As an educator, according to the author, the most important objective is to know what they want students to take away with them after the unit ends, the enduring understandings that will stay with them long after they leave the classroom. The author states they wanted their students to understand that writing is a journey, one that starts with the end in mind. When the author synthesized the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework and created the system they call "signposts" - a tool for thinking - the author witnessed changes in how they taught writing and how students saw themselves as writers. It is powerful to give student writers control over what they want to say and how they want to say it. UbD focuses on identifying enduring understandings for a unit, considering how those understandings will be assessed, and designing curriculum backward from those ends. The enduring understandings - concepts teachers want their students to walk away with - are signposts that guide teachers as they create a unit and the lessons within. The author first used this approach when students read Pete Earley's "Crazy," required reading for high school juniors at their school.