On September 12, 2016 I gave a workshop for ALTs working in Saitama City’s 103 elementary schools. The topic of the workshop was unifying instruction and assessment.

Unification of Instruction and Assessment

In keeping with educational trends across Japan, and the world, Saitama City has made the unification of instruction and assessment a key priority in its schools. The unification of these is not to be confused with alignment. Alignment of instruction and assessment is important, but different in that both are thought of as separate ‘moves’. Instead, unification of instruction and assessment seeks to break that barrier and see the two as one.

The result is clarity to students about what is important and how they are doing at it.

During this workshop ALTs were re-introduced to the 3 D’s of unification: Determine, Decide, and Divide

3 D’s: Determine, Decide, Divide

DETERMINE

With this step teachers are asked to determine what students look like when they are meeting the goals of a lesson in detailed terms.

-1. Read and understand the General Aims and Assessment Criteria

-2. Identify how students will reach these in the activities

-3. Determine what student behavior/performance will be praised.

DECIDE

After understanding what success looks like, teachers must decide how they will assess (praise) students for success. The assessment must be meaningful and direct.

-1. Find at least 2 different angles from which to praise the behavior determined.

-2. Decide simple verbal and non-verbal praise/assessments to use with students. Include these in your models.

DIVIDE

Last teachers must decide how they will conduct the instruction/assessments. This step is primarily practical, but depending on the condition of students, may require some deeper considerations.

-1. Divide the praise/assessment between the teachers. (Boys/Girls; Group 1-4 / 5-9, etc.)

As a result, teacher will be prepared to use consistent language to instruct and assess students.