1. Backwards Design A Super Short Overview
Adapted from Designing Effective and Innovative Courses

2. Backwards Design (Understanding by Design) Wiggins and McTighe (2006)

3. What is BD or UbD?
First: Understand your audience and the challenges the class will meet
Next: Identify the desired goals (at the big idea level)
Third: Determine what qualifies as evidence that the desired outcomes have been achieved
Finally: Design activities that will enable learners to achieve the desired results
Most of us are somewhere on the continuum between content-driven and backward-design course planning models

4. Goals are must have certain characteristics
Goals must be Student Focused, not teacher-focused
Goals should focus on higher-order thinking skills?
Does the goal have measureable outcomes?
Is the goal concrete, rather than vague or abstract?

5. Practice Evaluation of Goal Statements
I want to introduce students to the fundamental concepts of fluid dynamics
I want students to understand the scientific method
I want students to be able to describe the seven major natural disasters covered in the course and explain the atmospheric phenomena involved in the disasters
I want students to be able to identify fronts on a surface map
I want students to know the quasi-geostrophic vorticity equation
I want students to be able to examine a four-panel chart, make observations from the data, and determine a forecast for their location for the next 36 hours
Are they:
Student-focused?
Higher-order?
Measurable?
Concrete?
How would you improve them?
What ancillary skills are needed?

6. Design Your Own Goals Select a course of interest to you
Develop 2-3 specific learning goals
We will convene in groups of similar interest, and discuss and refine one of those goals to share.

7. Gallery Walk - Backwards Design on a Unit Plan
Select into a small group based on what type of class you want to develop more
Suggestions for what to write on the poster:
Who are your students, and what skills do they already have?
What are your learning goals? How do you measure them?
What ancillary skills are they expected to pick up along the way?
What would improve teaching practice to make good teaching great?
Ask intro vs. advanced that you want to work on
Advanced: which topical area? Break up if necessary

8. Gallery Walk - discussion
Comment on the posters:
Areas of agreement
Areas for suggested further development
Ideas you already have that another group might benefit from
Groups be prepared to discuss the comments you’ve gathered, as well as major themes that arise from the collective discussion, and any knowledge gaps that are uncovered