Assessment Plan

Strategies:

Throughout this learning experience, students are evaluated using formal and informal assessments. During and after tasks have been completed, students take part in self-monitoring and reflecting upon beliefs. All assessment measures are explained and shown to students before starting the lesson, as well as utilized by students to evaluate the level of their work. The assessment measures employed throughout this learning experience include: checklists, rubrics, and reflective questioning.

Tools:

The first and final assessments students complete are the Diagnostic and Summative Questions. The Diagnostic Question is posed at the beginning of the experience, whereas the Summative Question is posed at the end. These questions are utilized to determine whether or not students met the goals of the learning experience.

While creating their acrostic poem, students are required to use the Writing Process Checklist. This checklist calls for students to self-monitor their use of the writing process steps. The five steps included in the checklist are: Brainstorm, First Draft, Edit, Conference, and Final Copy. Once students have completed a step they are to check it off as well as write the date and time they finish on the line provided. Students can earn one point for each correctly completed step (checked, dated & timed). A correctly utilized and handed in Checklist is worth five points. These points are added to the students' final score upon culmination of the project.

Another self-monitoring technique that students are required to employ is the 3 Step Edit. During this time students ask themselves pre-scripted questions, which help students review the mechanics of their work. Students are asked to do this before Conferencing with the teacher. This is not a scored assessment because it is a self-monitoring technique which allows students to improve their editing skills.

After students have finished creating their acrostic poems, teachers and students utilize the Rubrics. Both rubrics include criteria in the same areas, yet one is student-friendly (Students' Acrostic Poem Rubric), and one is teacher-friendly (Teacher's Acrostic Poem Rubric). Students will be assessed in the areas of: use of phrases, voice & word choice, relation to theme, mechanics, presentation and reflection. Criterion are weighted allowing students to earn a total of forty points if they exceed the expectations of the assignment. Students are required to score themselves upon culmination of the project. It is to the students' advantage to accurately score their work. Students have the opportunity to receive five points if the discrepancy between the teacher's score and the students' score is five or fewer points. Students can earn a total of forty-five points based the Rubric and an accurate personal assessment.

Upon culmination of this learning experience the scores from the Checklist and Rubrics are compiled to read the students' final score. Distinguished work has a possibility of earning fifty points. Warm and cool comments are provided for students at this time—they are written at the bottom of the Teacher's Acrostic Poem Rubric.

Assessment tools:

Diagnostic & Summative Question Sheets

Writing Process Checklist & 3 Step Edit worksheet

Students' Acrostic Poem Rubric

Teacher's Acrostic Poem Rubric

Updated: June 07, 2007
© Jeff Arnold & Tony Klejna