Tuesday, February 24, 2009
My Favorite Alternative Assessment
The first thing that came to mind when I was reading about performance assessments was a learning activity that I had to complete my sophomore year of high school in an Advanced Algebra class. I had to collect information about different ways to finance college. We had to compare interest rates of different types of loans and determine our eligibility for those loans. We also had to look into different repayment options. We had to apply knowledge from that math class as well as from other subjects to complete our final task. It definitely connected "schoolhouse" learning and real-world activities. I had to contact different banks and the financial offices of different colleges. My teacher also shared the scoring rubric that he used to focus our efforts.
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I really like the assignment that your teacher gave you because it connected the content you learned in your Algebra class with a real-world application. I feel this type of assignment fits more easily and appropriate considering the content area. Also, there was a built in accountability component because you knew in the future that you were going to have to apply to colleges and loans, so you were interested in completing the assignment to the best of your ability. The rubric that your teacher provided is also key to keeping you focused. I bet it was helpful, because I know I was overwhelmed with applying to colleges and especially for loans.
ReplyDeleteI could see how solving linear equations would come into play here. That's excellent.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you keep writing "I had to..." Wouldn't you like your students to think in terms of "I got to..."?