120 hr. TEFL Course Module 7-Pedagogy (Pt.9 Assessments)

Module 7: Pedagogy

7.3 Know where you are going

Planning for instruction is not an aimless adventure where teachers decide what they are going to do as they go; it takes a lot of forethought. To be effective as an educator, you will have to understand what you are leading to on day one and categorically take steps to prepare your students to reach your goal. To be an effective teacher, you absolutely have to know where you are going, and if you want to have an impact on your students, you should also let them know where you are going.

7.3.1    Planning for assessments 

Backwards planning is an educational strategy that helps teachers make sure that everything they do leads to student assessment. It is a pretty simple idea, though it is fairly difficult to execute perfectly. Here are the steps you need to take if you would like to implement backwards planning.

1. You first need to decide exactly what you are trying to do with the unit that you are planning. At the end of the unit, what are you hoping that your students will be able to do? These are your unit objectives and should be created with care because everything you do during the unit will have to work towards these objectives. When you are creating these objectives, focus on what the students will be able to do by the end of the unit rather than the content you want to cover. Your ultimate goal is to lead your students to success, not to get to a specific point in your curriculum.

2. Design an assessment that is in line with the objectives you have created. If your objectives are an expression of what your students should be able to do by the end of your unit, then your assessment needs to assess whether or not your students are able to do these things. Think of it this way: if you bring your car to a mechanic’s shop and they tell you they will fix your car, you will assess their success by whether or not your car is fixed when they are done with it. If you say that your students will be able to do A, B, and C by the end of your unit, you need to assess if they can do it.

3. Now that you have created objectives and designed an assessment, you need to determine what your students will need to achieve your objectives. What skills do they need to improve on? What knowledge do they need? What do they need to practice? What steps do they need to take to get to the point where they can be successful on the assessment and therefore fulfill your objectives?