mind€¦ · Unit 2: Program Planning with the End in Mind. Unit Objective ... “Backward Design ... Sample learning outcomes: • Describe

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