BACKWARD MAPPING:Beginning with the end in

mind

BACKWARD MAPPING:Beginning with the end in

mind New Scheme Teachers Conference

September 14, 2011

Rooty Hills RSL

• Learn about the research base that underpin the Backward Mapping model.

• Build skills and knowledge around effective assessment principles.

• Develop quality rubrics to assist with Consistent Teacher Judgement in your school

• Use the NSW Model of pedagogy – QT framework as a tool to enhance assessment and, teaching and learning

Outcomes

What is it?

A framework used to improve curriculum design in order to develop and deepen students’ understanding.

Where did it come from?

Jay McTighe & Grant Wiggins“Understanding by Design”

The “Twin Sins” of curriculum design:

aimless activity superficial coverage

Does this look familiar?Does this look familiar?

In the words of Covey

“To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.”

Stephen R Covey, The seven habits of highly effective people

Backward mapping framework

1. Identify desired resultsUnpack the content and focus on the big ideas

2. Determine acceptable evidenceAnalyse and design multiple sources of evidence aligned with Stage 1

3. Plan learning experiences and instruction

Plan the learning experiences that align to Stages 1 and 2

Assessment Evidence

Learning Activities

Understandings Essential Questions

stage

2

stage

3

Standard(s):

stage

1

Performance Task(s): Other Evidence:

STAGE 1

STAGE 2

STAGE 3

Backward mapping framework• Adolescents share common

struggles in growing up.• Writers use a variety of stylistic

techniques to persuade readers.• Novelists can provide insight about

human experience.

What’s wrong with Holden? Students

assume the role of a staff member at

the psychiatric hospital and write aletter to Holden’s parents

explaining hisbehaviour.

Wiggins & McTighe

Assessment Evidence

Learning Activities

Understandings Essential Questions

stage

2

stage

3

Standard(s):

stage

1

Performance Task(s): Other Evidence:

STAGE 1Identify desired results

STAGE 2Determine acceptable

evidence

STAGE 3Plan learning

experiences and instruction

Why the backward mapping framework?

Without building courses ‘backward’ from key tasks, big ideas and performance standards, there are no clear priorities.

Wiggins & McTighe ‘05

By thinking through the assessment upfront,we ensure greater alignment of our goals,and therefore teaching is focused on thedesired results.

Link to key DET planning documents

Links to key DET planning documents

Curriculum Planning and Programming • Teaching programs will incorporate

assessment as an integral component.• Teaching programs will indicate the

outcomes being addressed, the teaching activities planned and the intended assessment strategies.

Curriculum planning and programming, assessing and reporting to parents K-12 Policy

Links to key DET planning documents

Assessing

Schools plan assessment so that:• students can demonstrate achievement of

outcomes for the relevant stage of learning;• valid and reliable assessment strategies are

used.

Curriculum planning and programming, assessing and reporting to parents K-12 Policy

Links to key DET planning documents

Assessing • Teachers plan assessment strategies when developing teaching programs.• Teachers use a variety of appropriate assessments for judging student

achievement.

Curriculum planning and programming, assessing and reporting to parents K-12 Policy

Assessment for Learning is

• Assessment that enhances learning recognises that learners use their current understanding to discover, develop and incorporate new knowledge, understanding and skills.

• Assessment for learning helps teachers and students to know if that current understanding is a suitable basis for future learning.

Principals of Assessment for Learning

1. emphasises the interactions between learning and manageable assessment strategies that promote learning

2. clearly expresses for the student and teacher the goals of the learning activity

3. reflects a view of learning in which assessment helps students learn more effectively, rather than just achieve a better mark

Principals of Assessment for Learning

4. Provides ways for students to use feedback from assessment

5. Helps students take responsibility for their own learning

6. Is inclusive of all learners.

Designing effective learning and assessment

When designing assessment activities, teachers should consider whether the activity:• has explicitly stated purposes that address the outcomes• is integral to the teaching and learning program• shows a clear relationship between the outcomes and content being assessed• allows students to demonstrate the extent of their knowledge, understanding and skills

Designing effective learning and assessment (cont.)

• focuses on what was taught in class and what students were informed would be assessed• provides opportunities to gather information about what further teaching and learning is required for students to succeed• provides valid and reliable evidence of student learning and is fair.

Accessing Deep Knowledge

Knowledge is shallow or superficial in a task when it does not require students to address significant concepts or key ideas of a topic or subject, or when concepts or ideas are fragmented and disconnected from a central focus.

Students as the experts…

Allowing students opportunities to play an ‘expert’ role and engage in authentic tasks for different audiences using a range of appropriate technologies, will assist in maximising engagement, relevance and deep understanding.

Quality Assessment Tasks:• connect naturally with what has been taught• address a range of outcomes within the one task• are time efficient and manageable• allow all students to make a start• engage the learner• can be successfully undertaken using a range of

methods• provide an opportunity for students to transfer

knowledge from a known context to a less familiar one• help teachers to decide what specific help students may

require in the relevant content areas• promote higher order thinking

Quality Assessment Tasks

• provide a measure of choice or “openness”• encourage students to disclose their own• understanding of what they’ve learned• allow student to show connections between • concepts they have learned• are themselves worthwhile for students’

learning • provide a range of student responses

Modelling the process• Developing the marking criteria (rubric)

brainstorm what the expectation of a high

standard might look like

use KLA syllabus language for descriptors

use the Common Grade Scale to differentiate

between levels

Aligning Grades

Elaborate on Common Grade Scale for each stage

and KLA to develop context

Analyse work samples and read grade commentaries

to develop understanding of standards

Planning to Reporting• For planning, programming & delivery think

Syllabus and Outcomes• For assessment, recording and reporting think

Foundation Statements or Course Performance Descriptors

• Integrated assessment; not fragmented assessing and reporting of each individual outcome

• Common Grade Descriptors provide a common language

AssessmentThe major purpose of assessment is to support learning and to inform teaching.

Narrative in action to make a point 23 Heart Surgeons agreed to observe each other in the operating room and share their know-how, insights and approaches.

In the following two years, the death rate of their patients fell by 25%.

“Merely by emphasising teamwork and communication, instead of functioning like solitary craftsmen, all the doctors brought about major changes in their individual and institutional practices.”

• Coalition of Essential Schools (Kathleen Cushman, November 1996

• )