What about Standards, Goals, Objectives, and Assessment?

Rubrics are great tools for assessment, but in today’s educational arena, there is a strong emphasis on addressing state and federal mandated standards when planning goals, objectives and assessment. How do these components fit into authentic assessment?

“Good teachers have standards in mind when they set their lessons up, where the idea of a ‘standard’ represents a specific idea of what the teacher expects a student to recall, replicate, manipulate, understand, or demonstrate at some point down the road - and of how the teacher will know how close a student has come to meeting that standard. Standards, in other words, are conceptually nothing new - though we do seem to keep reinventing them.”
-- Charles Hill

The best way to ensure that the required standards are covered in curriculum is to include them right from the start of the planning phase. The first decision should determine specific learning objectives. Once this is done, it is important to match these objectives to the standards that are to be covered. A common mistake is trying to cover too many things, whereas the best projects focus on one or two specific ones By looking at the objectives and standards it is possible to come up with goals and a mission statement for the project. While many teachers feel comfortable creating these last two steps, their results are not easily measured in assessment. Connecting these broader expectations with standards and objectives makes it easier to ensure that curricular goals are met.

Visit this link http://www.gsn.org/web/pbl/plan/assres.htm

Some questions to keep in mind:
* What required coursework will this project teach or supplement?
* Where does the project fit into your curriculum guidelines?
* Is the project aligned with your required curriculum framework and requirements?

Have a look at the grid for Authentic Assessment created by Jon Mueller

Here is an example of standards correlated with the Bullying Project

iEARN Project Integration Plan Bullying Project by Sari Pesso Goals: Teacher Goals: To improve relationships within the classroom setting To teach students to work cooperatively Student Goals To learn strategies for dealing with bullying behaviors To recognize bullying characteristics and behaviors To learn how to respect others and be a good friend Introductory: As a group, the class will discuss what a bully is and characteristics of a bully. Their definitions should be recorded and reviewed after Start a KWL chart (What you Know, What you Want to know and what you Learned.) The last part of the chart will be filled in after all the lessons. The students will then share their experiences with bullies and express their emotions: How did they feel? What did they do about it?, Did they discuss it with anyone?, Record this on chart paper and discuss it as a group. Give all the students the www.bullying.org web address. Assign each student to navigate the site and research bullying by using the websites’ various resources. Week One: Read the book: “Stand Tall, Mary Lou Mellon” by Patty Lovel. This is a story about a first grader who has several traits that makes her look different. A boy bullies her in her new school. The girl sets out to prove herself and transform all her so-called faults into marvelous talents. The story emphasizes to children to be proud of themselves. Discuss the book with the class together. Ask questions such as, how did Mary Lou overcome the bully? What are some strategies she used? Would you have done anything different? What are some things that make you proud of yourself? Everyone will illustrate and write about what they are proud of and what makes them special? Week Two: As a group, discuss different examples of bullying and write them on the board. Then group students into pairs. Each student will be assigned an example from the board. Each group will create a short skit role-playing the bullying example they were assigned. After each skit, the other students will comment on the skit. They will discuss positive things about each skit and suggestions and strategies for how the person who was bullied could get help. Record strategies and be sure to emphasize nonviolent strategies for dealing with bullies, such as walking away, talking it out, staying with friends, talking to an adult. The children can then role-play the scenarios again showing one of the strategies discussed. Week Three: Read the book “Frog and Toad are Friends” by Arnold Lobel. There are five stories in this book that tell how two friends help each other, work together and share good times. In cooperative learning groups, the students will list things friends do to help each other and draw an illustration. Individually, everyone will write a nice letter to one of their friends. A note will be sent home for each student to bring one piece of fruit to make one large Friendship Fruit Salad to enjoy together. Evaluation and Assessment: Students will be evaluated based on written work, participation in class, group discussions, and their ability to work cooperatively. The students will be expected to continue using their bullying strategies and good friendship skills throughout the school year. Standards Addressed: Department of Education City of NY Performance Standards: E1C – Read and comprehend information on materials E2A – Produce a report of information E2B – produce a response to literature E3B - participate in group meetings E4A - demonstrate a basic understanding of the rules of the English language in written and oral work E5A – respond to nonfiction, fiction, and drama using interpretive and critical processes