Five Days, One Benchmark, and a Reading IEP
Mr. Boone teaches 7th-grade health at a middle school with 45-minute periods. His refusal-skills unit is scheduled for five days, but a pep rally removes Day 4, leaving four instructional days. The class has 30 students, including one student with an IEP for a reading disability who receives read-aloud and extended time, and one student with a 504 plan for anxiety who does not want to perform in front of the class. The district benchmark is a 20-item multiple-choice test that mostly asks students to define refusal strategies. Mr. Boone wants to add a role-play performance assessment because the standard says students will “demonstrate refusal skills in a realistic situation.” He has already spent two days on vocabulary and one day on a video.
1. Using backward design, explain what Mr. Boone should prioritize in the remaining time and what he should cut.
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Mr. Boone should start from the standard and the intended evidence: students must demonstrate refusal skills, not only define them. The district benchmark is a constraint but a weak measure of the standard, so he needs both. He should identify two or three essential outcomes: identifying pressure tactics, using a refusal strategy, and maintaining safety/assertiveness. Vocabulary and video can be compressed into a warm-up or homework rather than consuming a full day. The lost Day 4 means he should not try to cover every refusal model; he should teach one transferable sequence-name the pressure, say no clearly, suggest an alternative, and exit-then practice it in short paired rehearsals. The public-performance concern and the reading IEP can be handled through rehearsal options rather than by lowering the standard.
2. Design an assessment plan that is aligned to the standard, fair to both students with accommodations, and useful for the district benchmark.
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The plan should use multiple evidence sources:
- Knowledge check: a 10-item quiz using benchmark-style items so students practice the format, but not the only evidence.
- Performance task: students respond to a scripted pressure scenario in pairs. The rubric should score clarity of refusal, use of an alternative, assertiveness without escalation, and exit strategy.
- Accommodations: the student with the reading IEP gets read-aloud on the quiz and a printed script with larger text; the student with anxiety can rehearse privately with the teacher, perform with one peer rather than the whole class, or record the role-play. These are access accommodations, not changes to the standard.
- Formative data: a quick exit ticket after rehearsal so Mr. Boone can reteach before the summative task.
This gives the district benchmark its due without letting a recall test define the unit.
3. The district requires the multiple-choice benchmark to count for 60% of the unit grade. How should Mr. Boone weight and report grades so the performance assessment still matters?
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Mr. Boone should follow the district weighting but make the performance assessment a separate, visible category for the remaining 40%. He can use the benchmark as a knowledge score and the performance task as a demonstration score, then explain the categories to students and parents. If the benchmark is mostly recall, a student who can perform the skill but scores poorly on recall should not be labeled as failing the standard; the report should show both scores. He should also use the benchmark data diagnostically-item analysis to see which refusal concepts were weak-and bring the mismatch between the benchmark and the standard to his department or curriculum committee. Changing the district weighting unilaterally would violate policy, but documenting the misalignment is a professional responsibility.