The Importance of Assessment in Backward Design
The primary starting point for backward design is to become familiar with the standards/outcomes for the grade level and curriculum being taught. The second part of curriculum planning with backward design is finding appropriate assessments. It can be difficult for "traditional" educators to switch to this model because it is hard to conceptualize an assessment before deciding on lessons and instruction. The idea is that the assessments (formative and/or summative) should meet the initial goals identified.
Wiggins and McTighe (2008) also utilize the "WHERE" approach during the assessment stage of the process.
- W stands for students knowing where they are heading, why they are heading there, what they know, where they might go wrong in the process, and what is required of them.
- H stands for hooking the students on the topic of study.
- E stands for students exploring and experiencing ideas and being equipped with the necessary understanding to master the standard/outcome being taught.
- R stands for providing opportunities for students to rehearse, revise, and refine their work.
- E stands for student evaluation.
Read more about this topic: Backward Design
Famous quotes containing the words importance, assessment and/or design:
“The chimney is to some extent an independent structure, standing on the ground, and rising through the house to the heavens; even after the house is burned it still stands sometimes, and its importance and independence are apparent.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The first year was critical to my assessment of myself as a person. It forced me to realize that, like being married, having children is not an end in itself. You don’t at last arrive at being a parent and suddenly feel satisfied and joyful. It is a constantly reopening adventure.”
—Anonymous Mother. From the Boston Women’s Health Book Collection. Quoted in The Joys of Having a Child, by Bill and Gloria Adler (1993)
“If I commit suicide, it will not be to destroy myself but to put myself back together again. Suicide will be for me only one means of violently reconquering myself, of brutally invading my being, of anticipating the unpredictable approaches of God. By suicide, I reintroduce my design in nature, I shall for the first time give things the shape of my will.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)