Focus on a specific assessment task in your school. Describe the assessment and discuss its effectiveness.
Last term, one of the assessment put in place was the creation of a story expressed through comics and a character profile write-up. Students formed groups of four or five and worked on their project for two lessons (2 weeks). My ct came up with a specific rubric to mark the comics and character profile. The assessment made up 50% of their CA.
Telling a story through comics
This part of the assessment tested students' understanding of plot; Introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. Students had to create an original story and tell that story through comics (pixton.com). I think the students found the comic-making process an interesting one. Most of the comics did actually adhere to the basic elements of plot, showing a sense of understanding of the previous lesson. This assessment also allowed students to express their creativity and which was evident in most of the stories. Interestingly, most stories also conveyed values like punctuality or loyalty. Perhaps, a disadvantage of this assessment is that some students chose to only do their comics at the last lesson and they did not produce good stories. Strict monitoring of students' projects work is essential even though it can be cumbersome with six classes.
Character profile
Students had to choose a character from a movie, storybook or TV drama. They had to do a characterization of the character (two characteristics with evidence) and explain why they like or dislike the character. They also had to create a character profile picture of the character in a situation that portrays who the character is. For example, a group who did a character profile of Thor portrayed Thor saving a group of people from Loki. This then coincided with their characterization of Thor that describes him to be a brave person. I thought that this was an effective form of assessment in testing students' understanding of characterization. Most of the students were able to describe the characters they have chosen and it familiarizes the notion of characterization as well. They do not see characterization as a distant, useless understanding. Perhaps, a downside of this activity was that students were not able to competently give good evidence and that some of the descriptions of the characters were rather surface.
Overall, I found this assessment interesting and effective for the secondary one level. Most students could apply their understanding of plot and characters in their comic and character profile. It was also very visual and the students at my school learn better through visual aids. It was heartening to read comics that showed not only creativity but heart.
About 4 more weeks! We're almost there!! :D
Yay, Alfie... Practicum is almost done and then real teaching life begins :) Thanks for sharing the assessments - wrt to your first assessment, isn't it interesting that your students included a value? If you think about storytelling, very often there is a point to the story, sometimes in the form of a value, other times, in the form of what we call theme. So they did get something about storying out of the assessment?
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