At the student led conferences there were a few people who asked about how the students are being assessed. To clarify, the assessment is ongoing and occurs every class in an informal and formative way. What this means is that it is generally done through observation and is more focused on improving the students learning rather than evaluating it. As the students hand in their designs I take the time to go through them thoroughly and provide feedback to them initially, and then in HomeLogic. When the students are done a project, or at the end of the term, whichever comes first, I sit down and “interview” the students to inquire further about the creating, appraising, and communicating of their learning. I then record this information in HomeLogic.
At the end of the term I will use all of the data collected to discuss the students progress and learning throughout the term. We will decide on an evaluation together and it is this that will be recorded on the report card. The reason this is being down is that there is a large variety of skill, knowledge, and ability in the students. Furthermore, there are close to 130 projects in the 9 classes and since they are all unique they cannot be compared to specific standard.
All of this has been discussed with the students so that they are aware. If they did not agree with this process then they were given the opportunity to record the steps they are taking in creating their project as well as their appraisal of the process and the final product, followed up with an explanation of the tools they used when working on their project.
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.
Cheers,
Jeremy Lang
