Teaching is not only what you do inside the classroom, but also what you do before and after interacting with the students.
Teaching always has a purpose; that is why it is fundamental to set clear learning objectives that will help us and of course will help students to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
We know that we are dealing with a specific context in the place we teach, but even there; inside the classroom we are dealing with many different realities and learning styles. Therefore, setting objectives has to be a thoughtful and committed work in which we have to consider national and institutional standards, students’ previous experiences towards learning, and of course the desired results.
According to what I’ve seen, many times lessons are prepared and shaped from the book and activities, losing sometimes the focus on the expected outcomes we are pursuing. As we have been talking week after week, in some cases the book becomes the Bible and we tend to follow it leaving objectives aside. Therefore the use of backward design will help us to keep working on results sought and students’ meaningful learning. As it is stated in the chapter, only after having specified the desired results, we can focus on the content, methods and activities that will contribute to achieve those goals.
Wiggins gives us the framework for backward design, which consists of three stages:
Stage 1: Identify desired results:
What should students know, understand and be able to do?
What content is worthy of understanding?
Stage 2: Determine acceptable evidence
To define what forms of assessment will demonstrate that the student acquired the knowledge, understanding, and skill to answer the questions.
Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction
Teaching strategies and learning experiences that help students to develop and demonstrate what they are supposed to understand.
There is no doubt that for our reality this is a challenge, since it seems that planning has been made the other way around, but I am sure this is a great method of designing a course and it will be very useful in order to help us focusing on our students’ meaningful learning rather than just paying attention to teaching.
