Week 9: Collaborative Unit Assessment Stage

At this point this the collaborative unit plan, Nichole and I are finishing up the unit plan outline and beginning to think seriously about what type of assessments we want to use to evaluate student learning.  At present, we are still thinking of assessing three different portions of the project: 1) the research process 2) the individual law briefs and 3) the class presentation.

In terms of the research process, Nichole and I discussed having the students do some self-reflection in the form of reflection logs.  I got the idea to use the logs from AASL's Standards for the 21st Century Learner In Action book, which suggests using the logs during the research process to help students plan ahead, brainstorm solutions to problems, discuss accomplishments, etc.  I'm thinking we might have the students do 2-3 logs throughout the project that require them to respond to questions or prompts.  In terms of grading, since this is more of an informal journal, Nichole and I will likely just look at the journals to see that the students have thoroughly responded to the questions.  The real goal is just to get the students thinking about the research process and to give us teachers a chance to see how the groups  are progressing.  We haven't yet discussed who will be grading these logs, but I am thinking we might both read them or split the grading responsibilities equally.

For both the law brief and presentation, we plan to use rubrics to measure student achievement.  In terms of grading responsibilities, Nichole will grade the content portions of the law briefs and presentations while I will grade the presentation design and all citations.  Some of the qualities we will be looking for in the law briefs include clarity of argument, summary of the case, spelling/mechanics, and proper citation.  With the presentations, some of the qualities we will be looking at include equal division of labor among group members, professional looking design, organization of information, oral presentation, and proper citation.

Finally, after completing all of our assessments, Nichole and I plan to use our data to prepare a short presentation on the project for the school board.  This data might include examples of student work, teacher reflections, excerpts from student logs, and student grades.  Hopefully, by comparing the various data we will compile to the standards addressed in the unit plan, we will be able to provide board members with sufficient evidence of student learning.