In your previous experiences, where has ‘assessment’ happened in a typical ‘lesson’ or ‘learning experience’ in a K – 12 setting? How did this enhance (or not) your own learning or student learning?

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In my own experiences, assessment has always typically been at the end of the learning experience or unit (summative). I always assumed that, that was where assessment could only occur and assessment was not a means to improve, but a value of your worth as a student in that subject. I believe that overall, it decreased my own learning and the learning of all the students in the classroom. I remember getting a poor grade in an English essay and from then I decided I was just a bad writer and kept that mindset for years. I never put any more effort into my writing because I just figured I was bad at it so I did not attempt to improve or think that I could. I think that this happens to so many students. Once they get one bad grade they figure it is because they are bad at it and they do not make an attempt to set goals for themselves and improve. Their motivation is diminished. It would have been alright to get that poor grade if it was given with some constructive feedback, but typically I would get a letter grade without any conversation with the teacher or comments on where I could improve. Getting a good mark in English was a mystery to me and I could not understand what I needed to do to be a good writer.

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After viewing the ministry videos on the interconnection of assessment, planning, and instruction, consider your initial reactions to the content—why did you react the way you did?

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After viewing all of the ministry videos, my initial reaction was that it made sense to me and that the interconnectedness was something that I had not really considered before. I used to initially look at assessment, planning and instruction as separate entities that required different skills and direction. I can now see how all three work together and how things such as learning goals and success criteria play a major role in all parts of the learning process. Not only are learning goals useful for planning learning experiences, but they help teachers and students assess success. Everything within the Growing Success document is a connected plan to help students achieve.

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How do we put into operation the backwards design? In other words what will it look like in your practice?

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Implementing backwards design will mean first taking a look at my students and knowing what their strengths and needs are as a group and as individuals. Once I know this, then I can look to the big idea that I want them to learn as well as the specific expectations from the curriculum that they will need to know to get them to that big idea. The most important step in backwards design is setting out learning goals as well as success criteria that fall in line with the expectations that I want the children to learn. What backwards design is not, is finding an interesting lesson plan on the internet or thinking up a fun activity for the sake of it being fun and using it in the classroom without first thinking of the students and the learning goals. A lesson plan may look fun or interesting, but if they cannot meet the needs and strengths of the students in the classroom then it is not an effective lesson plan. Lessons should be based off the students and not the other way around.