Backwards design

What is backwards design?
Backwards design is a way of planning a learning journey. It encourages teachers to think of a goal first before creating a learning sequence or a unit plan.

I have experienced creating a plan for a Cultural subject. The topic at that time was "Visit Malaysia". The length of the unit plan was for 24 weeks. I remember planning the learning journey it based on the topic itself. The goal of the topic was to know about Malaysia. However there was no specific goals set when planning the whole unit plan. There was just goals to be achieve by the end of each individual lessons.

Backwards design is beneficial for teachers as it begins with the end in mind. It will help teachers to always have the goals in the front of their mind when planning a learning journey. Compared to the learning journey I planned, I find backwards design uses almost the same amount of time with a more focused goal. It also have a sense of continuity when assessing students at work in the designated period of time. This is also fair evaluating student's performances.

A unit plan created via backwards design are broken down into 3 categories as mentioned in Pamelagovender25's blog post. In the second category, it shows that various assessment methods can be used to assess students which can be fair for students as they have various kinds of capabilities.

I'd like to try to use the backwards design planning for my upcoming professional experience. Hoping to get encouragement from my mentor!

Regards,
Sarah