What is common across all kinds of assessments? For what purposes might tests be better suited as an assessment tool? When would you choose to use these different kinds of assessments and why?

Command Performance: Creating Accountability That Works | Edutopia

While schools wait for innovation in accountability testing, some are taking matters into their own hands, creating performance assessments that guide and strengthen teaching and learning. Typically, these assessments come in the form of portfolios and presentations — tasks that bear something in common with the kind of work students may ultimately do in college or in a job.

Timelines 2.0: A Fun, Easy, and Free Classroom Tool | Edutopia

Timelines are one of the most useful and effective tools I’ve found that can fit in nicely with any classroom’s content area and grade level. They are fantastic vehicles for doing research, being creative, and sharing and publishing information. In addition, they are easy to use for simple classroom projects such as tracking birthdays, major significant events, and holidays. Furthermore, they offer a rich opportunity to explore the goings-on behind significant events, allowing students to uncover what led up to wars, significant scientific breakthroughs, changes in culture, or shifts in art styles and music. The possibilities are endless.

A fantastic new timeline tool I’ve been playing with is xtimeline. This free Web-based tool makes it simple to create timelines, and it has built-in capabilities that allow you to conduct research, embed photos and videos, do group editing, and engage in social collaboration. Imagine combining the power of a traditional timeline tool with the history and edit features of a wiki while making it a social, globally published, living online document. It doesn’t get much simpler, or more effective, than this.

So, this message applies to you if you plan to put any or all of your work online, or if you want to use the data you find to present to others as a part of a job interview or professional conference presentation/journal article. If you only plan to share it within our classroom, then you DO NOT have to use these forms for your interviews. Even if you are not sharing your work beyond ENG 315, you should still discuss your project with your teacher and the people that you are interviewing, as that is ethical practice for teacher researchers.

I have posted the consent forms on our wiki, on the syllabus page (http://eng315.wikispaces.com/Syllabus), under the inquiry project heading in the following paragraph:

If you are interviewing teachers or students, please describe your research process to them. If you plan on sharing your findings beyond ENG 315 (online, in other classes, in future presentations), you must get informed consent. For teachers, please have them fill out the teacher consent form. For students, please have them take a parent consent form home to be completed by their parents. Once that form is complete, review the child assent form with the student and complete it with him/her. If you have questions about this process, please contact Troy right away.

Good luck with your continued research. I am very excited to see your work develop this semester and I am looking forward to seeing your multigenre projects and portfolios in the coming weeks.