Assessing for Understanding (Human Ancestry): A Follow-up

As explained earlier, I am continuing to explore ways of assessing student understanding, offering multiple points of entry, while requiring a high level of synthesis and detail.

We perused a number of candidate images about which to write, and the class chose, with my consent, photo 1 above.  All felt that the image was central to much of what we had discussed, and readily connected.  Students had an evening to organize and review their notes in advance, then were provided a hour of class time to begin responding (open note), and the following evening to complete their response. 

We repeated the process the next day, with two clusters of images that I had preselected.  I felt it necessary to compile these two groupings to ensure that central themes -- structure/function, intelligence/tool-making -- were covered.  Again, students were shown the images in advance, asked to select one of the two clusters to respond to, provided an evening to prepare, a period to draft, and an evening to complete all final work.

Having received all work on Friday, I quickly reviewed each paper, looking for obvious omissions,  then immediately returned those, with personal feedback, to be rewritten over the weekend.  Only 6 of 50 essays were returned for this reason -- more a result of laziness and hurried work than a lack of understanding.  To be valid, the writing must accurately reflect what the kids really understand.  In a couple of cases, students failed to cite multiple specific examples, to use my jargon.  This is now a requirement, being an overarching understanding goal for the year, now that we've entered the second half.

To the rest of the class, I had these general three comments:  

1.  Your writing must make the connection between the images and your details clear;  explain the connection, so I can easily follow your thinking;  

2.  Whenever you express an opinion, back it up with multiple specific examples;  

3.  Ask yourself:  Does my writing accurately capture all that I know?  If not, add additional detail;  avoid rushing.  

Students were then asked to conference with a peer and help them decide if they had actually achieved these three aims.  If so, I gladly accepted their work.  If they felt something was lacking, or they knew more than they expressed, then they had the weekend to make any final adjustments.  

I'll be scanning all final papers for you to peruse, upcoming.

The unit closed with an open conversation, which I videotaped, focusing on three questions:

1. If you were a teacher, would you check for understanding in the way we did, or might you give a more traditional test?  Why?  Explain.  

2.  Humans are animals?  We are not particularly special?  Do you agree?  Explain.

3.  How do these ideas mesh with or conflict with your personal beliefs?  Explain.

Again, I will upload our conversation next week.

In the end, this was an interesting exercise.  The unit culminated with a comprehensive review, requiring students to connect a set of images to the content.  The exercise was designed as a check of understanding, and an exercise in writing and thinking.