2.    Understanding how assessment can be embedded into PBL activities

3.    Understanding what a rubric is and why it can help us assess PBL

4.    Develop a finalised and rigorous PBL implementation Learning Design

I mostly use summative assessment since in my country there is a norm that regulates how many grades per subject we are to assess a student per term (our school year is divided into two terms). So, I grade entry tests,  end-of-unit  tests, term tests, etc.

 I often collaborate witn my colleagues, especially when it comes to set the criteria for the entry tests, to make sure we keep the same high level of standard in Art History teaching. 

Ask clarifying questions to be sure you understand the idea or matter on the table. Avoid clarifying questions that are thinly disguised criticism. 

Express what you like about the idea or matter at hand in specific terms. Do not offer perfunctory “good, but,” and hurry on to the negatives. 

State your puzzles and concerns. Avoid absolutes: “What’s wrong is . . .” Use qualified terms: “I wonder if . . .” “It seems to me . . .” Avoid criticizing personal character or ability and focus on ideas, products, or particular aspects. 

Make suggestions about how to improve things.  This step is sometimes blended with step 3: people state concerns and then offer suggestions for addressing them.  

There is no set time limit for this process: It can be done in a few minutes or over the course of an hour.  

In short, students can perform an assignment according to the grade that they wish to earn. Rubrics lessen grade frustrations and students will appreciate the transparency.  

We hope that the feedback you received so far was helpful and that you have used it to improve your driving question and activities on your design.

In this final week we ask you to embed numerous assessment activities throughout your design. The activities should be short and immediate such as those explored in section 4.2 but some also more comprehensive and in the form of peer assessment. They can be formative or summative and would ideally make reference to a rubric. 

As a final step, make sure to finalise your design with further activities (TLAs) so that it becomes a rounded and rigorous design that follows as much as possible the features of an effective PBL as identified in the Project Design Rubric by the Buck Institute of Education. The criteria used for the driving question and TLAs in the previous P2P activities were based on this rubric. Make sure that your final Design will help you to implement PBL in your classroom next school year but at the same time is clear enough for an outsider to understand what you are planning to do. 

When you have finalised your Design, make sure to submit it in the text box below, together with a link to your Learning Diary, your name and contact details so that your reviewer can contact you in case they have issues in accessing your work. The deadline to submit your final Learning Design is Wednesday 15th November, 23:59h CET. 

As usual, please also provide feedback to 2 of your peers on their final Learning Designs by Wednesday 22nd November, 23:59h CET. Use the Buck Institute Project Design Rubric to guide your feedback. You can go through each of the rubric categories and identify to what extent the design corresponds to this but please also address aspects not specifically mentioned by the rubric such as collaboration and assessment. Please make sure that you include fair, encouraging and helpful feedback that allows the author of the design to improve their design. Of course also make sure that you take into account the context of where the design will be implemented. For an example of the type of feedback that you should provide see here. 

Now I am going to organize at school a peer assessment activity for my students. I hope that this will be successful and useful for the students. I think that part of the success of this activity might come from my providing them with a checklist of things to pay attention to, so that their feedback can be as detailed as possible.
Besides, I think that I will use the Ladder of Feedback as a further tool to perfect this kind of activities in my classroom.