According
to the chapter the main question teachers need to answer when creating
assessments is “What evidence can show my students have achieved the desired
results?” This question is important because it helps teachers focus on the
purpose for teaching their unit. Backwards design also helps teachers to not
skip ahead and create lessons before they know what evidence they will use to
show student achievement. This helps keeps the lessons authentic and related to
the unit that is being taught. Another important idea from this chapter is that
teachers need to use multiple assessments to show student growth and
development, and these assessments do not need to be all formal assessments.
To design a
proper assessment, teachers should think more about problems that students can
solve with the knowledge they have learned in the unit. This problem solving
method can help students show that they can transfer the knowledge they have learned
to another life situation. It goes beyond just memorizing facts and answering
questions. Problem-solving type assessments give students a chance to practice
using what they have learned in an authentic situation.
This
chapter has really helped me reflect on what I can do with my own assessment
creation in my own school. I often end up creating my unit evaluations as a
traditional paper test that do not challenge students thinking to the fullest.
However, lately I have been thinking about applying the backward design to my lesson
planning. I believe that this will help me create authentic assessments that
challenge my students’ abilities. I think I would get better results from these
authentic assessments as well because they will be relatable, interactive, and
give students the opportunity to explain why they did what they did on a test. With
traditional tests you do not get the opportunity to see the student thought
process which makes grading and reflecting upon improvements in lessons harder.
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