Backwards Design Reflection

If I were to describe how the backwards design approach helped my reading unit using one word, it would be RICHNESS. I have taught this same theme in reading for eight years. This year was by far the most organized with depth. Throughout the entire unit, I was thinking about my essential questions. My questioning style became thicker with many discussions. I linked the stories together to explain the entire theme. In the past, I wouldn’t link the theme together; I just separated each concept into weekly stories. My students enjoyed new strategies that allowed them to be pushed. I feel like I used step three (the calendar) the most. I know that in order to create a meaningful calendar, steps 1 and 2 had to be thought out carefully too. The activities that I put on the calendar helped answer the essential questions. I feel that having everything laid out so specifically, actually saved time in the end. I have not planned for four weeks! Since things are so crazy at school in May, it is very nice to be organized early. I definitely saw several benefits after using the BD model. One example of deeper thinking is when I asked my students to explain the advantages of living in the 1920s, like Ruth Law. One student said that he would have liked to live back then, so he could meet Bessie Coleman, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh and Louis Beloit. I loved this response, because he was able to recite the heroes/heroines of aeronautics! Another student responded that she would not like to live in the 1920s, because they did not have TV or video games. This was another success, because I wanted them to understand that technology has changed over time. The picture web was also very engaging. The kids explained the advantages of several types of travel. The webs showed their knowledge of travel with explanations to back it up. They were very creative and different. If they could explain the advantage, then it worked! There were no specific answers. We have six themes in our reading curriculum. I would love use the BD design to make improvements to the five additional themes. I felt that this unit was very RICH!