EdSe 3204 - General Instructional Methods Fall 2004: Dr. Helen Mongan-Rallis

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Assessment Assignment Guidelines

This must be done in a group of 3-5 people. It may be cross disciplinary (middle level) or in your own discipline.

Using the Wiggins and McTighe template for backwards design: (download the Understanding By Design template in Microsoft Word)

1. Go to MN Department of Education standards web site and pick a portion of a standard from your subject area (if no state standards in your area, go to the national level and/or ask your cooperating teacher what standards s/he is assigned by the district). Place this standard in the template under "Content standard." (Example: Geography Grades 9-12 content standard C states, " The student will understand the regional distribution of the human population at local to global scales and its patterns of change."
2. From the standards, determine desired results:
   • Understanding(s)/goals
   • Essential question(s)
   • What students should know and be able to do (objectives) [note: the Benchmarks for each content standard can be used as unit objectives, but you will typically develop other lesson objectives that go into more depth. Example of Benchmark 1 for Geog 9-12 Content Standard C is, " Students will describe the pattern of human population density in the United States and major regions of the world."]
3. Determine what assessment evidence you will ask students to produce to demonstrate their achievement of the standards:
• Design performance task(s) (standards based performance assessment)
• Other evidence, including a standards based knowledge level test. Then create a this test and that include in it: some multiple choice items, some true false items, a matching item, a fill in the blank and a short essay question. Be sure to follow the guidelines provided in your text book on how to design good test items and how to provide directions within the test so students know how they should complete the items.
• Create a task specific rubric for the standards based performance based assessment that you designed. Make sure that your rubric reflects the core understandings in the standard. Include scoring criteria. (Note: do make use of some of the rubric tools available online -- see listing of some of these at the end of this assignment. These generate rubrics quickly and easily, and can be adapted to ensure that they fit your project. For example, I used the Rubristar website and generated the an example rubric using this. )
4. Outline the learning plan (list learning activities) for how you will get students to the level where they can demonstrate their understanding of the standard.

Turn in:

1. Completed template with all parts completed, namely:
• standard(s)
• Desired results: understandings, essential question(s), and objectives
• Description of assessment evidence
  • (a) paragraph describing the performance task(s). The description of one of these (if you have more than one, but you don't have to have more than one) should be detailed enough that it can be used for you to generate your rubric from it.
  • (b) listing of other evidence (including the test)
2. The actual standards based knowledge level test (in the form that you would give to students if they were actually to take it). Create a test that includes some multiple choice, some true false, a matching, a fill in the blank and a short essay question. Be sure to include directions etc.
3. Task specific rubric for standards based performance based assessment that you designed. Include scoring criteria.

Resources to assist you:

• MN Department of Education standards web site

Rubric websites:

• Kathy Schrock's Guide For Educators: Assessment & Rubric Information.
• Teachnology.com: Rubrics & Teacher Rubric Makers
• Rubristar: Create Rubrics for Project Based Learning Activities.

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