Backwards Lesson Design - Regions

      This year I have worked to clarify all of the stages of backwards lesson design.  I am pleased to plan the thinking strategy routines within the learning plan stage, but continue to struggle with whittling down Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions.  As we weave social studies content into the readers and writers workshop, I don't know which Understanding to focus on.  I see the power of focus and continue to determine the best focus for kids.

Regions Nonfiction Unit

Stage 1 – Desired Outcome
Established Goals:             Reader: Use strategies to make sense of difficult nonfiction/fiction text Writer: Integrate information from multiple sources to interestingly explain important ideas Researcher: Build knowledge through primary and secondary investigation of different aspects of a topic Social Scientist: Compare region’s economy, culture, geography and issues; Create connections
Enduring Understandings: Overarching understanding: Researchers use tools of interviewing, reading, searching, etc. to build background knowledge. Questions drive discovery of new topics. Overarching Understanding: Multiple sources about a topic may contain conflicting views or biases. We use critical thinking skills to analyze and interpret that information. Overarching Understanding: Authors use a variety of nonfiction text features and literary devices to enhance understanding. Overarching Understanding: Readers use multiple thinking strategies to make sense of text. Topical Understanding: A region’s economy, culture, geography and issues shape the uniqueness of that region. Topical Understanding: Each unique region contributes to the U.S. as a whole.	Essential Questions: Overarching question: How do researchers build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic? Overarching question: How do social scientists discern the difference between opinion/impressions and facts? Overarching question: How do writers integrate information from multiple sources to interestingly explain important ideas? Overarching question: How do readers make sense of difficult text? Topical Question: How do a region’s economy, culture, geography and issues shape the uniqueness of that region? Topical Question: How does each unique region contribute to the U.S. as a whole? What is the interdependence of the regions?
Key Knowledge and Skills:          Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences.          Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources.          Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition or understanding.          Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and evidence. Apply precise language and domain specific vocabulary
Thinking:            Activate schema including background knowledge, experiences, and  connections in order to hinge new learning, and remember            Create sensory images that deepen understanding through details            Infer the motives, feelings, and perspectives of people to understand and empathize            Determine importance across texts while considering different perspectives            Monitor for meaning when analyzing  information to revise thinking            Synthesize information from a variety of sources to create new understandings

Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence 6 facets of understanding – explain (generalize, make connections, put in their own words, have a sound theory), interpret (student offers a plausible and supported account of data, text, experience), apply (the student can transfer, adapt, adjust, address novel issues and problems), perspective (student can see from different points of view), empathy (student can walk in the shoes of people/characters,  self-understanding (student can self-assess, see the limits of their understanding, reflect metacognitively)
Performance Tasks:     Students will research one of the regions, compare facts and design a ThingLink or green screen interview to share knowledge.  After reading several sources, students will write a multi-genre product including information, opinion and narrative to answer the essential question: What makes each region unique and how do the qualities within the regions connect?			Other Evidence:            As an assessment to activate students’ background knowledge about the thinking strategies, we will use the thinking routine Chalk Talk.         The four questions students will answer in a "quiz"  include:  1) What makes each region unique? 2) How do different industries effect regions? 3) In what ways does geography affect the development of towns? 4) How does culture show in food, festivals, holidays, etc.?
Stage 3 – Learning Plan Long Term and Daily Targets (Content Language Objectives) Learning Plan – What activities, experiences and lessons will lead to achievement (Acquisition, Meaning Making, and Transfer)
Planning Day	April 8 Region overview How do we learn about new concepts? Chalk Talk	Researchers/Readers/ Social Scientists/ Writers Impressions and Interviews – Create questions What Makes you say that?		Truth/Fact and Impressions/Opinion	Skim and Scan Textbooks Choose a region with a group Think Puzzle Explore
April 14 Sort impressions CSI 50 States – Nifty Fifty	Create chart – Economy, Geography, Issues, Culture Textbooks	Teach note taking		Note taking and paragraph synthesis	Vocabulary
April 21 Zooming In	Research	Research		Research	Synthesize Research
April 28  What is synthesis?	Synthesizing perspective	Synthesizing perspective		Practice script	Practice Script
May 5  Research and synthesis	Green Screen Technology	Review Sources		Thinglink technology	Assessment Day
May 12 Collaborate in teams to make connections across content	Write informative essays	Poetry		Step Inside	Multi-genre work
May 19  Headlines about uniqueness of regions	Chalk Talk connecting all regions	Reflection		Reflection	Reflection
Memorial Day	May 27 Parent Share Night

At our Professional Learning Community, we created a metaphor for Backwards Lesson Design.  This is an image of our metaphor.  It is like creating a pasta dinner as the desired result, the evidence of success would come from the consumers, and the learning plan comes from all the components of recipe, etc.