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Backward Design
Beginning With The End in Mind to |
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Step 3: Identifying the Learning Outcomes & Instructional Strategies
This is the point in the process where you identify the specific skills and concepts required to successfully complete the summative assessment. You might ask: "What will students need to know and be able to do so that when they get to the summative assessment, they will be able to successfully apply the these skills and concepts?" Answering this question requires a careful task analysis of the summative assessment to determine the embedded skills and concepts that are a part of the task requirements. For example, a summative assessment may require students to "synthesize ideas and information from one or more texts." Given this requirement of the summative assessment, students need to practice applying the skill of synthesizing ideas and information from one or more texts throughout the unit so that they are prepared to apply this skill by the end of the unit. Once these skills and concepts are identified, it then becomes possible to design lessons that incorporate instructional strategies and best practices to explicitly teach these skills and concepts.
This process of chunking skills and concepts and teaching them throughout the unit is sometime referred to as scaffolding because we are providing students with temporary assistance to help them develop independence with the skills and concepts. Knowing what the summative assessment will require of students is necessary before we can identify the scaffolding they will require to be successful.
The reading and writing outcomes (see links to the left) provide a list of the skills and concepts that should be embedded within summative assessments and, therefore, targeted with explicit instruction. Explicitly targeting specific outcomes means designing embedded mini-lessons throughout the unit that help students to practice and learn to apply the skills and concepts. These mini-lessons should include modeling (both processes and products), providing opportunities for guided practice, and structuring tasks that require the independent application of these skills and concepts. Click here for a mini-lesson planning template that can be used to explicitly target specific outcomes:
The ELA Best Practices link is a quick reference tool for ideas that teachers can use to design lessons that are constructivist in design and promote active engagement of students. When referencing the chart, the underlined titles are linked to additional resources on that practice; the titles without underlining are self-explanatory and do not have links.
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