About This Series
This is the second of three blog posts about the role assessment can plan in supporting, engaging, and motivating students engaged in project-based learning (PBL). You might want to read our blog post, Assessing Along the Way to Support Learning Goals before digging in here.
Introduction
When I first started teaching, I thought that the “point” of assessment was for me to know how students were doing and to respond to that information accordingly. And of course, there is value in teachers understanding their kids’ progress, but by keeping that information to myself, I disempowered my students from owning their own learning. Over time, I learned to make the relationship between assessments and learning more obvious for my students.
There are several valuable tools that PBL teachers use to communicate with students (and parents) about the trajectory of learning that a well-designed project will take them on including a project overview, a project calendar with embedded learning targets, and a well-designed product rubric that students deeply understand. In this blog post, we will explore those strategies as ways to make assessment actionable.
Plan Your Assessments Carefully
It’s important that before you launch a project with your students, you have a very clear picture of your learning goals and the culminating product that students will make or do to show their mastery of those goals. Once you know where your students are going, you can plan formative assessments that help you (and them!) know how they’re progressing.
The chart below from part one of our series may help you in your planning, but to move from teacher-driven formative assessment to student engaged formative assessment, you need to make plans about assessment more visible to students than they are in a typical classroom.
Using Formative Assessment to Drive Project Success
Type | When | Why | How |
|---|---|---|---|
Content  | Early |
|
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Skills  | Throughout |
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Competencies  | Throughout |
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Making Assessment Plans Visible
Most teachers do a great job letting their students know when an assessment is coming and what it might “cover.” In addition, teachers want to make sure students know what is most important, like Sample A below. However, great project planners layout for their students early in a project what the learning goals for any given project are and how they will be measured, like Sample B below.
As you review, think about the differences in the two charts, both of which could have been distributed to the students via a Project Overview as part of the launch of the Mini-Museums Project.
Sample A: Traditional Communication Regarding Assessments
Assessment | Due Date | Percent of Project Grade |
|---|---|---|
Annotated bibliography of topic sources | March 1 | 5% |
Notes from topic sources | March 5 | 5% |
Analysis of the structure of narrative nonfiction | March 6 | 10% |
Artifacts and development of model | March 10 | 20% |
Completed narrative nonfiction | March 15 | 30% |
Presentation of model | March 17 | 20% |
Collaboration | Will be assessed using a collaboration rubric as part of your reflection at the end of the project. | 10% |
Sample B: Learning Focused Communication Regarding Assessments
Learning Targets | Assessment Tools | What This Evidence Helps Us Know About Your Learning |
|---|---|---|
I can gather interesting facts and details about my topic.  |
| The bibliography and notes will show that you are on your way towards a great narrative non-fiction piece. If you are stuck at this stage, get help before 3/12. |
I can tell a story of change through a well-drafted narrative nonfiction piece about my topic.  |
| The activities related to the structure of your narrative non-fiction piece (the analysis, your planner, and your drafts) will show that you understand how to transition from notes to a more developed piece. If you get stuck during this stage, get help before 3/12. |
I can tell a story of change through a well-developed, collaborative model and presentation about my topic.  |
| Your work with your team to collect artifacts and your draft model show that your team is on its way toward developing a strong presentation. If you are grappling with any of these parts, get help before 3/15. |
I can collaborate effectively with peers.  |
| Collaboration will be critical in this project, as it is in life. I will be giving you feedback about collaboration as we enter the final phase of the project. If you need support, please reach out first to your teammates and then to me. |
Embed Learning Targets and Aligned Assessments in Your Project Calendar
Once you have communicated how assessments will be used in your project, students need to see how each day’s lesson is connected to the next and how the whole process is designed to support them in achieving success.
One way to do this is by building a project calendar that includes learning targets and provides time for them to reflect on their progress so that students know not only what work they will be doing but how that work contributes to the ultimate goal. They can also pause, early and often, to reflect on their participation in the process and the progress they’re making (or not!).
You can also use the project calendar to highlight for students when support is available for them. For example, a project calendar for the first week of the Mini-Museums Project could look like this:
Sample Project Calendar with Learning Targets
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Headline | Launch | Topic Fair | Begin annotated bibliography | Continue annotated bibliography | Annotated bibliography due |
Learning Target | I can notice and wonder about the “By Design Natural History Museum” | I can select a topic with an interesting past, present, and future. | I can gather interesting facts and details about my topic. | I can gather interesting facts and details about my topic. | I can gather interesting facts and details about my topic. |
Agenda and Support Sessions | Review Notice and Wonder Protocol Visit Museum | Review possible topics. Jot Notes Protocol 1:1 Check-Ins | Research Workshop: Whole Class Research Sprint 1:1 Check-Ins | Annotated BibliographyWorkshop: Select if You Need Support Research Sprint | Annotated Bibliography Workshop: Select if You Need Support Research Sprint Reflection on learning target (How is your bib? Are you ready for the next step?) |
Notice the learning targets in this calendar aren’t just restatements of big standards. The targets are standards-based for sure, but they aren’t the standards themselves with a “I can” added to the front.
Learning targets have more impact on students when they represent the work of the day (or, at most, a couple of days) so that they are concrete and achievable. If you find yourself naming the same large targets over and over again, try focusing on the smaller chunks of what students will do or learn on the way toward meeting a standard. This is a real purpose of targets -- to define the journey students are on.
This calendar highlights many of the things you are probably already doing to help your students -- 1:1 check ins, optional support workshops, and reflection on learning targets. Highlighting these things on the calendar, however, makes the plan for support and success, along with the expectations for student accountability obvious from the beginning.
Helping Students Deeply Understand Success Criteria
A third assessment strategy teachers can use to support students through assessment involves designing and using rubrics. The first thing you might try is co-constructing the criteria for the product along with students. The process involves analyzing samples of the product together, noting what makes them “at standard,” or not yet at standard, or exceeding the standard.
When students are engaged in building the rubric with the teacher, they know and understand the criteria better than if it is just reviewed with them. For more on co-constructing rubrics with students, read this blog post authored by our friend Eric White.
Another possibility is to align your rubrics with your learning targets, so that students see the relationship between their daily work and their ultimate success. This is as simple as including the learning targets on the rubric itself. For example, the top part of the rubric for the Mini-Museum Presentations could look something like this:
Sample Rubric with Learning Targets
Exceeds Expectations | Meets Expectations | Developing Towards Expectations | Keep Going! | |
Content I can gather interesting facts and details about my topic. | Your annotated bibliography and the corresponding notes reflect complex and interesting information (concepts, facts, details) from a variety of sophisticated sources. | Your annotated bibliography and the corresponding notes reflect interesting information (facts, details) from a variety of grade-appropriate sources. | Your annotated bibliography and the corresponding notes reflect information (facts, details) from a few simple sources. | You have not yet submitted an annotated bibliography and/or notes OR they are partially complete OR are only from one simple source. |
When you align your rubrics with your learning targets like this, you can use the rubric in pieces along the way. For example, the part of the rubric shown above could be used during and at the end of the first week to help students reflect on their project's success with the research phase. Teachers can reinforce with students that their success on the early parts of the rubric will support their success on the project overall.
Many teachers were students themselves in systems that saw assessment as a “gotcha,” a system designed to celebrate some students’ inherent ability to play the game of school while ensuring that other students remain confused or disempowered. Making assessment honest and revealing to students helps them all make the most of every opportunity.
What’s Next
Our third blog post in this series will help you help your students make the most of the feedback that they receive. If you have specific questions about assessment in projects, write and let us know!
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