Alternative Assessments - iPad iMovie

It is essential, if we want our students to take ownership of their learning (UNESCO 21st Century Competencies), that they can demonstrate understanding and mastery of the goals and skills of a particular lesson or course of study.  Often, using an "alternative assessment," as opposed to the standard test/paper/quiz, can give the teacher a better indication of a student's progress and mastery of a lesson or skill.

For example, my wife Batsheva is teaching a summer school class in Language Arts.  She had her students read a short story called "Bernice Bobs her Hair" by F Scott Fitzgerald  The students read the book and then discussed the imagery, writing style, and so on. You know, the "usual stuff" that is done in an English class.

Rather than have the students write a paper or take a quiz, Basheva had the class, working in teams of two, change the short story into a an iPad iMovie movie trailer for a film genre of their choice. The trailer had specific criteria that it had to follow to prove that the student had understood the major (and minor) goals of the lesson.  It was a blast for the students and they were able to practice AND SUCCEED at a whole range of 21st Century Learning Competencies.

Here is the sample video that Batsheva made...

Here is the trailer from one of the teams...

From an "Ed-tech" perspective, what I find so great about this is that Batsheva took 10 minutes out of the class time to teach the iPad iMovie program.  From there, the entire rest of the class was dedicated to working collaboratively on making the move.  Talk about engagement!!!

What do you think are the learning competencies that were demonstrated? Did the students show an understanding of the short story? Please log into the blog and share your thoughts.

Yossie Frankel
Director - Consortium for Information and Academic Technologies
Member Schools:
Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy - yfrankel@hillelhebrew.org
Oakland Hebrew Day School - y.frankel@ohds.org
Shalhevet High School - y.frankel@shalhevet.org
Yeshivat Yavneh - www.yha.org
Arete Preparatory Academy - yfrankel@areteprep.org
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