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Session 4. Alignment and Adapting the Textbook
Objective. Build an alignment matrix for a unit to find gaps and overload, and adapt textbook tasks with five moves while keeping the standard and its level.
Many teachers prepare well, teach well and still see pupils lose marks on a test. Often the cause is not effort but mismatch: the test asks for a skill the lessons never practised, or the textbook gives twenty practice items for what is easy and none for what is hard. An alignment check takes thirty minutes and finds such problems before pupils pay for them. Adapting the textbook is a related skill: changing it with care, so the standard stays intact.
Key ideas
The alignment triangle
- Three things must match: what pupils should learn (outcomes), what they practise (tasks) and what you check (assessment).
- They must match in content AND in level. Practising recall and testing explanation is a mismatch, even on the same topic.
- Biggs calls this constructive alignment: begin from the outcome, then design what pupils do and how you will see it.
The alignment matrix
- Make a table: outcomes in rows; textbook tasks, your own tasks and test items in columns. Write the level of each (recall, apply, explain).
- Look for empty cells: an outcome never practised, an outcome never tested, or a test item that matches no outcome.
- Look for overload: 20 tasks for an easy outcome and one for the hardest. Time should follow the outcome, not the textbook's page count.
Five moves to adapt the textbook
- KEEP what fits. CUT repeats and weak items. REORDER to respect dependencies. REPLACE with a local context at the same demand (cotton instead of wheat, a Samarkand map instead of a foreign one). ADD what the standard needs and the book lacks.
- A good adaptation is explainable in one sentence that mentions the outcome: 'I replaced X with Y because outcome 2 needs explaining, not copying.'
- Keep a short list of changes so a colleague, and you next year, can see what you did.
Red lines: do not break the standard
- Do not drop an outcome because it is hard or not in the book. Do not lower the level (explain becomes copy). Do not remove content the standard names.
- A quick test for any change: does it still lead pupils to the same outcome at the same level, and does the assessment still match it?
- Follow school rules on approved books and official tests. If your adaptation affects an official test, talk to the head of studies first.
Mismatch versus alignment
Mismatch
Same topic, different demand
- Outcome: explain
- Practice: copy and recall
- Test: explain in writing
Aligned
Same topic, same demand
- Outcome: explain
- Practice: explain with a model
- Test: explain in writing
Three ways alignment fails
The first failure is a gap: an outcome that is tested but never practised, or practised but never tested. The second is a level mismatch: the textbook practises recall ('list the goods traded on the Silk Road'), while the test asks for explanation ('explain how trade changed Samarkand'). The third is overload: many tasks for one easy outcome, so little time remains for the hard ones.
A fourth, quieter failure is a test item that matches no outcome, such as a list of dates the standard never mentions. Such items quietly teach pupils what 'matters', and it may be the wrong thing. When you find one, either the outcome list is incomplete or the item should go.
What a safe adaptation looks like
A safe adaptation keeps the outcome and its level and changes the route. Replacing a problem about wheat with one about cotton in your district keeps the demand and adds relevance. Reordering lessons to respect a dependency keeps the content. Adding a task to cover a gap adds what the standard needs. Cutting a repeated exercise removes what the outcome does not need.
An unsafe adaptation lowers the demand without saying so: turning 'explain' into 'copy', skipping the hardest outcome, or letting a game replace practice that is actually needed. Test any change with two questions: does it still reach the same outcome at the same level, and does the assessment still match? Write the answer in one sentence beside the change.
Examples from the classroom
The matrix finds a gap
Scene. Malika in Tashkent builds a matrix for a Grade 8 algebra unit. Outcome 3 says pupils must explain why a number is or is not a solution. No textbook task practises this, but test item 8 asks for it. She adds a 5-minute routine after each solved equation: substitute and say whether it works.
Insight. An empty cell in the matrix shows exactly where a task must be added.
Cotton instead of wheat
Scene. Dilnoza in Samarkand finds that a Grade 6 mathematics word problem uses wheat yields in another country. She changes it to cotton harvested per hectare in her district, keeps the same numbers and the same two steps, and checks that the question still needs ratio. Pupils stop asking where this place is and start on the mathematics.
Insight. Changing context while keeping demand is the safest adaptation.
The test item that matched nothing
Scene. Aziz in Fergana notices that Grade 6 history test item 8 asks for five dates, but the unit outcomes mention none. He asks the head of studies; the school test was copied from a book. He keeps the item but moves it to a 'bonus' part, adds a source-based question for outcome 3 and informs pupils of the change in advance.
Insight. Items without an outcome should be fixed in the open, with the school's agreement.
Common pitfalls
- Assuming alignment because the test and the lessons share a topic.
- Cutting the hardest tasks first because they take longest.
- Replacing a textbook exercise with something fun that no longer needs the skill.
- Changing the order or content of a test without telling the head of studies and the pupils.
Find the Mismatches and Adapt
- Read the SAMPLE Grade 6 history unit 'The Great Silk Road' in the Kit: 3 outcomes, 5 textbook tasks and the 8 items of the school test.
- Pairs (15 min): complete the alignment matrix. Mark each outcome as practised/tested and at what level. List at least three mismatches.
- Pairs (15 min): decide for each textbook task: KEEP, CUT, REORDER, REPLACE or ADD. Write one sentence of reason that mentions an outcome. Write the red lines for this unit.
- Groups (5 min): compare with another pair. Which adaptation would you be most afraid of? Is it safe or does it cross a red line?
- Alone (5 min): write your classroom action task from the Kit.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which mismatch surprised you most, and how would the pupils have felt it on test day?
- Which textbook task did you cut, and what would you say if a colleague asked why?
- Which assessment of your own would you check with a matrix first?
Reflect
- Have you ever taught well and still seen pupils fail a test? Was the test measuring the same thing?
- Which textbook exercise do you always skip, and is that a safe skip?
- What local context could you use to replace a foreign example this month?
Try it tomorrow
- Make a matrix for one unit: outcomes in rows, your tasks and test items in columns, with the level of each.
- Find one empty cell or one mismatch and plan a single task that fixes it.
- Replace one foreign example with a local one at the same level of demand and note the outcome it serves.
Further reading and links
Every outcome needs a task and a check at the same level; adapt the textbook freely, but never lower the standard.