I decided to rip up the original plan that I had for the course (formulated a couple of years earlier) and redo it entirely. I was dissatisfied with the standard topical discussions focused on the content of books and articles. I'm really glad that I'm not doing it that way.
I hadn't worked before with a backward design method, but Prof. Bernstein was explicit about the steps. The key was to put the goals in the front of the syllabus. At the CTE seminar, we also talked about helping students acquire access to literature, not just trying to focus on knowledge building. We discussed creating teaching plans that foster a sense of intellectual formation and acquisition of skills, tools, and practices with less emphasis on knowledge and data.
