Backwards Design Reflection

Creating a backwards design unit was a new experience for me.  At the start, I was very frustrated by the process but by the end, I found that I this process was a better way to plan and teach than simply putting pulling out a file and teaching it.  By doing it this way I felt like I had a much clearer picture of not only what I was teaching but also why I was teaching it. By creating Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions, I had a better idea of what I wanted the kids to learn and what questions to ask them.  This made much more sense to me and kept me on track with what the focus was.  Creating the assessments before teaching the lesson helped me to stay on track as well as helped me by giving me something to teach toward.  I knew what I wanted them to learn and to walk away from the unit understanding.  It helped guide my instruction as we went along too because I was able to see what they were understanding and what was still unclear to them.  It made me much more aware and concise in my teaching.  It impacted the students because if they were unsure about something, I knew about it right away and could adjust my teaching by either re-teaching or reviewing. 

Overall, I liked the experience of planning a unit using backwards design.  I felt much more prepared as well as knowledgeable about what I was doing.  It felt like the lessons flowed better and helped make more sense to the kids.  I also feel like the kids had a better experience because they truly came out of the unit with a good understanding of the topic.  I really feel like this is a better way to plan units.  It was also nice to have a visual layout to refer back to and I didn’t feel like I was scrambling to plan activities.  It felt more smooth and efficient.  This is definitely a tool I will use to plan future units.