Posts Tagged: course design

Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe provide helpful course design strategies in Understanding by Design. One of the most compelling portions of their work is their presentation of backwards design, a process that forefronts the results we want students to achieve and then works backwards through acceptable evidence that students have achieved those results and through learning experiences and instruction that support students’ progress.

1. Backwards Design – Enduring Understanding
   Wiggins and McTighe begin backwards design by asking faculty to consider what students should develop an enduring understanding of, what is important for students to know and do, and what is worth knowing. In English 110, our objectives and shared experiences fit this category of “enduring understanding” and should serve as our starting point for our course planning. **Please list the course objectives – as they are articulated in your ENG 110 faculty notebook and on the course website – on your syllabus. This simple step helps demonstrate to students and others that we have shared learning outcomes for the course, even though we each may employ different assignments to support those outcomes. Thanks for your help!**
   
2. Backwards Design – Acceptable Evidence of Learning
   The next step in backwards design is determining acceptable evidence. How do we know that students have met the objectives or achieved our desired results? What assignments and classroom activities might provide evidence that students have met learning outcomes (our objectives)?
   
3. Backwards Design – Learning Experiences and Instruction
   Finally, Wiggins and McTighe encourage teachers to brainstorm what learning experiences and instruction students will need to successfully progress towards the desired outcomes. For instance, what do we need to teach students about source use and what types of practice can we provide them in order to help them prepare to synthesize research to support an argument? What learning experiences and instruction do we need to provide to prepare students to produce the assignments we identified in step 2 as acceptable evidence of learning?

Each year, I receive over a dozen requests for English 110 to serve as an instructional site for a new initiative or for data collection. The two initiatives listed below could be implemented in select sections of English 110 while retaining a focus on the English 110 course objectives.

Common Reading

• 2008-2009 Common Reading: Jonathan Kozol’s The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America
• Selected by the Common Reading Committee (Jean Schwind is on the committee)
• See final page of handout for Jean Schwind’s Common Reading assignment; Jean’s students will present their ideas at the 2008 College Writing Showcase.
• A few ideas that retain a focus on English 110 objectives:
  • Profiles: Politicians responsible for relevant legislation, Schools in ABSS or in students’ hometowns, Kozol
  • Academic Arguments: Supporting or disputing Kozol’s representation of American schools, Proposing alternatives, Examining one of Kozol’s sub-points in more depth
  • Proposals: Calls for change at local, state, or national levels
  • Others?

Environmental Sustainability

• Initiative to connect campus focus on environmental sustainability to academics
• Centered in first-year core courses and General Studies
• Pilot group has been meeting this spring with intention of implementing plans in select sections in the fall
• Assignment and activity ideas noted in backwards design worksheet examples
• Interested in participating or learning more? Contact Jessie Moore or Michael Strickland.

Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe provide helpful course design strategies in Understanding by Design. One of the most compelling portions of their work is their presentation of backwards design, a process that forefronts the results we want students to achieve and then works backwards through acceptable evidence that students have achieved those results and through learning experiences and instruction that support students’ progress.
Backwards Design – Enduring Understanding
Wiggins and McTighe begin backwards design by asking faculty to consider what students should develop an enduring understanding of, what is important for students to know and do, and what is worth knowing. The first worksheet in this packet is designed to help you consider these categories for English 110.

Backwards Design – Acceptable Evidence of Learning
The next step in backwards design is determining acceptable evidence. How do we know that students have met the objectives or achieved our desired results? The second worksheet in this packet is designed to help you brainstorm assignments and classroom activities that might provide evidence that students have met learning outcomes.

Backwards Design – Learning Experiences and Instruction
Finally, Wiggins and McTighe encourage teachers to brainstorm what learning experiences and instruction students will need to successfully progress towards the desired outcomes. For instance, what do we need to teach students about source use and what types of practice can we provide them in order to help them prepare to synthesize research to support an argument? The third worksheet focuses on learning experiences.

Designing Your Course: Determine Acceptable Evidence

Designing Your Course: Determine Acceptable Evidence – Example

This example reflects Jessie’s backwards course design, integrating the environmental sustainability initiative while remaining focused on the English 110 objectives.

Designing Your Course: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

Designing Your Course: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction – Example

This example reflects Jessie’s backwards course design, integrating the environmental sustainability initiative while remaining focused on the English 110 objectives.

Focus on Process
Connection to Obj. 1: Reflection tasks often encourage students to consider the steps they have taken to complete a product. In essence, these types of reflective assignments prompt explicit examination of the student’s own writing process, its strengths, and its challenges.

Focus on Rhetorical Strategies and Situations
Connection to Obj. 2: Reflections also facilitate continued examination of the purpose and audience for a text. By considering the rhetorical choices they made, students have an opportunity to track successful rhetorical strategies and to consider how their choices vary from rhetorical situation to rhetorical situation.

Focus on Capacity of Writing
Connection to Obj. 3: By considering the impact of their text on their audience and the effects of their rhetorical choices, students have a chance to examine the capacity of their writing to evoke change – even if it’s “just” by changing their audience’s understanding of a concept.