Plan the Assessment

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Plan the Assessment

• A mini-lecture based on the Buck Institute of
  Education Handbook of Project Based Learning

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Align Products with Outcomes

• Products are the presentations, papers, exhibits
  or models that are completed during the project.
• Every outcome must be assessed, giving students
  the chance to demonstrate what they are required
  to know and to do.

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Align Products with Outcomes

• Identify culminating products for a project.
• Use multiple products and a checkpoint system for
  feedback to students.
• Use artifacts -- evidence of the process of
  student thinking -- to assess skills and habits
  of mind.

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Culminating Products

• A culminating product is due at the end of the
  project it represents a blend of content
  knowledge and skills that give students a chance
  to demonstrate learning.
• Examples include research papers, reports,
  multimedia shows, presentations and exhibitions.

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Advantages of Exhibitions

• Students help in planning and establishing the
  criteria of judgment.
• Students can work together to prepare.
• Students can set goals, monitor themselves, ask
  for help, set a schedule.
• Students see themselves as knowledgeable who have
  something valuable to share.
• Others share in the evaluation.

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Multiple Products

• Multiple products are due during the early, late
  and middle stages of the project. They can be
  completed by individuals or groups.
• Multiple products give students feedback on their
  progress. They help students refine and improve
  their work.
• They help teachers assess student progress as
  well.

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Multiple Products

• The multiple products build toward the
  culminating products. For example, if a research
  paper requires an interview, teaching interview
  skills and assessing the result would be another
  product for the project.
• Examples include outlines, blueprints, drafts,
  models, field guides, websites.

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Artifacts

• Process is an important facet of PBL. Process can
  be messy sometimes its noisy and disorderly.
  Process is part of the project. To evaluate it,
  teachers examine artifacts of the process. This
  is the evidence of planning, questioning and
  problem solving that has occurred. They can
  assess skills and habits of mind.

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Artifacts

• Often, artifacts are informal and not easily
  graded. However, this information gives students
  important feedback and encourages them to keep
  records of the process.
• Examples of artifacts include notes, journal
  entries, reflections, records of decisions, etc.

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Know What to Assess

• Content knowledge and skills need to be broken
  down into a series of specific statements. Each
  outcome must be explicitly described.
• For example, think of the elements of an oral
  presentation, like eye contact, voice
  projections, coherence and posture. Let students
  know they will be assessed.

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Rubrics

• A rubric is a scoring guide that clearly
  differentiates levels of student performance.
  Rubrics provide a clear description of proficient
  student work and guide students to achieve. THEY
  ARE NOT SECRET.
• Exemplars anchor the process of using rubrics.

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Guidelines for Writing Rubrics

• All rubrics have three components Elements,
  Scales and Criteria. (This is adapted from the
  work of Grant Wiggins.)
• Elements are the individual components that
  describe the various aspects of a product and
  become the framework for the rubric.

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Guidelines for Writing Rubrics

• A scale describes the level of performance, like
  Basic, Proficient and Advanced. Its easier
  to use odd-numbered scales. Also, fewer points
  can be easier to use.
• Criteria are the specific descriptors used to
  determine the degree of success at meeting a goal
  or outcome.

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Guidelines for Writing Rubrics

• Write criteria that describe behaviors or
  results that you can measure or easily observe.
• Use criteria that are critical to the assignment.
  Too many criteria make assessment difficult.
• Always build from the top, starting from a
  description of exemplary work.

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Some Tips

• Use Blooms Taxonomy.
• Link the scoring criteria to the content
  standards.
• Find the right number of rubrics and level of
  specificity.
• Use student language.
• Maintain a high standard for exemplary work.
• Judge the project, rather than guess at the
  process.

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