Assessment: Building the Bridge

from Teaching to Learning

An Alberta Teachers’ Association Workshop

developed in partnership with

The Alberta Assessment Consortium

Participant Guide

Assessment: Building the Bridge from Teaching to Learning Participant Guide 2

Developed by the Alberta Teachers’ Association in Partnership with the Alberta

Assessment Consortium

Assessment: Building the Bridge from Teaching to Learning Participant Guide 3

Alberta Teachers’ Association Assessment Workshop Participant Guide

Assessment: The Bridge from Teaching to Learning

Essential Questions: • How do we plan assessment with the end in mind? [Teacher as Planner]

• How do we support all learners to successfully meet curricular outcomes? [Teacher as Coach]

• How do we ensure the credibility of our judgments? [Teacher as Judge]

Assessment: Building the Bridge from Teaching to Learning Participant Guide 4

Assessment: Building the Bridge from Teaching to Learning Participant Guide 5

Are the Best Curricular Designs “Backward”?

An excerpt from Understanding by Design, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (1998, pp. 8, 9)

How, then, do these design considerations apply to curriculum planning? We use curriculum as a

means to an end. We focus on a particular topic (eg, racial prejudice), use a particular resource (eg, To

Kill a Mockingbird), and choose specific instructional methods (eg, Socratic seminar to discuss the

book and cooperative groups to analyze stereotypical images in films and on television) to cause

learning to meet a given standard (eg, the student will understand the nature of prejudice, and the

difference between generalizations and stereotypes).

Why do we describe the most effective curricular designs as “backward”? We do so because many

teachers begin with textbooks, favored lessons, and time-honored activities rather than deriving those

tools from targeted goals or standards. We are advocating the reverse: One starts with the end—the

desired results (goals or standards)–and then derives the curriculum from the evidence of learning

(performances) called for by the standard and the teaching needed to equip students to perform. This

view is hardly radical. Ralph Tyler (1949) described the logic of backward design clearly and

succinctly about 50 years ago.

Educational objectives become the criteria by which materials are selected, content is outlined,

instructional procedures are developed, and tests and examinations are prepared…. The purpose of a

statement of objectives is to indicate the kinds of changes in the student to be brought about so that

instructional activities can be planned and developed in a way likely to attain these objectives (pp. 1, 45).

Backward design may be thought of as purposeful task analysis: Given a task to be accomplished, how

do we get there? Or one might call it planned coaching: What kinds of lessons and practices are needed

to master key performances? The approach to curricular design we are advocating is logically forward

and commonsensical, but backward in terms of conventional habits, whereby teachers typically think in

terms of a series of activities (as in the apples unit presented in the Introduction) or how best to cover a

topic (as in the world history vignette).

This backward approach to curricular design also departs from another common practice: thinking

about assessment as something we do at the end, once teaching is completed. Rather than creating

assessments near the conclusion of a unit of study (or relying on the tests provided by textbook

publishers, which may not completely or appropriately assess our standards), backward design calls for

us to operationalize our goals or standards in terms of assessment evidence as we begin to plan a unit or

course. It reminds us to begin with the question, “what would we accept as evidence that students have

attained the desired understandings and proficiencies–before proceeding to plan teaching and learning

experiences?” Many teachers who have adopted this design approach report that the process of

“thinking like an assessor” about evidence of learning, not only helps them to clarify their goals but

also results in a more sharply-defined teaching and learning target, so that students perform better

knowing their goal. Greater coherence among desired results, key performances, and teaching and

learning experiences leads to better student performance—the purpose of design.

Assessment: Building the Bridge from Teaching to Learning Participant Guide 6

Figure 1.1 Stages in the Backward Design Process

Identify

desired

results.

Determine

acceptable

evidence.

Plan learning

experiences

and instruction.

Assessment: Building the Bridge from Teaching to Learning Participant Guide 7

Examining Learner Outcomes Through the Lens of Assessment: Division I

Key Ideas to Remember: Preserve the level of complexity in the original outcome and choose

appropriate assessment methods.

Example:

Learner Outcome What will students need to do to

demonstrate that they have met the

outcome?

How will teachers gather and

record evidence of learning?

Grade 2 ELA 4.1 Enhance and Improve

Enhance artistry

Choose words, language

patterns, illustrations or

sounds to create a variety of

effects in oral, print and

other media texts.

Template:

Learner Outcome What will students need to do to

demonstrate that they have met the

outcome?

How will teachers gather and

record evidence of learning?

Assessment: Building the Bridge from Teaching to Learning Participant Guide 8

Examining Learner Outcomes Through the Lens of Assessment: Division II

Key Ideas to Remember: Preserve the level of complexity in the original outcome and choose

appropriate assessment methods.

Example:

Learner Outcome What will students need to do to

demonstrate that they have met the

outcome?

How will teachers gather and

record evidence of learning?

Grade 5 Math Number

5. Demonstrate, with and

without concrete materials, an

understanding of multiplication

(2-digit by 2-digit) to solve

problems.

Template:

Learner Outcome What will students need to do to

demonstrate that they have met the

outcome?

How will teachers gather and

record evidence of learning?

Assessment: Building the Bridge from Teaching to Learning Participant Guide 9

Examining Learner Outcomes Through the Lens of Assessment: Division III

Key Ideas to Remember: Preserve the level of complexity in the original outcome and choose

appropriate assessment methods.

Example:

Learner Outcome What will students need to do to

demonstrate that they have met the

outcome?

How will teachers gather and

record evidence of learning?

Grade 7 Social Studies Students will:

7.1.5 assess, critically, the

political competition between

the French and the British in

attempting to control North

America by exploring and

reflecting upon the following

questions and issues:

7.1.5.3

To what extent was the

Battle of the Plains of

Abraham the key event in

achieving British control

over North America?

7.S.2 develop skills of

historical thinking:

7.S.2.1

Analyze historical issues to

form or support an opinion.

Template:

Learner Outcome What will students need to do to

demonstrate that they have met the

outcome?

How will teachers gather and

record evidence of learning?

Assessment: Building the Bridge from Teaching to Learning Participant Guide 10

Examining Learner Outcomes Through the Lens of Assessment: Division IV

Key Ideas to Remember: Preserve the level of complexity in the original outcome and choose

appropriate assessment methods.

Example:

Learner Outcome What will students need to do to

demonstrate that they have met the

outcome?

How will teachers gather and

record evidence of learning?

Science 10 Skills: Performing and

Recording

Students will:

Conduct investigations into

relationships between and

among observable variables,

and use a broad range of tools

and techniques to gather and

record data and information.

Select and use apparatus,

technology, and materials

safely.

Template:

Learner Outcome What will students need to do to

demonstrate that they have met the

outcome?

How will teachers gather and

record evidence of learning?

Assessment: Building the Bridge from Teaching to Learning Participant Guide 11

Refocus Readings Jigsaw: Note Taker

#1: Developing a Shared View of Success (pp. 47 to 55)

Clarifying, sharing, and understanding learning intentions and criteria for success

Key Ideas

Classroom Connection

#2: Questioning to Promote Learning (pp. 40 to 45)

Engineering effective classroom discussions, activities, and learning tasks that elicit evidence of

learning

Key Ideas

Classroom Connection

Assessment: Building the Bridge from Teaching to Learning Participant Guide 12

Refocus Readings Jigsaw: Note Taker

#3: Feedback from Teachers to Students (pp. 34 to 39)

Providing feedback that moves learning forward

Key Ideas

Classroom Strategy

#4: Peer Coaching and Self Reflection (pp. 58 to 64)

Activating learners as instructional resources for one another; Activating learners as the owners of

their own learning

Key Ideas

Classroom Strategy

Assessment: Building the Bridge from Teaching to Learning Participant Guide 13

The 15 Fixes An excerpt from Fifteen Fixes for Broken Grades: A Repair Kit, Ken O’Connor (2012, pp. 12, 13)

The 15 fixes are organized into four categories—fixes for distorted achievement, fixes for low-quality

or poorly-organized evidence, fixes for inappropriate grade calculation, and fixes to support learning.

We will discuss each fix in turn in the following chapters.

Fixes for Practices That Distort Achievement

1. Don’t include student behaviours (eg, effort, participation, and adherence to class rules) in grades—

include only achievement.

2. Don’t reduce marks on work submitted late; provide support for the learner.

3. Don’t give points for extra credit or use bonus points; seek only evidence that more work has

resulted in a higher level of achievement.

4. Don’t punish academic dishonesty with reduced grades; apply other consequences and reassess to

determine actual level of achievement.

5. Don’t consider attendance in grade determination; report absences separately.

6. Don’t include group scores in grades; use only individual achievement evidence.

Fixes for Low-Quality or Poorly Organized Evidence

7. Don’t organize information in grading records by assessment methods or simply summarize into a

single grade; organize and report evidence by learning goals/standards.

8. Don’t assign grades using inappropriate or unclear performance standards; provide clear

descriptions of achievement expectations.

9. Don’t assign grades based on a student’s achievement compared to other students; compare each

student’s performance to pre-set standards.

10. Don’t rely on evidence gathered using assessments that fail to meet standards of quality; rely only

on quality assessments.

Fixes for Inappropriate Grade Calculation

11. Don’t rely only on the mean; consider other measures of central tendency and use professional

judgment.

12. Don’t include zeros in grade determination when evidence is missing or as punishment; use

alternatives, such as reassessing to determine real achievement, or use I for Incomplete or

Insufficient evidence.

Fixes to Support Learning

13. Don’t use information from formative assessments and practice to determine grades; use only

summative evidence.

14. Don’t summarize evidence accumulated over time when learning is developmental and will grow

with time and repeated opportunities; in those circumstances, emphasize more recent achievement.

15. Don't leave students out of the grading process. Involve students; they can and should play key

roles in assessment and grading that promote achievement.

Assessment: Building the Bridge from Teaching to Learning Participant Guide 14

Smerging Data Note Taker

Central issue for this vignette:

Key ideas from the research:

Connections to my practice:

Assessment: Building the Bridge from Teaching to Learning Participant Guide 15

References

AAC. 2005. Refocus: Looking at Assessment for Learning. Alberta Assessment Consortium:

Edmonton, AB.

AAC. 2001. Smerging Data: Grading…More Than Just Number Crunching. Alberta Assessment

Consortium: Edmonton, AB.

O’Connor, K. 2012. Fifteen Fixes for Broken Grades: A Repair Kit. Pearson Canada Inc: Toronto, ON.

Wiggins, G and McTighe, J. 1998. Understanding by Design. ASCD: Alexandria, VA.

Wiliam, D. 2011. Embedded Formative Assessment. Solution Tree Press: Bloomington, IN.

Assessment: Building the Bridge from Teaching to Learning Participant Guide 16

Thank you for taking part in today’s session. My contact information is available upon

request.

Visit the AAC website for more information and assessment support at www.aac.ab.ca

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