My ARP and Backward Design

The more I read and understood the concept of Backward Design, the more I realized that I had been using this approach within my classroom for a very long time now, without realizing it, or giving it a name.It is based on the concept that both the students and teacher will have a much firmer and clearer grasp of where the learning is going if the goal or summative assessment is clearly articulated right from the beginning. By starting with a focus on the enduring understandings that you want your students to learn and apply, then developing how you will know how and when they have reached that understanding, the steps between will be carefully scaffolded to reach that objective. Hence, in my ARP, I had articulated to parents the goal and end result of my year-long project: To help parents become more involved with their children's academic progress at home. Having clear expectations made the end result seem more tangible and easier to accomplish.