TPC Journal-Vol 9- Issue 2-Full-Issue

84 The Professional Counselor | Volume 9, Issue 2 encourage school counselors to focus on designing cohesive units of a curriculum, rather than treating each lesson as an isolated learning experience. “Backward Design” of a Curricular Unit Stage 1. When applied to classroom guidance curriculum development, the first stage of backward design tasks school counselors with stating the learning goals, or desired results of a unit, with clarity and specificity. Although other curricular frameworks may refer to these statements of curricular aims as learning objectives , UbD uses the term learning goals to emphasize their purpose as a destination or end-point for student learning. Stage 1 includes six components (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011). The first component prompts school counselors to identify pre-established goals for the program, such as national and state standards. The other five components are different types of learning goals to be written by the school counselor: transfer, understanding, essential question, knowledge, and skill goals. School counselors develop these goals through a combined process of “unpacking” standards into clearer or more specific learning outcomes, deciding which aspects of content are essential to emphasize in their context, and adding big ideas not suggested by the standards (see Table 1). Table 1 Type of Learning Goal Definition of Learning Goal Stem That Begins Learning Goal Transfer Statements of what students should be able to accomplish independently in the long-term by using what they have learned (after completing the program/grade) Students will be able to independently use their learning to… Understanding Statements of big ideas reflecting an important and connective generalization that helps students see themes or patterns across different content topics Students will understand that… Essential Question Thought-provoking big idea questions that foster inquiry, meaning-making, and application Students will keep considering… Knowledge Statements of specific facts that students should know and recall (such as vocabulary words and their definitions) Students will know… Skill Statements of discrete skills that students should be able to do or use (starting with an active verb) Students will be able to… Note . Adapted from Wiggins and McTighe (2005, pp. 58–59) and Wiggins and McTighe (2011, p. 16). Examples of each type of learning goal from a classroom guidance curriculum are provided in Table 2 and Appendix A, and discussed in depth in the sections that follow. Transfer, understanding, and essential question goals reflect long-term aims of education. Transfer goals describe desired long-term independent accomplishments, or what we want students to carry