The consideration of students who are to be assessed remains important for the purpose of developing the assessment design. I believe that it is important to choose a year level that suits the learning areas based on the curriculum. Therefore, I plan to choose the year 7 for this particular assessment assignment. The assessments must always be designed while keeping in mind the characteristics of the students along with the underlying consideration of the context. The basic characteristics like year levels, ages, gender and the context of curriculum is important to develop the assessment (Benveniste, 1999).
The year level selected is the year 7. The ages relevant to this year level is around twelve to thirteen. The gender of the learners includes both males and females. The diversity of the learning group is significant because we live in a society where people from different nations come in order to earn their livelihood in a more appropriate manner. I believe that the assessment must focus on the aspect of diversity strongly enough so that no student have to face any sort of discrimination on the basis of their ethnicity, color, cast, religion or creed. The program being referred for this assessment is related to the course of mathematics (Funderstanding, 1998).
The curriculum source selected for the purpose of developing this assessment is the Australian National Mathematics Curriculum. I have selected this curriculum because I believe mathematics is one of the courses which are important for students; however, students on the other hand always face intense difficulties dealing with this essential course. The location of the school is Urban Australia. The socio economic status of the families of learners is lower middle to middle class. Realizing the social status of the families of learners, the nature of school is quite mediocre. The educational environment is such that teachers are concerned about their salaries more than educating the children (Popham, 2009).
EDC2300 Backward Design Plan
Stage 1 - Desired Results
Subject / KLA - Mathematics
Year Level - Year 7
Established Goals (Syllabus / Essential Learning):
Year 7 Mathematics Achievement Standard (Australian National Curriculum)
Students use fractions, decimals and percentages, and their equivalences. They express one quantity as a fraction or percentage of another. Students solve simple linear equations and evaluate algebraic expressions after numerical substitution. They assign ordered pairs to given points on the Cartesian plane. Students use formulas for the area and perimeter of rectangles and calculate volumes of rectangular prisms (ACARA, 2011). Students classify triangles and quadrilaterals. They name the types of angles formed by a transversal crossing parallel line. Students determine the sample space for simple experiments with equally likely outcomes and assign probabilities to those outcomes. They calculate mean, mode, median and range for data sets. They construct stem-and-leaf plots and dot plots.
ACARA (2011). Year 7 Mathematics Achievement Standard. Retrieved October, 2012, from
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Year7
The basic goals of this course refer to the understanding of students about the basic concepts of ...