Assessing for Understanding
Backwards Planning and Rubrics
Backwards Planning
Backwards planning is based on the idea that the goal of education is to cultivate student understanding. As the designers of student learning, teachers first idenitfy the desired set of understandings they'd like their students to exhibit, and then craft a series of learning activities and assessments that focus on these understandings.
Backwards planning is based on Understanding by Design, a curriculum framework developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, and published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).
According to grantwiggins.org, "Understanding by Design is based on the following key ideas:
* A primary goal of education should be the development and deepening of student understanding.
* Students reveal their understanding most effectively when they are provided with complex, authentic opportunities to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, and self-assess. When applied to complex tasks, these "six facets" provide a conceptual lens through which teachers can better assess student understanding.
* Effective curriculum development reflects a three-stage design process called "backward design" that delays the planning of classroom activities until goals have been clarified and assessments designed. This process helps to avoid the twin problems of "textbook coverage" and "activity-oriented" teaching, in which no clear priorities and purposes are apparent.
* Student and school performance gains are achieved through regular reviews of results (achievement data and student work) followed by targeted adjustments to curriculum and instruction. Teachers become most effective when they seek feedback from students and their peers and use that feedback to adjust approaches to design and teaching.
* Teachers, schools, and districts benefit by "working smarter" through the collaborative design, sharing, and peer review of units of study."
Any teacher who is considering utilizing backwards planning, should get themselves a copy of Wiggins and McTighe's Understanding by Design.
The links below provide many examples of schools and distrcits that have used backwards planning to guide their curriculum.
Links
Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings: Colorado Spring School District 11. Questions and Understanding examples and ideas for grade levels K-12 and across the subject spectrum.
New Jersey Standard Clarifications:More examples of Questions and Understandings. Click on links to see the questions and understandings.
State of Delaware: More Questions and Understandings. With a little searching you can find links to model units across the grade level and subject spectrum.
Big Ideas: One of Grant Wiggins' websites. Examples UbD units and elements.
What are Rubrics?
Heidi Goodrich, a rubrics expert, defines a rubric as "a scoring tool that lists the criteria for a piece of work or 'what counts.'" Rubrics help the student figure out how their project will be evaluated.
Generally rubrics specify the level of performance expected for several levels of quality. These levels of quality may be written as different ratings (e.g., Excellent, Good, Needs Improvement) or as numerical scores (e.g., 4, 3, 2, 1) which are then added up to form a total score which then is associated with a grade (e.g., A, B, C, etc).
Rubrics can help students and teachers define "quality". Rubrics can also help students judge and revise their own work before handing in their assignments.
- from Rubistar.com
I tell my students that rubrics are like maps. If the goal is for students to demonstrate their understanding of material, then rubrics are tools that define, as clearly as possible, the destination the student must reach to effectively show that understanding. Like any map, there are a variety of paths that can be taken to show that understanding, but the idea is to articulate and clarify the goal of the assessment for the students.
Rubric Links
1. Rubistar: A rubric creation website. Has many ready to go rubrics for a variety of subjects and projects. Easy to create and download rubrics.
2. Teach-nology Rubrics: A database of rubrics, rubric makers, rubric collections, and articles about rubrics.
3.iRubric: An online rubric database/ development tool. This also has an online gradebook that students and parents can access. This is all free.
4. Discovery Education Rubrics: A list of websites and links to rubrics of all shapes and sizes.
5. Trouble with Rubrics: An article on potential problems with rubrics. By Alfie Kohn.
Suggested Readings
Contact Information
Anthony Pennay
Teacher Consultant, Cal State Northridge Writing Project
Curriculum Resource Teacher, SCVi Charter School
Email: anthonypennay_gmail.com
Unit Design
Understanding by Design, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design (Connecting Content and Kids), Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe
Rubrics
Scoring Rubrics in the Classroom, Judith Arter and Jay McTighe
Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment,Maja Wilson
