Chapter 9 Reflection

Students have a different amount of knowledge when entering a project, and they also learn at a different pace during the project. It is important for the teacher to set up anchors for gaining a sense of where a student is in the learning process.  It is important to use a variety of assessments when determining where you students are academically, and how much they have learned during the project.  You can use rubrics to generate a meaningful way to provide feedback to students and discover how much they have learned.  There are also online grade books, illustrating a novel they read, listening to conversations between students, and collecting typical tests.

                It is important to establish these anchors to you can adjust the project to better fit the individual students.  Sometimes you may find that your students are not where you would like them to be, and you must slow down the project to help them gain the knowledge they should have gained previously.  It is also important to create something knew to summarize or synthesis what the students have learned. 

                The assessments that go with project-based learning can come in a variety of forms.  You can assess students on a real-world model.  Students can draw on the real world experience of creating a portfolio and having the teacher or expert assess their work.  Another option is having students present their information to a panel of experts or international educators.  The students could take the information a step higher and submit it for publication or a contest.  Have students write a book or an article or a summary about the information they have discovered.

                I loved that this chapter discussed the different ways you can assess students.  For our project, I would like to get rid of the typical assessments and tests, and have students submit a unique project.  For weather, we could have the students create a website that teaches people about weather patterns.  Or we could assemble a group of meteorologist that the students must present their information to.  The options are endless when it comes to assessments!