Bumpy Ride

It has been quite a while since I have actually written a post- my apologies. Once my Education Psychology teacher handed out 6 remaining projects for the semester (over half of the points for the semester), homework was kicked into high gear. However, there was good news from her today. She decided, with our help that the last two projects were not needed and were excessive; therefore, she is dropping the two projects. This means, there is one project left for the class!! Also, I received one of the assessments that we turned in a while back, full score and plus some. She copied to make an example for next semester. Overall, I guess it is a good assessment, but I did not think it was that good. I will have to put it on this blog for you all to check out.

What else has happened? I finished my last day at Cafe Moro. I figured I didn't need the added stress of working the last couple weeks during finals. Therefore, no more coffee making for a while!!

A week ago, my roommate (also one of my best friends) went down to Arizona to see her boyfriend for the weekend. The last time I talked to him he told me he was going to propose to Meggan that weekend. On Saturday I was waiting for the phone call from her. Believe me, it was hard not to say ANYTHING when she left on Friday- I definitely had to bite my tongue. But she is offically engaged! The wedding will not be until summer 2010, but I am still excited for her.

Anyways, that is the update for now... here is the performance based assessment (well, the directions)

Title of Performance Assessment:
Vocalizing Injustices in Society

Rationale:
Using rubrics give students a chance to show all of their ideas and work. Creating a collection of work can let the students improve their organization of thoughts, and more importantly see the logic in that organization. Once the students understand the logic, they will be able to put their own style and use their own voice within the portfolio explicitly the last poem in which they write. Creating a portfolio that showcases the talent and growth of the student as a writer, reader, and editor serves the needs of the student, and it helps to create literate, confident problem-solvers who have tangible evidence of their success.

Learning Targets:
1. Students will be able to recall and define literary devices: metaphor, simile, and symbolism, point of view; and, be able to give an example of each.
2. Students will be able to identify literary devices as an assessment tool for analyzing pieces of poetry.
3. Students will be able to use the knowledge gained from analyzing poetry and identifying literary devices to create a poetry portfolio of multiple pieces of poets and explain how their poetry was used to speak out against social injustice.

Learning Target used for Performance Based Assessment:
Students will be able to use the knowledge gained from analyzing poetry and identifying literary devices to create a poetry portfolio of multiple pieces of poets and explain how their poetry was used to speak out against social injustice.

This target assesses the knowledge of the previous targets in the used; therefore, in the performance the students will be able to demonstrate their full understanding of the unit. The portfolio will show their knowledge gained and their overall comprehension- being able to put each piece together of the unit.

Directions:
You will be creating a poetry portfolio. In the portfolio you must provide a minimum of three pieces of poetry that show how poets used literature as a medium to speak about social injustices during a broad range of time periods. With the three examples, there needs to be a minimum of one paragraph analysis explaining how the poet capitalized upon using poetry. This can include the way the poet used: poetic devices, words used, symbols, the time period, etc… the possibilities are endless. The final piece is that you must create a poem that reflects an important present day social injustice, and attached a one paragraph explanation. This portfolio will be created throughout the unit, and turned in at the end of the unit.

Closure:
To debrief the assignment, the students will share with peers. Furthermore, there will be a discussion about what the students learned.

What’s Next:
This project will help the students prepare personal thoughts about poetry. They will be able to express how they feel using this type of medium as a tool for speaking out against social injustice- explaining whether it is effective or not.

Rubric:
I contemplated which type of rubric to use, and I started with an analytic grid first. However, that did not serve the type of purpose in grading the students. In the portfolio, it is the easiest for both the student and teacher to have a check-off list of the requirements. To grade portfolios is objective in a sense so having a check-off list with the most important aspects listed seemed like the most logical sense. It will be easy to go through the checklist and the portfolio to find the elements listed. Using the holistic rubric gives both the student and teacher a tiny bit of wiggle room for creativity. The students need to have the freedom to improve their writing, ideas, and formulate it themselves- to make it their own.