The backward design process is a great process for developing curriculum. It really ensures that teaching and learning aligns with the core or “big ideas”. I do feel like my students really got the meaning of the activities more since I was more intentional about the why of each activity. It was almost like the why showed through to my students without me having to spell it out as clearly.
There are a couple of things that I don’t love about backwards design however. It takes a lot of time. A lot more time than I have spent on lesson plans in the past. While it is beneficial and helps students learn more there is no way possible for me to do this for every lesson for all three of my courses. There are not enough hours in the day to do that and teach, let alone be a viable member of my family or have outside interests. Basically, if I had the time, paid time, to do this, I would do it in a heartbeat, but I cannot justify the insane amount of hours away from my family that this would take for every lesson to be done in this format.
The biggest thing I learned while writing backwards design lessons was I could connect more with other contents. It was easier for me to connect with history, math, science, and English because of the intentionality of backward design.
Moving forward I plan to put together a couple of backwards design plans for each unit to really get to the heart of each standard that I teach. This way students will be ready to apply the life skills that I teach to other classes and to their lives. Over time I will continue to work on all of my lessons, but it will take many many years to be able to redesign all of my lessons.
There are a couple of things that I don’t love about backwards design however. It takes a lot of time. A lot more time than I have spent on lesson plans in the past. While it is beneficial and helps students learn more there is no way possible for me to do this for every lesson for all three of my courses. There are not enough hours in the day to do that and teach, let alone be a viable member of my family or have outside interests. Basically, if I had the time, paid time, to do this, I would do it in a heartbeat, but I cannot justify the insane amount of hours away from my family that this would take for every lesson to be done in this format.
The biggest thing I learned while writing backwards design lessons was I could connect more with other contents. It was easier for me to connect with history, math, science, and English because of the intentionality of backward design.
Moving forward I plan to put together a couple of backwards design plans for each unit to really get to the heart of each standard that I teach. This way students will be ready to apply the life skills that I teach to other classes and to their lives. Over time I will continue to work on all of my lessons, but it will take many many years to be able to redesign all of my lessons.