Designing for Deep understanding through Assessment

1. Designing for Deep understanding through Assessment

2. Assessment for Deep understanding The aim of assessment is primarily to educate and improve student performance, not merely to audit it” (Wiggins, 1998).

3. Assessment for Deep understanding “Focus tasks on relating central concepts and ideas with other concepts, or to particular contexts. Linking the task to previously addressed ideas (from either prior class work or other tasks) or to new, as yet unexplored, concepts or contexts are two ways to strengthen the deep knowledge of a task. Ensure that the task connects and supports the key concepts being addressed.” -QT Framework

4. Assessment for Deep understanding “To what extent do students demonstrate a profound and meaningful understanding of central ideas and the relationship between and among those central ideas?” Quality teaching: A Classroom Practice Guide

5. Pre-assessment Where are my students now? • Pre-assessment – Data & Background knowledge:This can be informal but it is important as it informs teachers what the students know so that a unit of work or program can be differentiated to suit the learning needs of the students. The assessment from the previous unit of work provides rich information to inform the design process.

6. Pre-assessment Where are my students now? • Unless new knowledge becomes integrated with the learner's prior knowledge and understanding, this new knowledge remains isolated, cannot be used effectively in new tasks, and does not transfer readily to new situations.

7. Assessment for Deep understanding Effective assessment practice is: • embedded in the syllabus having clear, direct links with outcomes • planned deliberately and integral to teaching • balanced, comprehensive and varied • fair, inclusive, valid and reliable • ongoing and sequential • engaging and student-centred • time efficient and manageable • supported by models, scaffolds or annotated exemplars that demonstrate what is expected and what can be achieved • reflects any adjustments made to teaching and learning.

8. Assessment for Deep understanding • Student direction • Connectedness - authenticity • Higher-order thinking • Substantive communication • Explicit quality criteria • Problematic knowledge

9. Assessment for Deep understanding “To what extent does the task require students to demonstrate deep rather than superficial understanding of their learning?” QT Assessment • Discuss one assessment task that you feel was very effective in your school and /or in a classroom? • What made it effective?

10. Assessment for Deep understanding Key questions • Are the tasks linked to syllabus outcomes? • Are the assessment tasks inclusive of all learners? • Do the tasks relate to what is being taught and what the students need to learn? • Are the tasks integrated and connected to what is being taught? • Do the tasks have clear and explicit instructions? • Are the tasks challenging and rich, inviting risk-taking and higher-order thinking skills? • Do the tasks invite student direction?

11. Explicit teaching & learning strategies How will students demonstrate learning? • The opportunities – the quality and range of assessment • The explicit teaching of the knowledge and skills required including literacy and numeracy • The close links with the syllabus • The models, annotated samples, scaffolds, metalanguage • The tools: graphic organisers, ICT

12. Assessment for Deep understanding • Outcomes • Key learning ideas • Nature of the task • Explicit quality criteria • Marking guidelines reflecting the outcomes being assessed

13. Assessment for Deep understanding • First task is teacher directed • Introduces the concept and the key learning idea/s • Second task encourages risk taking: • Higher-order • Moving towards student directed/open-ended & problematic knowledge

14. Assessment for Deep understanding • Accurate outcomes • Key learning ideas • Nature of the task in a clear and precise rubric • The verbs! • Explicit quality criteria • Marking guidelines reflecting the outcomes being assessed

15. Student direction • Consideration of different perspectives or different ways to solve a problem or find a solution • Inquiry Based Method Research choices: posing a question and researching the possible answer • Student designed assessment using the rubric and marking guidelines • Using different forms of ICT • Critical reflection and evaluation

16. Authentic assessment • Connected to the real world and/or performed for an audience • Inquiry-based research • Producers and creators

17. Assessment for Deep understanding Ask a student in your schools or class: • What are you doing and do you get it? • What are you being asked to do it? • Does it matter? • How will you demonstrate that you have learned it?