ABSTRACT
Learning objectives and assessments provide specific details for meeting the goals of a lesson or unit. When you write objectives you provide a focus for the lesson and unit, and you determine how you will assess students’ learning. But that is only part of the purpose. Your students must know how they will be assessed in your social studies classroom before a lesson or unit even begins. This idea is often referred to as a “backward design model,” because the teacher designs lessons with the end goal or assessments in mind. Wiggins and McTighe (2000) describe backward design as follows: “One starts with the end-the desired results-and then derives the curriculum from the evidence of learning called for by the standard (learning objective) and the teaching needed to equip students to perform” (p. 8). Thus, objectives and assessment are closely connected, and this is why we will examine them together in the chapter.
