Backward Design - A New Approach to Instructional Planning

In traditional lesson design, students are taught what they should know and be able to do by the end of the learning cycle. Backward design is an approach to instructional planning that starts with the end goal and then works backward from there. When i was first introduced to this concept in my sixth year of teaching, it completely blew me away. I experienced the biggest spike in student success i had ever seen. For the first time, it felt like none of my class was wasted. Everything we did actually mattered.