Chapter I: Backward Design

This is the first chapter of the book “Understanding by Design”. We have been reviewing different chapter of this book by giving some explanations and our perceptions about each chapter. The chapters reviewed before allow us to place the design in validity and criteria concepts into the teaching and learning process.
Now, this chapter tries to place us in the idea of teachers as designers of understanding. This text proposes ideas such as the teacher is a designer of education who must be mindful to their audiences and the most important idea is that a pertinent design has to do with the fact that learning should be more thoughtful and specific according to the objectives and purposes. Besides, this chapter provides three stages of backward design which focus on the main points in order to have a good design of a class.

The backward concept has to do with the challenge of focusing the lesson on the desired learning that a teacher should follow. On other words, it is the same to say that a good designer obtain backward from the learning expected. When we have the specific desires results we are able to focus on the contents, methodology to use and activities to practice in order to achieve the results.
Here we can find a real fact according to what happens with some teachers. For instance, the text explains that some teachers prepare their lessons in an inappropriate way focusing on what they will do, the material they will use and what students will do, before thinking on what the learner really needs in order to achieve the goals thought before by the teacher. When teachers do not have clear their purposes students realize about it, but they just hope the meaning will emerge on time.

The three stages of backward design are the followings: the first one is identify desired results, the second one is determine acceptable evidence, and the third one is plan leaning experiences and instruction. Those stages drive the teachers to make their goals specific and concrete in terms of assessment evidence and the lessons planning.
The text explains that the first stage of identifying desired results focus on the idea of think on the goals, examine the students’ background and review curriculum expectations in order to have clear our purposes. The second stage, determine acceptable evidence, refers to way how teachers get the evidence that students are learning and understanding. Here it is important that the teacher should collect the assessments made throughout the course which could show that the desired learning has been approached. The last stage, plan learning experiences and instruction, give us the conception of knowing the exact kind of activities or procedures students should take in order to perform effectively and achieve expected results.

On the other hand, the chapter provides a backward design template which helps teacher to have an overall view of the design, to know if the assessments and learning activities have to do with the identified goals, and finally it helps to place the teacher into the learners’ interests.

In conclusion, this chapter provides us interesting ideas of the backward design which allow the teacher to have better ideas at the time they have to design and plan a lesson. The three stages of backward design are based on: first of all think of the desired results of a lesson, and then determine what are the suitable ways of assessment of that learning and finally the planning of meaningful and activities in order that students could achieve the teacher desired result.