ES TE HS Sampler Level 4 U6

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Features of Backwards Design Found
in Español Santillana
Principles of Backwards Design
Backwards Design, developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe,
is an approach to unit development that puts the emphasis on
big ideas and enduring understandings rather than on discrete
skills and coverage. It has three main steps: 1) identify desired
results; 2) determine acceptable evidence; and 3) plan learning
experiences and instruction. Assessments are performance-
based, reflect the big ideas, and are designed before the
instructional activities.
Step One: Identify Desired Results
In step one, teachers define the unit’s goals, its essential
questions and enduring understandings, as well as the key
language skills students will acquire as a result of the unit.
Enduring understandings are those that have value in real
life beyond the classroom, that have a potential for engaging
students, and that include core tasks that are essential and
integral to the subject matter. For world language teachers,
national, state, and local standards as well as thematic
planning provide essential guidelines and contexts when
defining desired results.
Español Santillana’s overall format, that of thematic units
centered around young people traveling in various Spanish-
speaking countries, addresses enduring understandings,
such as, “Who are the Spanish-speaking peoples of the
world and how do they live?” and “How are our lives similar
and different?” The themes are broad and reflect cultural
perspectives. For instance, in Level 1, Unidad 3, the stated
theme is “shopping in the context of Mayan cultures and
Guatemala’s historic cities.”
Step Two: Determine Acceptable Evidence
In step two, teachers decide which evidence will show that
students have a grasp of the big ideas and enduring
understandings. Wiggins and McTighe suggest that
performance tasks provide the best evidence. For world
language teachers, performance-based assessments, focused
on student use of extended, communicative language in
authentic situations, are recommended. However, the use of
extended language requires initial skill building where core
vocabulary and structures are mastered first.
Español Santillana offers a wide selection of contextualized
formative assessments centered on these core skills as well
Carol McKenna Semonsky Associate Professor Emerita, Georgia State University
as summative assessments that prompt extended and
authentic language. Students are given an opportunity to
reflect on their accomplishment of the goals by using the
Autoevaluación at the end of each unit.
Step Three: Plan Learning Experiences and
Instructions
It is in step three, in the planning for learning experiences,
where Español Santillana excels. Both the textbook and
ancillaries offer plentiful and contextualized practice of
essential skills that form the building blocks necessary for
meaningful communication. Practice exercises represent
real-life situations. Daily plans found in the Teacher’s Edition
facilitate planning for both regular and block scheduling. The
Teacher’s Edition directly links unit content to standards and
offers many ideas to address individual differences, including
suggestions for reaching all learners via multiple intelligences
and differentiated instruction. Español Santillana has a
selection of ancillary materials, including websites, DVDs, and
other multimedia from which teachers may choose in order to
design the most effective instruction, matching both their
initial desired results and their students’ individual needs.
Bibliography
Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition.
Creating an Assessment Unit Process: Backwards Design.
University of Minnesota. July, 2010.
CreateUnit/p_1.html>.
National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project.
Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st
Century. Lawrence, KS: Allen Press, Inc., 1999.
Wiggins, Grant and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design.
Power Point presentation. Winter 2004.
mtuniontalk.pdf>.
———. Understanding by Design, Expanded 2nd Edition.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development, 2005.
Background and Research