Rather than start with the means - lectures, textbooks, exams, and the rest - Backward Design begins at the end. What should students learn? What should they know or be able to do? These questions require us to formulate an objective, one that might go something like, "Students should be able to compare the causes of the Civil War in terms of their relative importance." Within the framework of Backward Design, the student's assimilation of content (often an end in itself) - becomes a means to something that requires higher order thinking: applying content in the practice and performance of transferable skills.