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Talk About Assessment: Program Planning with the End in Mind
NESA Winter Training Institute
New Delhi, January 30-31, 2010
Damian Cooper
(905) 823-6298
Session Outcomes
Review the principles and processes of “backward planning”
Apply these to elements of our own programs of study
The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment
2. Assessment must be planned and purposeful.
Why is “Backward Planning” an essential skill for all teachers? Time Changing mission of schools Curriculum overload Differentiation Excellence
Changing Goals
Mean
Changing Goals
Range of Competent Achievement
Program Planning and Unit Design
Messy learning Inquiry Design down Peer review Field test Refinement
Design Down Planning
“To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you are going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.”
Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
“Backward Design” Program Planning
Stage 1: Identify targeted understandings
Stage 2: Determine appropriate assessment of those understandings
Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction that make such understanding possible
Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design
“Backward Design” Program Planning
Stage 1: Identify targeted understandings
Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design
Plan Backward from What’s Essential…
Worth being
familiar with
Important to know and do
Enduring understandings
Wiggins and McTighe,
Understanding by Design
What is a “Big Idea/Enduring Understanding”?
Not a topic or concept e.g “conflict”
BUT A generalization that
– is broad in scope – is fundamental for a deep understanding of a given
subject– usually identifies a relationship between 2 or more
topics or conceptse.g. “Conflict is essential to fiction because it
engages the reader’s emotions.”
Big Ideas/Enduring Understandings
have lasting value/transfer are at the heart of the discipline require “uncoverage” (abstract or
often-misunderstood ideas) are embedded in factual knowledge,
skills and activities may be expressed as statements or
as “essential questions”
Topic INTU…
Testing Consumer Products on Animals I need to understand both sides of the debate concerning whether it is right to test consumer products on animals.
Video Gaming I need to understand whether video gaming is helpful or harmful to learning for teenagers.
Downloading Music I need to understand the arguments for and against downloading music made by consumers, record companies and artists.
Topics Compared to Essential Questions
Consider how these “topics” differ from the corresponding INTU questions:
A question is essential when it: causes genuine and relevant inquiry into the big
ideas and core content; provokes deep thought, lively discussion, sustained
inquiry, and new understanding as well as more questions;
requires students to consider alternatives, weigh evidence, support their ideas, and justify their answers;
stimulates vital, on-going rethinking of big ideas, assumptions, and prior lessons;
sparks meaningful connections with prior learning and personal experiences;
naturally recurs, creating opportunities for transfer to other situations and subjects.
Grant Wiggins, 2008
Which of the following are Big Ideas/ EnduringUnderstandings/Essential Questions?
Where we live affects how we live. The objective of this activity is to identify who
committed a crime and provide evidence to successfully prosecute the suspect.
What are the mouth parts of a grasshopper called?
Mathematical relationships are everywhere in the real world. These relationships are represented in a variety of ways: words, equations, tables, graphs.
What is an “Essential Skill”?
A skill that is fundamental to student success in a given subject domain
May be demonstrated across a wide range of units within a year/course, throughout an entire year/course, as well as from year to yeare.g. problem-solving
Which of the following are “Essential Skills?” Draw conclusions & make judgements
based on a text Count backwards from 100,000 in tens Use qualitative & quantitative data to
understand patterns and trends in the social sciences
Identify the mouth parts of a grasshopper
Identifying Big Ideas/Enduring Understandings & Essential Skills
(refer to template #2)
Select one unit Identify 1 or 2 Big Ideas/Enduring
Understandings/Essential Questions to anchor the unit
Identify 1 or 2 Essential Skills to anchor the unit
Template 2
“Backward Design” Program Planning
Stage 2: Determine appropriate assessment of those understandings
Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design
“What evidence would show ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ that students have achieved the desired understandings?”
Assessment of Learning
“Assessment of learning includes those tasks that are designed to determine how much learning has occurred after a significant period of instruction. The data from such assessments is often used to determine report card grades.
Assessment for Learning“Assessment for learning is any assessment for which the first priority in its design and practice is to serve the purpose of promoting students’ learning. It thus differs from assessment designed primarily to serve the purposes of accountability, or of ranking, or of certifying competence.” Black, Wiliam et al. 2004
Sampling…the key to managing assessment
•Teachers teach far more and students learn far more than can ever be assessed and evaluated
•Good assessment of learning design involves identifying a critical sample of student work from which valid inferences can be made about all that has been learned
•This critical sample becomes the body of evidence that will be graded and reported upon
How much evidence is “enough” for grading and reporting?
In other words…
How do we ensure that the body of evidence selected for grading and reporting in a given subject or course is a valid sample?
What are the requirements of a “valid sample”?
No diagnostic evidence
Includes a variety of modes to allow for differences in learning style (write, do, say)
Includes multiple (3+)pieces of evidence for each learning cluster
Provides evidence of the essential learning in the subject
Tasks represent polished work:– Not practices or early
tries– Feedback has occurred
previously and been implemented
Triangulation of Data: Classroom Assessment
Valid & Reliable Picture of Student
Achievement
Performance task
Oral defense/
conference
Written test data
Plan Backward from What’s Essential…
Worth being
familiar with
Important to know and do
Enduring understandings
Adapted from Wiggins and McTighe,
Understanding by Design
Assessment Types
Traditional quizzes & tests
-paper/pencil
Performance Tasks & Projects
-open-ended
-complex
-authentic
Oral Assessments
-conferences
-interviews
-oral questionning
Grade/course teams need to collaborate to… Identify the set of critical
assessment tasks
Agree upon the relative weighting of each task
Establish the criteria by which each task will be assessed
Develop common, high quality scoring tools that capture the essential indicators of quality performance
Periodically engage in moderation of student work
Collect banks of exemplars, several for each level, for each task
Ensuring a Balance of “Write”, “Do”, and “Say”
Performance Assessment“A variety of tasks and situations in which students are given opportunities to demonstrate their understanding and to thoughtfully apply knowledge, skills, and habits of mind in a variety of contexts. These assessments often occur over time and result in a tangible product or observable performance….
They sometimes involve students working with others.”
Marzano, Assessing Student Outcomes, 1993
The G7 Summit
Time to Talk About Assessment
Discuss what essential learning in this economics course demand a performance assessment such as the G7 simulation.
Matching Assessments with Essential Learnings
Still using template 2, identify a possible unit culminating task that will require students to demonstrate their understanding of the Big Idea(s) and Essential Skill(s)
Identify smaller assessments that prepare students for success on the culminating task
Template 2
Matching Curriculum Targets with Assessment Tasks
Peer Review Use the criteria listed on
“What Is an Enduring Understanding?” & “What Is an Essential Skill?” to critique the Stage 1 work of your peers
Stage 2: Examine the match between the curriculum and the assessment tasks. Will the assessment tasks provide conclusive evidence of the essential learning?
Checklist for a Well-Designed Performance Task
addresses essential learning
presents students with an engaging challenge requiring persistence
requires students to apply their learning in a new way
is appropriate to all students
requires students to engage in problem-solving and decision-making
where possible, imitates “real-world” tasks
identifies clear assessment criteria
provides for individual accountability
Designing a Culminating Task(refer to Template #3)
Using template 3, create an in-depth plan for the unit culminating task including:– a detailed description of the task– 2-3 processes & products that will provide
evidence of essential learning (include assessment strategies, assessment tools, & assessment criteria)
Template 3
Beware the cult of measurement!
What can be quantified? knowledge of terms knowledge of formulas simple skill acquisition
What must be measured qualitatively? complex understanding skills of argumentative discourse skills of problem-solving and inquiry
Marking schemes
Rubrics
Matching Assessment to Curriculum Targets
Worth being
familiar with
Important to know and do
Enduring understandings
Adapted from Wiggins and McTighe,
Understanding by Design
Assessment Types
Traditional quizzes & tests
-paper/pencil
Performance Tasks & Projects
-open-ended
-complex
-authentic
Oral Assessments
-conferences
-interviews
-oral questionning
Rubrics
“Backward Design” Program Planning
Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction that make such
understanding possible
What learning experiences and instruction will promote understanding?
What prerequisite (enabling) knowledge and skill must be learned if understanding is to occur (and the performance is to succeed)?
Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design
Begin to develop an instructional plan Use template #4 to identify the
sequence of lessons, experiences and assessments for learning that will prepare students for success on the assessments of learning
Template 4
Time to Talk About Assessment
Review the 3 stages of designing down Review the templates To what extent does my current
planning reflect the 3 stages? Is there a stage that I need to focus
upon for improvement? How, when, and with whom will I work
to improve my planning?
A Brief History of Assessment
1990’s: A farmer sells a crate of potatoes for $20. Production costs are 0.8 of this. The remainder is profit and is equal to $4. Arrange yourselves in groups of 4 by gender, ability, and ethnicity. Appoint a group leader and recorder. The group will choose one of the appropriate problem-solving strategies to arrive at a group answer to the question, “The best estimate of production costs is:
a) $20 c) $4
b) $0.8 d) None of the above”
Record your solution in your journal
2000’s ???
Time to Talk About Assessment
What were the most important things you learned today?
What surprised you today?
What do you plan to do with your learning from today?
Resources
1. Cooper, Damian. Talk About Assessment: Strategies and Tools to Improve
Teaching and Learning Thomson Nelson, 2007.
2. Wiggins, Grant and McTighe, Jay. Understanding By Design, ASCD, 1998 A concise and very readable guide to designing program from an assessment point of view.
