Watch
Read for Review
If you need a refresher on backward design, read Chapter 1: Surfacing Backward Design from Small Teaching Online.
The link above goes to the e-book chapter in one of our Library databases. Let us know if you have trouble logging in to read the chapter.
Use Backward Design to Develop Your Open Pedagogy Assignment
In preparation for writing instructions for your students for the open pedagogy assignment, chose one assignment you’d like to try and use the backward design worksheet to build on your post and any notes from last session’s worksheet,
We’ll be using this worksheet in our next session.
Bonus
If you have time and interest, here is a podcast episode (48 minutes) interviewing the author of Small Teaching Online, Flower Darby. This is from Tea for Teaching, an excellent podcast out of SUNY Oswego.
Considering backward design, I would like to introduce my students to a new assign with would allow them to focus on their cultural identity. The final project would be for them to write a paper on the various aspects of their culture that makes up who they are.
Step 5: Create a conclusion paragraph about the four items really define who are
Step 4: Create an introduction paragraph about valuing culture
Step 3: Select four of those attributes and write paragraph for each connecting them to your personal behavior.
Step 2: Write a few sentences about each item on the list
Step 1:List 7 important things you admire about your culture
This is how I would use this approach for an assignment. I would get articles for the students to find independently on valuating culture. OER is the best way to help student take ownership of their learning experience.
Thank you for sharing the video and podcast. I enjoyed revisiting these. When I coach teachers, I encourage them to start with objectives and work back. But I’m finding this challenging in my own practice (at the moment). Still, if my objective is to have my students write a longer essay–like an op ed–or an essay where they use an assigned text to “solve” a problem, I would start with building blocks incl: instructions on taking notes on texts, connecting texts to the problem, finding evidence, analyzing model pars, writing body pars; providing a template for intro. I would scaffold the assignment—over days—and provide model body paragraphs to analyze, template for intro, written and verbal instructions, checklist, 1-1 support/differentiated approach/feedback; share goals/rubric. And we would make our way to/through the end.