Rubrics and Backwards Planning:

The notion of backwards planning is one associated with the work of Grant Wiggins, whose book, written with Jay McTighe, Understanding by Design (Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 1998), lays out an approach to establishing benchmarks of performance and content knowledge a teacher wants students to master and then planning backwards for learning activities that will help students reach those competencies.

Learn more about Wiggins' work at:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/assessment/studentprogress.htm

Rubrics are an approach to assessment that specify varying what these key competencies in terms of knowledge and skills should be for each instructional unit and further specifies the levels of mastery students can attain in each area as a means of evaluating their proficiency.

For examples and templates for help in creating rubrics, see:

http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/assess.html

For more information, generally, about education and technology, see the journal called From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal at www.fno.org