Teach-NOW Journey

Reflection on Unpacking Standards and Backwards Mapping In this unit, we’ve learned about two interesting concepts—unpacking standards and backwards mapping.   Here are brief summaries of both: Unpacking standards helps teachers to translate standards into lessons.   To unpack a standard, teachers identify the verbs.   This helps teachers to identify what the standards what students to be able to DO to meet the standard.   Teachers must also identify the nouns in a standard.   This helps them to be able to identify the CONTENT students should be learning. Backwards mapping is a process teachers use to build assessments and teaching activities to help students meet goals or standards.   The teacher starts by identifying the skill he or she wants students to master and then planning assessments and activities accordingly.   This process ensures that chosen activities and assessments are working toward that identified end goal. The two strategies have their strengths and

What is backwards mapping?   Backwards mapping is a technique teachers use to build assessments and teaching activities to help students meet goals or standards.   The teacher starts by identifying the skill he or she wants students to master and then plans assessments and activities accordingly.   This process ensures that chosen activities and assessments are working toward that identified end goal. I currently teach process writing to 4 th through the 8 th grade at a charter school in Alpine, CA.   I have chosen to focus on the 6 th grade for this project and have identified the following standard from the California Common Core State Standards to backwards map: CCCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. I chose this standard because it is packed with a lot of proficiencies, and it is fairly complicated for students