Feature Workshop Session:
Supporting the Assessment of New Curriculum
With the promise of a new Alberta Curriculum, educators are starting to think ahead to what they can do now to prepare for the instruction and assessment of this new document.
The key concepts in the current Alberta curriculum are concepts used in educational systems across the world. These key concepts are transferable understandings that are universal, timeless, and to some degree, abstract and therefore will also transcend to the new curriculum.
This hands-on session will provide concrete ideas on how to effectively plan for classroom assessment that is focussed on deep understanding of the key concepts.

Workshop Session:
Designing Instruction and Assessment Plan for Conceptual Understanding
While we’re waiting for the new curriculum, there are things we can do now to get ready!
- Learn how to pull out the conceptual understanding embedded in any outcome
- Develop success criteria based on deep understanding of the outcome
- Use an “assessment as learning” process to effectively plan for instruction and assessment of a unit or topic of study.
This session is a proactive way to get ready to successfully implement the new curriculum, while still working with the current curriculum in your classroom.

Workshop Session:
Assessing the facts, skills and conceptual understanding in student learner outcomes.
There are a lot of myths around teaching and assessing conceptual understanding. The biggest myth is that teaching and assessing conceptual understanding means ignoring facts and skills. Nothing can be further from the truth. In order to develop and demonstrate their understanding of any curricular student learner expectation, students will:
- Learn about the facts and skills and
- Develop appropriate levels of factual and procedural fluency in order to
- Use these facts and skills to make meaning of the concepts and to
- Critically and creatively think to solve problems within and beyond the topic of study
This workshop will provide a framework for planning the instruction and assessment of a students’ understanding of the facts, skills, and concepts in a student learner outcome.
