My Favorite Alternative Assessment

I have had a really hard time getting started with this favorite alternative assessment post because I've realized there are several phenomenal ideas to consider, many of which I have incorporated or used as inspiration in some way for my own curriculum development. In the meantime, I have begun this post three times, first about a Spanish news broadcast I did in high school, next about my sixth grade science fair project, and now describing a different project we did that same year, which was interdisciplinary.

Our middle school model lent itself easily to interdisciplinary projects because our teachers taught in teams. I fondly recall one project my team teachers designed that started in Language Arts and branched into all of our other subjects soon after. I’m ashamed to say that I don’t remember what it was called but, first, we read a story about children running a society of their own. We then wrote short descriptive essays about countries of our own, which were meant not only to reflect our likes and dislikes but also to address the themes of personal responsibility, government and society that had been conveyed in the literature. We built upon these essays in our social studies class where particular vocabulary pertaining to systems of government and cultural values were added to our next drafts. We also discussed emblems and studied the flags of the world before designing, drawing and explaining in paragraph form our own flags. We also applied prior geographical knowledge to mapping our countries. We were able to work on the artistic aspects of those project components in our art classes, too. Even in Spanish, we were able to continue working toward the creation of our countries. We had been studying some of the major festivals of Spanish and Latin American cultures, and for weeks we focused our frases (Spanish sentences) on planning and describing a festival or cultural celebration for our original nations. Though I have forgotten a lot of the details, I remember vividly some of the products I created for this project, including a flag checked with black and white hexagons like a soccer ball and pretty fantastic salt dough map. My cultural celebration was called “La Festividad de Diversion,” or “Festival of Fun,” and mainly consisted of parades, piñatas, and all-day soccer tournaments. I remember, too, that there was a project rubric broken down by subject area learning targets because I thought it was cool how each of my teachers wrote different comments and grade totals on the same page.

I think that the Create-Your-Own-Country project (I don’t remember if that is what it was called or not) is a great example of a long-term, individual performance assessment comprised of many smaller tasks, all of which were scored by rubrics that fit together into a coherent assessment framework. The creativity, self-discipline and initiative required of students during this process, among other important qualities and life skills, lent to the authenticity of the assessment as well. While after almost 15 years, I have forgotten a lot about this alternative assessment, that which has stuck with me has also become a major part of what I teach today. My senior curriculum is anchored to the concept of Utopia that was first introduced to me during this time. My approach to literature circles, both for these students who read works of Dystopian fiction including 1984 as well as my juniors whose literature selections are not thematically related, is one area of my teaching where some of my assessment ideas are similar to the project I did as a child.

Ticket-Out-The-Door

Mapping Learning Targets to State Standards

A complete list and explanation of the New York State standards for English Language Arts is available at http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/ela/pub/elalearn.pdf. Broadly stated as “language” for various purposes, the ELA standards all begin with the stem, “students will read, write, listen and speak for…” and continue into more specific titles. Please understand that in the following map of my learning targets to the state standards, I will use only “language” rather than the full stem ad nauseum.

1. Students effectively manage individual roles and limited class time to prepare a final portfolio and presentation on the unit.

• This learning target best relates to NYS Standard 4: Language for Social Interaction because they will need to discuss and relate to one another prior to composing a project proposal, at which point the application of prior knowledge will be necessary for completion of the written work.

2. Students annotate literature books to aid comprehension and analysis of a primary text.

• This learning target ideally relates to all four NYS Standards: Language for Information and Understanding, Literary Response and Expression, Critical Analysis and Evaluation, and Social Interaction. Annotation is a process that can be applied variously by individual students and can provide, thusly, great opportunities for differentiation but, when endeavored by a proficient or masterful reader, it should span all four standards.

3. Students summarize the main events, ideas and themes of their respective works.

• This learning target best relates to NYS Standard 1: Language for Information and Understanding because the knowledge is generated primarily from the text.

4. Students analyze major characters using a table to organize supporting details from the text.

• This learning target best relates to NYS Standard 3: Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation because it builds upon information generated by the text and requires students to respond analytically using an established criterion.

5. Students explain how specific literary devices are used by the author to convey the theme of the work.

• This learning target best relates to NYS Standards 2 and 3: Language for Literary Response and Expression as well as Critical Analysis and Evaluation because, again, the information is generated primarily from the text but the student response is what’s targeted.

6. Students work cooperatively with peers to plan and submit a final portfolio that showcases their knowledge and skills.

• This learning target best relates to NYS Standard 4: Language for Social Interaction because the emphasis is on the process and not the result. While the portfolio and presentation will be built from aspects of the other three standards, the productive interaction between peers is what’s subject to observation and assessment in this case.

7. Students clearly and effectively present a critical review of their literary works to their peers without relying upon summary.

• This learning target best relates to NYS Standard 4: Language for Social Interaction because, again, while the content of the presentation will rely heavily upon the address of other standard areas, the target here is successful presentation.

Learning Targets Draft

Literature Circles Unit

The following learning targets have been defined for a unit of literature circles during which English 3 Regents (primarily eleventh grade) students will study different pieces of American literature within small cooperative groups of 4-6 students. The pieces include The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I have decided to focus on this unit throughout the semester because it is the one my students are working on currently and it is one of my very favorites because it provides the opportunity to continue building upon the skills we’ve practiced in previous literature units while, I hope, offering students the chance to get more creative with their final projects while dealing with interpersonal skills and individual habits of mind that have real world applications.

1. Students effectively manage individual roles and limited class time to prepare a final portfolio and presentation on the unit.

• Developmental learning target
• Alter, ask, choose, complete, comply, contribute, follow, help, influence, lead, order, organize, plan, work, revise, solve (Krathwohl)
  

2. Students annotate literature books to aid comprehension and analysis of a primary text.

• Developmental learning target
• Criticize, define, identify, infer, predict (Bloom)
  
• Defend, discuss, respond, question (Krathwohl)

3. Students can summarize the main events, ideas and themes of their respective works.

• Mastery learning target
• Compile, describe, explain, give examples, paraphrase, recall, summarize (Bloom)
  

4. Students can use a table to organize textual information that supports analysis of major characters.

• Mastery learning target
• Describe, discriminate, categorize, compare/contrast, criticize, identify, infer, justify, relate, select, support (Bloom)
  

5. Students can identify literary devices and explain how they are used by the author to convey the theme of the work.

• Mastery (Identification)/ Developmental (Explanation) learning target
• Define, give examples, identify, predict (Bloom)
• Defend, discuss, question (Krathwohl)
  

6. Students work cooperatively with peers to plan and submit a final portfolio that showcases their knowledge and skills.

• Developmental learning target
• Answer, ask, assist, complete, comply, discuss, invite, prepare, present, respect, share (Krathwohl)
  

7. Students clearly and effectively present a critical review of their literary works to their peers without relying upon summary.

• Developmental learning target
• Criticize, describe, explain, give examples, influence, justify, perform, prepare, select (Bloom)
• Answer, discuss, give, help, present, recognize, relate, share (Krathwohl)
  

"Who I am is a question for the ages..."

I am born to be wild…and to wear strange outfits handed down by two older sisters and, apparently, Star Trek characters. You might say that I am shamelessly willing to make a fool of myself but I think that it is a quality that has served me well in life and made me good at my job.

I am the daughter of a former professional boxer, which explains this picture...

…and this one, as well as my impressive knowledge of all things “Rocky I-V." Yes, even I can admit that "Rocky Balboa" was one sequel too many. I think it’d be fair to gather from this evidence that I’ve been hard on the men in my life, too. I’m pretty proud of that though.

I am a very creative person and likely the only one you’ll ever meet who had an imaginary friend named Godfrey, a native of the Bahamas. The “friend” pictured above was not fortunate enough to have been so memorably named. I rarely make hula-hoop/marker people anymore but those who visit my classroom immediately recognize my colorful and elaborate, usually interactive, bulletin boards, which have become an outlet for my marginal artistic talent and not-so-marginal Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

I am a 2001 graduate of Brockport High School, where I excelled academically, sang in the choir and various all-county/all-state ensembles, and played Varsity soccer and volleyball. I must have made some pretty good impressions on my teachers and coaches because they invited me back!

I did my undergrad work at Boston University, where I graduated cum laude in January 2005 and managed to finish early despite changing my major from journalism to secondary English education as a sophomore. During my tenure there, I found my calling while tutoring with a literacy program in a Roxbury project-neighborhood school. I did my student teaching at the prestigious Boston Latin School, which was the first public school in America. And YES…

I became a RED SOX FAN! If my husband can forgive me, so can you. We’re going to the Yanks/Sox game in New York on August 9^th and I fully plan to wear all my Boston “merch” whether he likes it or not!

Speaking of the devil, I do have a new, wonderful husband as of July 26, 2008. The wedding was the best day of my life and I’m pretty sure everyone else had a good time, too. There are MANY more pictures of this event on our wedding website if anyone’s interested: www.vinceanddawn.com. Vince and I are both pretty active individuals who continue to play league sports throughout the year and spend the occasional night out with our friends but, after four years together, we honestly prefer one another’s company over pretty much any other activity or crowd. We’ve become the poster couple for Netflix for better or worse and can make one another laugh instantly with a well-timed movie line or impression—his Christopher Walken can’t be beat. We also do great voices for our dog and cat, Samurai and Geisha, which we know that no one else can appreciate and most would likely mock mercilessly. It’s cool.

Indeed, the past four years have been the best of my life for many other reasons as well. Since September 2005, I have been lucky enough to work at the BEST school district around, my own alma mater, Brockport High School. I teach junior and senior English and have already had many successes to celebrate. I was awarded tenure at the beginning of this school year. This week I got a HANDWRITTEN letter from a former student who wrote a college essay about how I inspired her to become a teacher!

Also at Brockport High School, I have coached girls’ volleyball for the past three years (JV for 2 and Varsity this past season) and participated in many extra-curricular events that help to showcase, unite, recognize and entertain our wonderful students. This March, I’ll be humiliating myself for their amusement in the faculty skit for our annual talent show, Class Acts. If you’d like to attend, please let me know so that I can give you the wrong information!

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While teaching and coaching and taking grad classes and starting my family, not to mention fronting my very own RockBand TM, "Camarosmith," have all kept me extraordinarily busy and the stress can sometimes cloud my vision of its near-perfection, my life is pretty amazing and I tend to be a very happy person because of it. I look forward to getting to know and working alongside everyone this semester!