Assessing Projects : Formative Assessment
Creating a Final Project
After further investigation about the life cycle of frogs and their habitat, teachers form learner teams to create projects showing what they have learned. To take advantage of individual interests and abilities, Mr. Gcaba gives learners a choice of how they want to share their learning. They can create a paper book, newsletter, multimedia presentation, website, or short play. A variety of options allows learners to use their interests as they expand their knowledge. He encourages learners to choose a project that challenges them and helps them to learn new skills, such as using ICT, writing, or acting.
For this project, Mr. Gcaba builds on the experience learners had creating a project plan for drawing the mural. He provides whole-class guidance on how to break down the steps of their project into tasks, and gives learners a slightly less structured guide than they received in the previous project. He circulates among the learners, giving them individual support as needed, and stopping to conduct an impromptu mini-lesson if he notices common problems.
A Learner’s Story: Molly’s Reflection
With help, all learners create their own checklists focusing on the self-direction goals they have set for the year and for the project. Molly’s self-assessment describes how well she did each day at meeting her goals.
| Name Molly Date January 28 Goals:
|
Because Mr. Gcaba knows that Molly often has difficulty thinking of strategies to organize her schoolwork, he discusses a variety of options to help her remember her materials. She chooses one that she thinks will be easy for her to implement.
Using Peer- and Self-Assessment
Both Mr. Gcaba and his learners use a rubric that describes his expectations for their final project. The class plans to use the rubric to monitor how well learners are doing. Mr. Gcaba models for learners how to assess their projects using the rubric, and he observes and takes anecdotal notes while they work. These notes give Mr. Gcaba data that he uses during formal and informal individual meetings to help his learners achieve the project’s assessment standards.
After learners complete their projects, they share them with another group for feedback. Mr. Gcaba gives learners some ideas about questions they can ask the other group’s members about their presentations. He then gives them time in their own groups to brainstorm other questions that may help them improve their presentations. He also models how to respond to others’ questions constructively and honestly. As learners conduct the peer-assessment, Mr. Gcaba takes notes on how learners ask for and offer feedback to use in future facilitation.
Mr. Gcaba knows that individual misconceptions can often be camouflaged within a group project. He makes an extra effort through questioning and examining journal and log entries to determine the learning of individual learners.
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