Backward planning models of curriculum design focus on desired outcomes.
This big picture is foremost and planning begins with creating assessments to measure those understandings and skills, to guide mapping out a course of instruction. The best backward planning models feature authentic learning and assessment (with appropriate rubrics) as culminating activities to measure student success in achieving mastery of the content and skills. |
Authentic learning and assessment give students hands-on practice in key skills they will need to use throughout their lives. This type of assessment presents students with a wide variety of performance-based activities that require students to blend skills and knowledge. It "requires students to pursue learning exercises that reflect the type of inquiry used in the discipline, show evidence of understanding relationships among the various fields that comprise their learning (such as English and history), and develop competencies and culminating exercises that have value beyond the classroom." Teaching History in the Digital Classroom
Authentic assessments are modeled on tasks students may encounter in and out of school. Examples include writing a blog on a specific content area, analyzing primary sources, creating a PowerPoint presentation or a video re-enactment of an event, even creating a travel brochure. Every task has a clear, specific easy-to-use scoring system or rubric.
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