A small presentation prepared for a class in the program of Teaching and Learning in ADA University, Azerbaijan.

1. Some
Curriculum and
Assessment
concepts
By Carlos Mayorga
February 2022

2. SMART objectives
• We need to develop objectives for our lessons/unit/courses that are
• Specific.
• Measurable.
• Achievable.
• Relevant.
• Time-oriented.
• It is recommended that each objective follow the stem:
• By the end of the lesson/unit/course, students will be able to…
• Some specific verbs are often used in this design. They are linked to
one of the six Bloom’s Taxonomy’s level of cognitive skills.

5. Big ideas and
essential
questions
• These are part of a unit design framework developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
that is broadly used in many countries.
• They propose to develop a unit using backward design.
• From DESIRED RESULTS to EVIDENCE and finally to LEARNING EXPERIENCES.
• This means that we need to think, first at all, in what we want students be able to
do at the end of the unit (or lesson, or course), immediately we will face the
problem of how to assess this learning; to end (in the design process) with how we
will teach in order to get the desired result.
• In each unit we challenge our students with essential questions to elicit their
understanding of core concepts (big ideas) that need to be transferable to other
situations and sphere of knowledge.

6. Essential questions are…
…thought provoking;
…open-ended;
…questions with multiple – and not wrong – answers;
…creative;
…related to enduring understandings that we want our students take from each unit.

7. Assessment
tools and
Rubrics
An assessment tool is any instrument a teacher can use
as an evidence of the students learning. It can be a test,
the prompt for an oral task, etc.
Every assessment tool needs to be aligned with the
course/unit/lesson it will assess. In each assessment tool
the teacher set assessment objectives that correspond
with the learning objectives designed before in the
lesson/unit/course plan.
An answer key or, in some cases, a rubric needs to be
developed as well in order to evaluate the student
performance.

8. Assessment tools and
Rubrics
• In developing an assessment tool we should follow – as much as
possible – some principles:
• Practicality. The assessment will consume resources (time,
money, etc.) that are limited. So this needs to be considered.
• Reliability. An assessment taken by different students under
similar conditions will give similar results.
• Validity. The assessment tool measures what it was intended
to measure.
• Authenticity. The tasks proposed to the students are related
to real world situations.
• Wash-back. The assessment tool has (positive or negative)
consequences for the learner that can motivate him/her in
the learning process.

9. There is a lot more to
say, but I trust we can
complete the puzzle
piece by piece
together. Thank you!