Why Assess?

Relationship of Instruction and Assessment

Instruction and assessment must both be included in the planning process if they are to be well-matched. In backward design, the instructional goals and related performance assessments are identified at the beginning of the unit plan, and then appropriate instructional activities, strategies, and tools are identified.

The needs of learners are also important in planning for instruction and assessment. Cohen (1994) writes that language assessment promotes "meaningful involvement of students with material that is central to the teaching objectives of a given course. For this meaningful involvement to take place, the goals of the assessment tasks need to reflect the goals of the course, and these goals need to be made clear to the students (p. 13)."