Journeying through the process of Backwards Design with a single standard in mind is, in a sense, a limited exercise. Semester and year-long classes require many standards to be covered, and several of them can be completed at once. At the beginning of this particular class on Backwards Design, students were assigned to choose five standards that they were potentially going to teach, applying the entire UbD process to only one. The following chart shows the beginnings of how all three stages of UbD can be applied to the remaining four standards chosen at the beginning of the class. 

 

Following Backwards Design, Wiggins & McTighe start with a large, powerful idea and move towards more specific aspects of planning a unit/lesson. They also point out that the process can begin with any part, as long as it is designed towards an overarching “Big Idea”:“Only by having specified the desired results can we focus on the content, methods, and activities most likely to achieve those results” (G. P. Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). In this chart, Colorado State standards for secondary students are the “entry point” into the process, and Stages 1-3 are outlined. 

Stage One is represented by columns (a) and (b), and several standards can be addressed at once (including the standard chosen for the completed UbD lesson above). Essential Questions are outlined, and can be combined into a larger Essential Question with the same final assessments and feedback strategies, as well as integrated instructional strategies for different aspects of the standard. Column ( c) outlines various assessments - both formative and summative - that represent the students’ development of concept and skill. Classroom instruction and feedback in columns (d) and (e) fill out Stage Three, identifying specific approaches for the student to absorb the ideas and students’ growth. 

Strategies for these lessons need to be engaging and provide opportunities for exploration, curiosity, and progress. Several of these lessons include use of media in the classroom such as podcasts and videos (Davis, 2023), as well as exploration of evolving technology such as Chat GPT (Su & Yang, 2023). It has been shown that use of media in a flipped classroom environment encourages discussion (Aycicek & Yanpar Yelken, 2021). Seminars and group work also provide not only further opportunities for understanding, but informal feedback and assessment (Al’Adawi, 2017). Various feedback and feed/forward opportunities are also necessary for students to identify areas of improvement and success, as well as identify areas of mastery. 

Combining a chart such as the one below with a curated template such as the one above can enable the educator to more easily ensure a thorough, well designed lesson plan under the Backwards Design guidelines.