Summary of Backwards Design and Alignment of Assessments and Lesson Planning 101

Source: https://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/teachers-corner-collecting-and-using-data#child-
1997

Study Guide by Yuliya Schmaltz

Overview. The most important thing in teaching is to make sure that students are learning what
teachers are teaching them. In other words, we need to always make sure that students are meeting the
lesson objectives that teachers set for them. This short article examines lesson assessments and the
importance of connecting these assessments to lesson goals.

Planning with the End in Mind. Teachers are responsible to taking students through instructional
process, keeping them on track, and assessing what they learned. What and how students learn is
determined by the objectives of the lesson or a unit. Objectives define what the students will know by
the end of learning, or they define desired outcomes. Therefore, it is important to start planning a
lesson with the end goal in mind or with first considering the outcomes. To do that, ask yourself the
following questions:

 What will my students be able to do after we have finished teaching?

 What skill should they be able to demonstrate?
 What content should they prove that they retained?

We use summative assessments to measure our lesson, unit or course outcomes. Summative
assessments are used after students were able to spend some time studying the lesson material. Such
assessments determine if students learned or mastered the concepts and skills taught in a lesson.
Several in between (or formative) assessments can be used prior to the final or summative assessments.
Such formative assessments help us gain information on how our students are doing and what
improvements can be done our lessons and lesson planning.

The authors offer this learning scenario to demonstrate how summative assessments can be set up with
lesson goals in mind.

The lesson involves elementary school students in a science class that is taught in English. The topic is
water cycle. The teacher’s learning goal for students is to demonstrate understanding of five steps if the
water cycle. How can the teacher make sure students have learned what he or she taught them?

1 ©2018 by University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). AE E-Teacher Study Guide for: Student-
Centered Teaching in Large Classes with Limited Resources for the AE E-Teacher Program, sponsored by the
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This is a program of the U.S. Department of State administered by FHI 360
and delivered by University of Maryland Baltimore County
Aligning Summative Assessments with Lesson Goals

Here are some possible ways to ensure that the students have learned what their teacher taught them.
Teachers can ask students to:

 Draw a diagram of the water cycle they experience in their own or daily lives. Students can also
write what happens in each stage of this water cycle.
 Provide students with a worksheet which contains a diagram of the water cycle. Ask students to
label steps of the water cycle.
 Ask students to write a paragraph about the importance of the water cycle. As part of the
paragraph, ask them to list 3-5 ways they use water in their daily lives.
 Cut up the stages of the water cycle and ask students to line them up in order and provide a
description for every stage.

If you look back at the lesson goal, which was ‘Demonstrate understanding of five steps of the water
cycle’, you can see how each of these tasks and activities measures what your students are supposed to
learn. By doing these assessments, students should be able to demonstrate that they did not just
remember the steps of the water cyle, but that they also understand what happens in each step, why it
happens, and why it is important.

Reference

Cabral, Robin, Socorro G. Herrera, and Kevin G. Murry. Assessment Accommodations for Classroom
Teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. First ed. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon,
2007.

This is a program of the U.S. Department of State administered by FHI

360 and delivered by University of Maryland Baltimore County