ChapterInformation

**1.** **Why is Understanding by Design Referred to as "Backward Design"?** 2. What is the difference between evaluation and assessment? ** Evaluation is a method of gauging student performance in a particular area of study at the end of a lesson, chapter or unit. In contrast, assessment is a process by which information is obtained relative to some known objective or goal. ** **  According to our text, assessment happens throughout a lesson or unit as a teacher constantly monitors student performance to determine who is learning easily and who may need individualized assistance, differentiated teaching methods, or alternative learning experiences. Assessment’s main goal is “reading the learner’s mind” or determining where the learner is. It goes on while the student is receiving instruction, whereas evaluation takes place at the end of a unit/lesson, once instruction is completed, to grade student performance. ** 3** . What type of assessment is most often used in your classroom or in a classroom when you were a student? How can its use be justified?** 4. What can assessment say and cannot say about learning?
 * WHAT WE SHOULD KNOW: **
 * CHAPTER 1 **
 * Understanding by Design is referred to as “backward design” because when you are developing your curriculum or unit of study accordingly you must first think about what the end goals are for the students and map out your lessons as the stepping stones to getting to those goals. Henceforth, the term has been coined as “backward design” because you start with the END. **
 * The type of assessment most used in my classroom is performance assessment through projects, formal assessments through tests and quizzes, and informal assessments through observation of students’ conversations and oral participation. Projects are great tools to assess students’ synthesis of information. They give the students time to gather their thoughts and to organize the material they had learned to create new forms. Traditional tests and quizzes are good assessment tools of student recall. Informal assessment is critical in determining if the students are acquiring the target vocabulary and necessary pronunciation, providing the teacher the opportunity to reinforce weaker areas of acquisition. **

Educators can rely on a variety of assessments to judge student learning, and each of those assessments has strengths and weaknesses. For example, criterion-referenced tests, such as informal quizzes or tests can be used by a teacher to check the ability of their students to recall or apply specific academic materials. In contrast, instructionally supportive assessments are usually more structured and formal, as they are generally based on a small number of content standards, suitable for large-sale assessment, that represent the most important or enduring skill and knowledge students need to learn in school. The third type of student assessments is standardized tests. These generally start with national, state or district curriculum frameworks that specify what students are expected to know and be able to do at each grade level. The tests are then used to assess the performance of students relative to these national, state or district expectations. Test-takers in a particular subject or academic skill may then be grouped in terms of the scores they achieved on the test as “advanced,” “basic,” “needing improvement,” or “failing”, and corrective actions taken.

Unfortunately, the results of these tests, which should be used for assessing what students know and can apply at a specific time in their academic careers, can be “abused” and perverted to “measure” the effectiveness of individual teachers and schools. They also can be used to categorize students and place them into educational tracks.

5. What is the key to constructing rubrics?
 * The key to constructing rubrics is providing clear and detailed expectations for the project. The rubrics need to be designed in an orderly fashion that students can easily understand. All areas for which the students will be held accountable need to be included within the rubric. You must think of the varying degrees of completion within each category and provide a concise description. Rubrics should be easily understood and easily added up for a total score. **