PLANNING BACKWARD BY COLLEGE DESIGN
Creating Effective Curriculum Maps via the Common Core Standards
Presented by: Maxine Nodel
“The farther backward you can look,
the farther forward you can see.”
~Winston Churchill
What exactly is
Planning Backward
by College Design,
and why is it needed
for grades K-12?
College & Career Readiness Assets
ELA-based Common Core Standards
12
Progression & Evolution of Academic Skills By Year
K
• Ensure that high school graduates have
the intellectual & academic skill-sets to be
successful in college
• Ensure that post-secondary students can
compete in the national & global work force
• Improve our nation’s educational ranking
amongst all industrialized nations
COLLEGE & CAREER READINESS ASSETS
• Higher Order Thinking Skills
• Research Skills
• Academic Reading Skills
• Academic Writing Skills
(argument/counter-argument)
• Listening & Speaking Skills
• Time management skills
• Physical & mental endurance skills
Planning With the End in Mind
Ex: Building a House
1. Vision of the complete house
2. Inventory of all needed materials (assets)
3. Creation of construction blueprint
4. Creation of progressive plans
5. Creation of construction benchmarks
Building a College/Career-Ready Student
1.
Vision of college/career-ready student
2.
Inventory of College/Career assets
3.
Creation of CCS instructional blueprints
4.
Creation of progressive instructional plans
5.
Creation of learning benchmarks
Implications for Instruction
CCS
Reading-Writing-Listening-Speaking
Disciplinary Literacy
Performance-based Tasks
CCS Mindset: Every Teacher is an ELA Teacher
ELA
Social Studies
Science
Math
Technical Subjects
Other
Reading
(Domain
Vocabulary)
Writing
Listening
Speaking
College & Career Readiness
Common Core Standards by Course
General Course Outline
Curriculum Maps via CCS
Progression of Lessons
Curriculum Maps via
the Common Core Standards
&
Norman Webb’s DOK
[Depth Of Knowledge Framework]
Norman Webb’s DOK Framework
[Depth Of Knowledge]
DOK-1 - Recall & Reproduction
DOK-2 - Basic Application of Skills/Concepts
DOK-3 - Strategic Thinking
DOK-4 - Extended Thinking
DOK- 1 Recall & Reproduction
•Recall elements & details of a story
•Conduct basic mathematical calculations
•Label locations on a map
•Finding a measurement
•Using punctuation marks correctly
•Describe the features of a place or people
DOK- 2 Basic Application of Skills/Concepts
•Summarize major events in a narrative
•Use context clues to identify word meaning
•Solve routine multiple-step problems
•Describe the cause/effect of an event
•Organize, represent & interpret data
Ex: DOK- 3 - Strategic Thinking
•Support ideas with details & examples
•Use voice appropriate to audience
•Identify research questions & design a
investigations for a scientific problem
•Determine the author's purpose & describe
how it affects the interpretation of a reading
selection
Ex: DOK- 4 - Extended Thinking
•Analyze & synthesize information from multiple
perspectives and sources
•Describe & illustrate how common themes are
found across texts from different cultures
•Conduct a project that requires specifying a
problem, designing/conducting an experiment,
analyzing its data, & reporting results
•Design a mathematical model to illuminate a
problem & solve a practical or abstract situation
Sample 10 Element Curriculum Map
• Unit Title [& Theme if applicable]
• BIG Ideas (Enduring Understandings)
• Essential Questions
• Content/Topics/Ideas
• Domain Vocabulary
• Common Core Standards
• Requisite Skills
• Texts & Other Resources
• DOK Assessments [F, S, P]
• Progression of Lesson AIMS
1. Unit: A curriculum strand taken from a
complete course scope and sequence and
delved into sequentially for a period of weeks.
(Ex: A unit on Genetics from a Living
Environment scope and sequence)
1a. Theme: An [extra] underlying motif woven
into the fabric of the curriculum map.
(Ex: The Implications of Exponential Medical
& Technological Advancement)
2. BIG Ideas (Enduring Understandings):
A starting point for backward planning and
the overarching & enduring understandings
students should walk away with at a unit’s
end.
3. Essential Questions: Thought-provoking
questions designed to facilitate higher-order
during Socratic class discussion, as well as
guide inquiry-based learning.
4. Content/Topics/Ideas: The specific points
of the state-aligned subject-specific content
points to be covered throughout the entire
unit.
5. Domain Vocabulary: All the requisite
terminology pertinent to the given unit that is
used during Socratic class discussion,
inquiry-based research.
6. Common Core Standards:
• The national ELA-based learning/performance
standards designed to align an rigorously
evolved K-12 curriculum with college & career
readiness assets
• Aligned with all performance-based
assessments
• A simultaneous starting point for backward
planning
7. Requisite Skills: All the academic tasks
needed to be successful in the unit.
(Ex: knowing how to calculate probability)
8. Texts & Other Resources: All genres of
content information including digital, internet, &
primary source documents
9. DOK Assessments [F, S, P]:
•Formative: DOK 1 & 2
on the spot, ongoing, varied
•Summative: DOK 2 & 3
standardized assessment at unit’s end
•Performance-based: DOK 3 & 4
complex CCS-aligned inquiry-based
projects
10. Progression of Lesson Objectives &
DOK Teaching & Learning Activities:
•All the sequential lessons needed to bring
the unit’s big ideas & performance-based
task to fruition
•Pre-written Socratic essential and guiding
questions
Creating a Performance-based Project
Consider:
• the BIG unit ideas (& Unit Theme)
• the essential questions
• the requisite content
• all the grade appropriate Common Core
Standards
Sample Performance-based Project
•Course/Grade: Living Environment 10
•Unit: Genetics
•Theme: Implications of Exponential Medical
& Technological Advancement
•BIG Idea Focus: Understanding gene
regulation may enable us to treat or prevent
diseases that were previously unbeatable.
Sample Performance-based Project
Sample Selection of Primary CCSs
W10.1 Write arguments to support claims in
an analysis of substantive topics/texts using
valid reasoning & relevant/sufficient evidence.
R10.1 Cite specific textual evidence to
support analysis of science and technical texts,
attending to the precise details of explanations
or descriptions.
Selection of Secondary CCSs
W10.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in
which the development, organization, & style
are appropriate to task, purpose, & audience.
W10.5 Develop and strengthen writing as
needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting.
W10.6 Use technology, including the
Internet, to produce and publish writing…to
research to build and present knowledge
Sample Performance-based Project
Write a five-page MLA research paper
containing arguments (& counter-arguments)
to support a thesis statement on the impact
that Mendel and Watson and Crick have on
the benefits of the Human Genome Project
Implications for Backwards DOK Instruction
Write a five-page MLA research paper containing arguments
(& counter-arguments) to support a thesis statement on the
impact that Mendel and Watson and Crick have on the
benefits of the Human Genome Project.
•Non-Fiction Reading Skills
•Socratic Dialectic
•Persuasive Writing Skills
•MLA Research-Writing Skills
•Proofreading, Editing, & Revising Skills
Ex: Next Steps for Backward Planning
•School-wide discussion on College & Career
Readiness Assets & rigor
•Examination CCS & DOK alignment
•Understanding of disciplinary literacy & need
for performance-based tasks (R, W, L, S)
•Begin process of curriculum mapping via BIG
ideas, Common Core Standards, DOK
•PD on literacy, Socratic Seminar, MLA style
Ex: School-Wide CCS/DOK-Aligned Focus
ELA
Students will be required to
write MLA style argumentative
essays in all content areas.
Social Studies
Science
Math
Technical Subjects
Other
This will require students to:
examine multiple perspectives
via Socratic Seminar & valid
research
engage in counterclaim in oral
& written form
CRITICAL READINGS
•http://www.corestandards.org/ Common Core Standards
•Understanding by Design, Expanded 2nd Edition,
Grant P. Wiggens, Jay McTighe
•Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High Quality Units,
Grant P. Wiggens, Jay McTighe
•A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of
Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Abridged Edition,
Lorin W. Anderson
•Depth of Knowledge Flip Book: For purchase, contact:
Cindy Higgins - (660) 785-7377 chiggins@truman.edu
•Mapping the Big Picture: Integrating Curriculum and Assessment,
K-12, Heidi H. Jacobs
•The Curriculum Mapping Planner: Templates, Tools, & Resources
for Effective Professional Development, Heidi H. Jacobs
•Fundamentals of Critical Argumentation (Critical Reasoning and
Argumentation), Douglas Walton
•Mla Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (English)
Published by the MLA
•Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain
English, Patricia T. O’Conner