For example, students learning about tornadoes might begin their unit of study by looking at the painting of a tornado by American artist John Stewart Curry. After creating their own drawings of tornadoes, in which they also study the concept of line as an element of visual art, students read and write about tornadoes, compiling a booklet on tornado safety. The booklet, demonstrating several skills, is what Bafumo calls an embedded assessment because the skills to be assessed are integrated with the learning activity. Such an interdisciplinary process gives the teacher a powerful assessment of student progress, and also provides opportunities for direct instruction. When assessment is limited to only one way of knowing things, it indicates a weak curriculum, Bafumo says.
Key questions take time to ponder, but they are questions that are worth thinking about.
Designing the sequence of lessons comes last. Jervis calls this approach backward mapping, and says that it helps teachers make decisions about what's really important to teach and assess. Questions should be the cornerstone of assessment, agrees Nancy Johnson, president of Pieces of Learning in Dayton, Ohio. But Johnson believes that asking good questions should not be just the teacher's responsibility. Higher-order thinking relies on good questions.