Alignment is a big deal

The key point of backward design is that your assessments, activities, and instructional materials should all align to your desired objectives. This makes sure that what you teach, the activities and materials you use to teach, and what knowledge and skills you assess all lead to the same place, and that the place is a destination both you and your students know based on your learning objectives.

If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there?

This is where things can get tricky. You have to be really clear about what you want your students to know and be able to do. If you want them to be able to carry out pH tests of water samples, asking them to identify the second step in the process via a multiple-choice question won’t provide the evidence you need. Identifying steps on a quiz will only provide evidence that they remember the steps. If your intended learning outcome is that they conduct the test, they have to physically or digitally conduct the test to prove they can do it.  Alignment is also the cornerstone of the Quality Matters rubric (covered later in this handbook). ^[1]