Thread by @PepsMccrea

A short thread on one of the most critical concepts in planning for learning:

→ Backwards design

As teachers, nailing our approach to planning is paramount.

It not only makes a huge difference to pupil learning, but also to workload. Berliner suggests that expert teachers plan lessons 50x quicker than novice teachers 🚀

However, effective approaches to planning are not always obvious.

For example, some teachers in their early years (including myself) have found themselves beginning planning by trying to identify a good activity.

Whilst identifying good activities can be an important part of the process, it's not always the best place to start.

Activity-first planning can lead to incoherent learning, and foster a false sense of teacher security—where pupils are busy but not necessarily learning.

A better approach is to begin by starting at the end. This is called 'backwards design' and entails asking yourself:

→ What do I want my pupils to have learnt by the end of this session?

And then spending more time trying to answer this than you think you should.

Backwards design is about striving for *excessive* clarity on what you want your pupils to know and be able to do as a result of your teaching. One of the best ways to force this clarity is by asking yourself:

→ How will I know if they've got there?

Asking yourself these 2 questions *before* thinking about activities can (A) increase the likelihood of learning happening and (B) make your planning more efficient.

"If you don't know where you're going, you'll probably end up someplace else." — Laurence Peter

👊