Skip to content
pralearn - logo

Before learn

Before we learn

Primary Menu pralearn - logo

Before learn

  • Home
  • Define Teaching
  • Special Education
  • Teacher Pro
  • Teach Account
  • Computer Science
  • College School
  • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Contact Us
    • Sitemap
    • Advertise Here
  • Teach Account

How to Use Backward Chaining to Differentiate Instruction

12/11/2022 Kurnia Ardha
How to Use Backward Chaining to Differentiate Instruction

Table of Contents

  • What is Backward Chaining?
  • Examples of Backward Chaining
  • Tips for Using Backward Chaining in Your Classroom
    • LEARN MORE

Listen to the interview with Melanie Meehan (transcript):

Sponsored by Pear Deck and Spinndle

Related Posts:

  • Moving at the Speed of Creativity

This page contains Amazon Affiliate and Bookshop.org links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. What’s the difference between Amazon and Bookshop.org?


If we want our students to learn as much as they can, ideally they should be presented with learning tasks that are right at their level, or slightly above, so they have to reach a little bit, but they can get there. Making this happen as a teacher—what we refer to as differentiating instruction—is really challenging, because within any group of students you’ll find a huge range of abilities, background knowledge, and interests. To do differentiation well, you need lots and lots of tools. A few we’ve offered here are playlists, self-paced learning, and Universal Design for Learning.

Today we have one more called backward chaining. It’s an approach that allows a student who struggles with a task to skip some of the early steps in order to experience the later ones. The strategy was shared with us by Melanie Meehan, a Connecticut-based elementary writing and social studies coordinator who has written three books about teaching writing and contributes to the phenomenal collaborative blog Two Writing Teachers.

Melanie Meehan

Although Meehan uses backward chaining to help students with writing, it’s a strategy that can be used in many, many subject areas, so even if you don’t teach writing, stick around, because you will likely find some ideas here for how you can use it in your own classroom.

What is Backward Chaining?

Backward chaining is a specific kind of scaffolding that has the student begin a task closer to the end, rather than starting it from the beginning. Where the starting point is depends on the student’s particular needs. “There’s no telling where the gum in the straw might be for somebody getting stuck doing something,” Meehan explains. So finding it will require assessment and experimentation.

For example, if you are teaching a child how to brush their teeth, and that child doesn’t quite have the fine motor skills to put the toothpaste on the brush, you’d do that step for them and have them start with the brushing itself. Eventually, as they build confidence with brushing, you’d have them move backward and add on the skill of toothpaste application.

While this strategy is frequently used in situations like the above—teaching life skills to young children or students with disabilities—it can be applied to any educational task where a student needs extra scaffolding or support.

“It’s another way to give kids access,” Meehan says.

The reasons a student may need a strategy like backward chaining can vary. It may be that their current skill or ability level would hold them up at an early stage of the task, or it might be that executive functioning is slowing them down. “So many of the kids that you might be envisioning at this point are kids who don’t always see things to completion,” Meehan explains. “To give kids a sense of completing a task is kind of a big deal.”

Examples of Backward Chaining

  • Writing: If a student struggles to come up with an idea for a narrative piece, supply them with an idea (even give them three pictures of a basic sequence of events) and have them write the story of those pictures. Later, they may be ready to try again with their own idea.
  • Research: If a student needs to create a presentation or write a paper based on research, and they don’t yet have the skills to find resources or take notes, you could supply them with pre-selected resources and pre-written notes on the topic, then just have them write the summary of the research. In the future, they can work on the research or notes part of the process until they get to the point of being able to do the whole thing from beginning to end.
  • Math: For complex problems, have the first few steps done and have the student take over from there until they are ready to work backwards with fewer steps done for them.
  • Cooking: Many people may be familiar with meal kit services like HelloFresh or Blue Apron, which supply pre-measured ingredients for specific menus and tell you exactly how to cook them, which puts you a few steps into the process of making the meal.

Tips for Using Backward Chaining in Your Classroom

Start with a task analysis. If you know you have an assignment coming up that some students typically struggle with, think through all the steps involved from start to finish. Doing this will give you options for different entry points for students.

Include the student in the process. Meehan recommends that teachers be transparent with students about the options available and let them choose where to start. For the research example above, she’ll tell them, “If you feel like you’re ready to have a text set that you can research yourself and take notes on yourself, I have those. If you feel like you need the notes, I’ll give you the notes so that you can get straight to writing. And if you’re like, no, I want to do the whole thing myself, I want to decide on my topic and find my resources and get myself set up, you can do that. It’s kind of like where in the process do you feel like you’re ready to start?”

Gradually move the starting point back. Backward chaining is not a permanent solution; the idea is that the student will eventually be able to move back to where they can do the whole task from the beginning. “Scaffolds by definition should be temporary and there should be a plan to take them away,” Meehan says. “So I am intentionally and purposefully doing work for kids, but with the idea that they are going to build their confidence, they are going to build their competence, they’re going to build their curiosity around the whole process, and they’re going to become more willing to go backward in the process to an earlier step.”


LEARN MORE

You can find more from Meehan on her website, melaniemeehan.com. She goes more in-depth about the backward chaining strategy and lots of others in her 2019 book, Every Child Can Write (Amazon | Bookshop.org).


Come back for more.
Join our mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration that will make your teaching more effective and fun. You’ll get access to our members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Over 50,000 teachers have already joined—come on in.

Tags: Account Teacher, Cpa Teacher, Myteach Login, Teach Account, Teach Signin

Continue Reading

Previous Let Students Create Your Next Review Game in Gimkit with KitCollab
Next Rethinking your K-12 cloud strategy

More Stories

My Two Year Old Got Hooked On Phonics
  • Teach Account

My Two Year Old Got Hooked On Phonics

30/01/2023 Kurnia Ardha
How To Teach Children Responsible Behaviour on the Internet – EDTECH 4 BEGINNERS
  • Teach Account

How To Teach Children Responsible Behaviour on the Internet – EDTECH 4 BEGINNERS

30/01/2023 Kurnia Ardha
Using Oral Storytelling Kits/Loose Parts with Middle Schoolers – Pernille Ripp
  • Teach Account

Using Oral Storytelling Kits/Loose Parts with Middle Schoolers – Pernille Ripp

30/01/2023 Kurnia Ardha

Recent Posts

  • Why Some Music Teachers Are Only Filling Up the Gas Tank for Gigs and How Can This Benefit You?
  • Brown University Ranking (Consistently Worst in Ivy Leagues)
  • Cheap International Calls – Inexpensive Way to Call Abroad
  • Keep It Super Simple – Work Smarter, Not Longer
  • 15 Spanish/Bilingual Books about Feelings – Bilingual Marketplace

Recent Comments

No comments to show.

Archives

  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022

Categories

  • College School
  • Computer Science
  • Define Teaching
  • Special Education
  • Teach Account
  • Teacher Pro

Backlinks

Sosiago


Friend Ads

Authentic Car

Related Article

Why Some Music Teachers Are Only Filling Up the Gas Tank for Gigs and How Can This Benefit You?
  • Teacher Pro

Why Some Music Teachers Are Only Filling Up the Gas Tank for Gigs and How Can This Benefit You?

06/02/2023 Kurnia Ardha
Brown University Ranking (Consistently Worst in Ivy Leagues)
  • College School

Brown University Ranking (Consistently Worst in Ivy Leagues)

06/02/2023 Kurnia Ardha
Cheap International Calls – Inexpensive Way to Call Abroad
  • Special Education

Cheap International Calls – Inexpensive Way to Call Abroad

05/02/2023 Kurnia Ardha
Brown University Ranking (Consistently Worst in Ivy Leagues)
  • Special Education

Keep It Super Simple – Work Smarter, Not Longer

05/02/2023 Kurnia Ardha
15 Spanish/Bilingual Books about Feelings – Bilingual Marketplace
  • Define Teaching

15 Spanish/Bilingual Books about Feelings – Bilingual Marketplace

05/02/2023 Kurnia Ardha
fabrikanttech.com © All rights reserved. | CoverNews by AF themes.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
Cookie SettingsAccept All
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT