Backward Design: The Grant Wiggins Model

Voices and Choices: Constitution Today is a unit that follows the Backward Design model. Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe outline the Backward Design method for planning units in their book Understanding by Design. Backward Design emphasizes the importance of planning the outcomes of a unit before planning the activities in a unit. Wiggins and McTighe also explain the concept of Enduring Understandings. Enduring Understandings are big ideas that will benefit students outside the classroom and for years to come. A unit should impart students with an Enduring Understanding. Essential Questions deal with topics and ideas that need to be uncovered by students throughout the course of the unit. Essential Questions should be meaningful and should be asked continually throughout the unit.

Stage 1: Desired Results

Enduring Understandings (Big Ideas):

• Citizens can improve their communities and country if they participate in their government and exercise their rights and responsibilities.
• Citizenship requires the ability to probe ideas and assumptions, ask and answer good questions, take a skeptical attitude towards questionable arguments, evaluate evidence, formulate conclusions, and develop and refine participatory skills.
• To be active participants in the world around us, it is important to understand the past and how it connects to the present. Throughout history the development of governments, and particularly democratic governments, has had a direct correlation with participatory citizenship.

Essential Questions:

• How do Americans voice their perspectives on important issues of public debate?
• What skills must citizens have to effectively participate in their democracy?
• How do we balance the rights and freedoms of individuals and the needs of society?

Key Knowledge:

• The purpose of government as outlined by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
• The purpose and scope of the Bill of Rights
• The connection between the Bill of Rights and current issues of public debate
• The tension between individual rights and the welfare of the public
• The separation of power into three branches of the federal government
• The importance of checks and balances in our government
• How a bill becomes a law and the role of the citizen in that process
• Current government representatives
• Where to find accurate sources of information on current issues

Key Skills:

• Internet research and information literacy skills
• Note-taking and organizational skills
• Distinguishing between fact and opinion
• Evaluating evidence from online sources
• Recognizing bias and points of view in informational and editorial sources 
• How to locate and contact legislators
• Writing persuasive essays
• Group consensus building and collaboration
• Oral presentation skills
• Basic PowerPoint technology skills

Stage 2: Assessment Evidence

Performance Tasks:

• Students will share their understanding of issues of public debate in classroom discussions, on class weblogs and city-wide discussion boards.
• Students will research current issues of public debate through news sources and online media, outline their opinions, highlight their research and develop persuasive letters based on their evidence.
• Students will work collaboratively to develop and deliver a persuasive oral presentation supported by a visual multimedia presentation.

Other Evidence:  

• Students will post their understanding of current issues of public debate to a class weblog.
• Students will generate research questions and notes on web-based research materials.
• Students will use the Internet to locate and select appropriate online sources based on certain criteria.  
• Students will apply knowledge of the Constitution and Bill of Rights to a current issue in the news.
• Students will informally present the history of issues in current public debate.

Stage 3: Learning Plan

Lesson Activities:

Step 1: Choose an Issue

Students will read an introduction to six important issues involving their community and share their opinions. Students will also learn the six steps in the Constitution Today unit. Working in groups, students will identify ways that our government presently carries out the tasks described in the Preamble to the Constitution. Students will discuss various scenarios invoving current issues and the freedoms protected by the Bill of Rights.

Step 2: Explore Perspectives

Students will demonstrate their understanding of their issues by writing definitions of them. Students will  take notes on the history of their issue to gain historical perspective. The class will learn how to create research questions that will help them conduct deeper research on their issues.

Step 3: Conduct Research

The class will identify and examine the bias that occurs in many news sources. The class will explore tools for conducting effective Internet research. Working in groups, students will compare their research notes. Students will present information and two views on their issues to the class. The class will learn about the different branches that comprise the federal government. Students will learn about the importance of taking action on their issues.

Step 4: Take Action

Students will organize their research notes and form opinions on the issues they researched. Students will use graphic organizers to help them write and revise drafts of a persuasive letter to a local representative in government.

Step 5: Build Consensus

Students will work in groups and collaborate to create oral presentations for the Town Meeting. Students will learn how to create multimedia presentations using PowerPoint. Students will cite the sources that they used and work together to complete their presentations.

Step 6: Present Your Views

Students will learn about the importance of public speaking in a democracy. Students will present their views to the class, school officials, and community leaders. Students will learn about the ways to influence policy decisions made by our government today and will work in groups to create an action plan for the issues they studied.