Has the phrase “Backward Planning” made its way into your world yet? It has worked its way into mine. I have had the incredible opportunity to become a district sponsored digital educator (even though I am a proud charter school teacher). This means I have taken MANY professional development classes through the district and backward planning has become a focus over the past year or so. With the recent push, I was under the mistaken impression that this was a new idea, however I learned otherwise when I did a little research. According to Wikipedia (and a few other sources I found that confirmed Wikipedia), back in 1949, Ralph W. Tyler introduced the idea of backward design. Then in 1999 the book Understanding by Design (Wiggins) focused light back onto these ideas and coined the phrase “backward design”. So the idea of starting with the end in mind has been around for a very long time. One thing I discovered in my re-web-search (yes, I just made up a new word) that I thought was interesting was the number of items in the search that came up with dates in the past four years. It made me really ponder all of the changes that have been going on in education during that time that would cause a resurgence of interest in this topic.
Here are some of the articles and items that I found useful in my pursuit of this subject.
This first blog post gives a very nice, succinct idea of what backward planning means.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/backwards-planning-thinking-ahead-rebecca-alber
If you are up for a more detailed approach, try this one...very thorough with many more sources of information in the references at the end.
http://www.wku.edu/library/dlps/infolit/documents/designing_lesson_plans_using_backward_design.pdf
And it is NOT just for educators, It has many applications outside of schools as well. It is just modified slightly from what I was introduced to, but the basic ideas are the same.
http://www.careervision.org/About/Backwards_Planning_Strategy.htm
Backward planning as it applies to my life:
Starting with the end in mind- My professional goal (since there are no standards to work from) is to be able and prepared to do more professional development presentations for both the staff at my school and in the district.
Enduring understanding - Learning is a process that requires active pursuit
List of skills and concepts I will need to know or be able to do -
1. How to host a webinar
2. Application of a specific technology into the classroom (my latest, is use of a green screen)
3. Become Twitterfied, not Twitterpated
Final assessment - Have I been able to do more PD?
Lessons (things I am doing to accomplish the skills listed above)
1. Hosting a webinar: Since our school day was shortened (still a very long one though) and study hall was removed as a scheduled class, there is a need for a way I can help kids outside of the school day. I have decided that I will host weekly webinar review sessions for the kids to ask their questions and review the concepts we learned in science. I have a “class” set up and am currently learning how to run a webinar. This week is the week I plan to go active with the webinar. I’ll let you all know how it goes.
2. Application of technology: I have made a green screen for the school and am having my technology class play with it. I have watched many Youtube videos on the subject and am lucky enough to have students who are already “Green Screen Gurus.” So far this is going very well. I feel an upcoming post on this topic will be in order in a few weeks.
3. Become Twitterfied: I had an account for over a year, but it was not until recently that I decided to be active in the Twitterverse, @lindaphorne if any would like to follow, please do. I really needed to increase my PLN (personal learning network - for those not up on the new, trendy acronyms), so I asked my Twitter Guru friend @bmossholder for some advice. Her advice was to get out there and start following people. She even recommended a few for me (thanks Beth). I am still in the beginning stages, but I am following lots of interesting people right now and learning about lots of new ideas. Hopefully people will think I am interesting and start following me too.
Reflection: Doing it daily! So far...so good, I just need to post more on Twitter and become more than a follower.
upcoming posts include: “Go Ahead...Drink the Kool-aid”, “Taking Comfort In My Discomfort”, and “On the Green Screen Scene”
