Alternate/Non-Traditional Assesments

An example of a "Non-Traditional" Summative Assessment.....

My Son's 3rd grade class was learning about the "stages" of the Passover Seder (the Passover meal).  The class rebbe (Hebrew for: Judaic Studies Teacher) then assigned each student a part of the Seder and tasked the student to find a way to show that they had learned about what happens during that stage.  Tuvia elected to create a movie on his iPad. When Tuvia came home, I sat down with him to help him design what he had to do. 

The first thing that I had Tuvia do was to create a list of facts that he had learned about his topic. He put the facts on 3x5 cards. (This tied in to the technique that he was taught during a Project Based Learning assignment in his social studies class.)

The next thing that Tuvia did was to write out a "storyboard" (on each 3x5 card) for his movie so that he could visualize how he was going to show that he knew the facts.  

Lastly, he created a "self-check rubric" so he could score himself at the end to see if he met his goals.

We then shot the video and Tuvia edited it using the iPad iMovie app.

Now, as a teacher, I would have prefered that Tuvia had learned how to set up his movie, the rubric, etc. in class.  It should be a skill taught to ALL of the students but thanks to the thorough modeling of Project Based Learning that he received from his "Limudai Chol" (Hebrew: General Studies) teacher, it was a snap to just extend that technique into movie making! Total time: 1 hour. Here is his video - you decide how well he did!

http://youtu.be/7oFN8iUGCGI

Some notes:  Tuvia decided that he would do a lot with visuals - using imagery to get his message across.  To introduce his topic, he didn't say it, he used a title.  To show that he understood that the Afikoman was the bigger piece of matzah, he made sure to show the bigger piece rather than say anything. and so on....

Taking these new skills that he has learned, Tuvia is now working on a longer movie about good and evil (What we call the Yatzer Hora and Yatzer Tov - the "evil inclination" and the "good inclination").  He is almost done.  This is "teaser-trailer" he made to get permission from his teacher to make the movie. (He wanted to try to shoot it himself, but he now realizes that he needs a "camera person" to help!) http://youtu.be/vAiMECNEL5Y

When the movie is done... do you want to see it?  Let me know!!

(As always, please share this email and your feedback is encouraged)

Regards...

Yossie

Yossie FrankelDirector - Consortium for Information and Academic Technologies
Member Schools:
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