STEP FIVE - WRITING THE ASSESSMENT FOR THE CULMINATING TASK
1 to 2 meetings
Introduction Before teaching the unit, you will need to decide, as a team, how you are going to evaluate and assess student work.  For the class activities, you will undoubtedly use a combination of traditional methods  (quizzes, short essays, homework, class discussion) and the so-called “authentic assessment” methods that probe student thinking in different ways  (double entry journals, journaling, graphic organizers, checklists).  You may have authentic assessment resource books at your school.  Many teachers who already know how to write rubrics find this rubric writing website useful: http://www.teach-nology.com/cgi-bin/rubric.cgi Team members should keep examples of assessments used during the unit for reference next year and should list them in the Activities/Assessments column of the Unit Plan Chart.
Process
Step One
Step Two
Step Three
Step Four
Step Five Some teams had students keep a portfolio of all of the work done for the unit in all classes.  The portfolio had a section (or even a paper clip) and a checklist for each content area.  The checklist simply listed all work that had been done with a place for marking whether or not the student had completed the work and put it in her portfolio.  At the completion of the unit, students could organize and write about the contents of their portfolio and the learning experience they have had.
Step Six
Step Seven
Step Eight
As a team, you should carefully consider how you will assess the culminating task, which is the largest, richest piece of work students will do for the unit.  The team should develop its own authentic assessment tool for the culminating task.

As a team, decide how to evaluate student performance on the culminating task.  Here ares questions to consider:
  • Will the grade for the whole culminating task fall in one class?
  • Will students receive a grade in each class for content area contributions to the culminating task?
  • Would a participation grade be sufficient?
  • Should students be asked to reflect on the whole experience, including the culminating task, in an essay?
  • Should there be a group work grade?
  • What scoring tool will we use as we evaluate student work?
For a task as rich as this, the best scoring tool is a rubric, with the weighted checklist a close second.  Students be able to see the rubric or the weighted checklist for the culminating task before they begin the work so that they know what is expected and so they have an indication of the quality expected.  A generic rubric or checklist will not do, because your culminating task is unique.  The team will need to develop this scoring tool for the culminating task.
You may find these resources helpful:
To write a rubric for the culminating task for your unit:
1.  Look at the five point and four point blank rubrics, and a few examples, and decide as a team how many scoring columns to have.  Some teachers like five columns, with each column representing a grade.  Use single digit numbers to head these columns and convert student grades to your grading scale after scoring.  If you try to make a rubric worth 100 points, it is harder to use as a grading tool because you think of each column as a range and assigning points becomes very subjective.
2.  Have the blank rubric chart you have chosen and two or three sample rubrics in front of you.  As a team, decide what criteria you will evaluate.  List these criteria in the left-hand column.  Do not add additional pages to the rubric, but stick with six or seven criteria at the most.  The larger the rubric, the more confusing it is for the students to grasp and the harder it is to evaluate student work.
3.  Divide the team into pairs and assign each pair half of the rows on the rubric chart.  (It is handy to have extra blanks so each pair has its own chart.)  In each cell of the chart, be as succinct and as specific as you can be.  Try to avoid basing all of the lower point cells on the language of the highest point cell.  For example, for a criterion Attention to detail, do not fill in the cells Excellent attention to detail, good attention to detail, fair attention to detail, poor attention to detail, and no attention to detail.  Give the students more detail about expectations for different levels of quality.  If the space seems to constrained, think about making the final rubric on 11 X 14 paper.  Make the cells larger, but do not increase the number of cells.  Writing rubrics is hard at first, but gets easier quickly.
4.  Regroup to share, discuss, fine tune.  One thing to consider is whether or not students will understand the language you have used.  Also, do you have prompts on the rubric for other information, like student name, and for conversion to your grading scale and a grade?
5.  In the ideal world, you would hand this rough draft to a typist.  If this does not work in your school, someone on the team will have to take responsibility for typing the rubric.  It should be typed so there is no question of readability for the students, who will look at it as they do the work.
To write a weighted checklist for the culminating task:
1.  Have in front of you a copy of the Blank weighted checklist  mentioned above and the Rivers weighted checklist.  The checklists in Creative Checklists can also give ideas.
2.  As a team, decide on several broad criteria you plan to evaluate for the culminating task.  For example, the categories could be Content, Technology, Communication, Creativity, and Group Work.  Then, figure out a few subpoints for each.  For example, under Communication, the subpoints might be Grammar, Clarity of writing, and Organization.  Under Technology, the subpoints might be Uses all equipment available, Combines technologies, Uses features of equipment,  Technology supports content.   The criteria and subpoints will depend upon the culminating task you have developed and the learning you want to emphasize.  Fill out the blank chart.
3.  Determine the column headings for the point scale.
4.  Add prompts for other information you need, such as student name, and a way to convert the score to your grading scale.
5.  If you are not typing as you go on this website, turn the rough draft in to be typed.  (Right.  This would be ideal!)  Or promise chocolate to the team member who volunteers to type it.  It should be typed because students will see it as they begin the work and there should be no question of readability.
This is the end of Step Five.
Okay, one more step and you will be ready to teach the unit.  The last step is getting the student activities finalized.  Look here for details of the NEXT  MEETING.
This Reflection will help you sound as confident as you feel about being educators.
If you want to use a participation or group work rubric, you may not have to go through the process of writing your own.  There are generic rubrics available, such as that used for the War Experiences unit.