This might be more of a GQ really, but what is the term for the practice of making up the test before teaching the unit, so that you know you’re covering the material the students need?
Thanks.
Planning?
I think it’s also called “criterion-referenced assessment”, opposite of “norm-based”, which means you are planning to test what they each know, not how they compare to each other. So pre-writing the test lets you establish what it is you want them to know/be able to do.
Also known as “formative assessment” as opposed to “summative assessment.” That is, if you give the test first, then teach the material the students have indicated they do not know.
In my grad program, we always called it Backwards Design or Understanding By Design. The idea was that first you decided what your students needed to learn, then you figured out how you would assess them to make sure they learned what they needed to learn, then you figured out how to teach it so that they could learn it.
Teaching to the test? 
Actually it is common sense. When designing a course, you have to ask yourself three questions:
- “What do I want the student to know/ be able to do when they leave the course?”
- “How will I measure their ability / knowledge?”
- “What are the students bringing to the party?” (what is their current level of knowledge)
Answering #1 gives you your goal. Answering #2 tells you How you will measure the results. Answering #3 gives you your starting point. At this point the course pretty much writes itself.
Thanks for the replies. I should have said that my point is to use the buzz words in my cover letter when sending out job applications. So if there’s a consensus phrase for this, that’s what I’m looking for.
I’ve heard outcomes-based planning.
I hate educational buzzwords.
And some are sooo euphemistic. It took me forEVER to learn that when an administrator says, “Think outside the box” it means, “Do it my way.”
Same with “Think win-win.”
Heh. We called it pretesting when I was doing certification work. silenus’ submissions are the terms I hear bandied about in the hallways from the lips of the World’s Greatest Researchers in Education.
Same here, but we were into some pretty technical terms back then.
I call it a lesson plan.
I’ve finally learned that EVERYTHING an administrator says means “Do it my way.”
When you say “making up” do you mean just making it up for you or do you mean actually giving it to the students to see what they know? If you want to see what they know, the old K-W-L (know, want to know, learned) thing is pretty well-established education-speak.