Transcript It’s More than Just Numbers!

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
[email protected]
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 concepts
e.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”

Topics Compared to Essential Questions
Consider how these “topics” differ from the corresponding INTU 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.
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
year
e.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
“What evidence would show ‘beyond a
reasonable doubt’ that students have
achieved the desired understandings?”
Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design
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
Performance task
Valid & Reliable
Picture of Student
Achievement
Written test data
Oral defense/
conference
Plan Backward from What’s Essential…
Worth being
familiar with
Assessment Types
Traditional quizzes & tests
-paper/pencil
Important to
know and do
Performance Tasks & Projects
-open-ended
-complex
Enduring
understandings
-authentic
Oral Assessments
-conferences
-interviews
Adapted from Wiggins and McTighe,
Understanding by Design
-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



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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



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requires students to
engage in problemsolving and decisionmaking
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
Marking schemes

What must be measured qualitatively?
 complex understanding
 skills of argumentative discourse
 skills of problem-solving and inquiry
Rubrics
Matching Assessment to Curriculum Targets
Worth being
familiar with
Assessment
Types
Traditional quizzes &
tests
-paper/pencil
Important to
know and do
Performance Tasks &
Projects
-open-ended
Enduring
understandings
-complex
-authentic
Oral Assessments
-conferences
Adapted from Wiggins and McTighe,
Understanding by Design
-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.