To fully observe all aspects of student learning during this unit, numerous opportunities for formative and summative assessment exist to effectively monitor their progress and achievement. Throughout the unit, students are provided with many choices as to how they can best represent their learning. Students will engage in mini lessons which tie in larger curricular outcomes, while also learning new ways of presenting their knowledge.

 

Formative Assessment (Assessment for and as learning)

 

Within each week of our unit plan are several ways of conducting formative assessment to assess student progress and adjust lessons to best promote their success. Throughout each week students will use a journal to complete self reflections, document drawings, record ecological observations on field trips, and to practice drawing. Students will be informally observed as they engage in learning activities, class discussions, and group work with their peers. Weekly mini projects and assignments correspond to the essential questions of each week, allowing the teacher to evaluate student understanding in all topics and in all mediums. The opportunity for continuing self assessment allows students to reflect on their progress, identifying ares of strength and growth, developing metacognition. Students will be given the opportunity to collaborate with their teachers on creating the rubric for their final project.

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Summative Assessment (Assessment of Learning)

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The final deliverables of the unit are twofold: (1) a walking tour in a medium of the student’s choice (podcast, video/written/photo essay, video, brochure, booklet, etc.); (2) an individual art project to be displayed at the final public exhibition. These deliverables will allow the teacher to assess to what degree students were able to absorb the content and skills taught throughout the unit, and to integrate the various disciplines into a final product. Both assignments will be a culmination of what students have learned over the eight week unit, and will be presented at the end of year celebration held at the local park of interest for the whole community to enjoy.  

 

Art focused task

The expectation for this final assignment will be for students to clearly demonstrate their visual rendering skills and those developed from scientific observations of the natural world around them.  Students will be given a choice as to how they want to visually represent their learning, a choice provided from the multiple styles and mediums that they will be exposed to over the eight weeks.  Students will be tasked to represent their chosen community park, natural forms or flora and fauna in all four seasons.  Attached is a quick example of what one of these pieces might look like, and will be displayed at the end of unit celebration held in one of the community parks.  Students will focus on how their community environment or chosen natural form changes over the four seasons.  The rubric for this task, along with the one for the final project, will be created as a group by students and their teacher, to provide students the opportunity to fully guide their final project.

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Walking tour of the park

The creation of a walking tour of the park is an opportunity for students to work in groups of two or three to develop a guided walk through the community park or green space of focus. Students will choose which format they believe will best represent their knowledge, and separate themselves into roles that are best suited to them in completing the task. The media provided to the public will point out ways the park is used, history of the park, the science of local nature, Indigenous significance, and conservation advice. To reach all areas of the curricular content, students will be required to touch on aspects of their chosen park such as the plants and animals found there, how the park is regarded socially in the community, the process of city planning that went into the design, and the Indigenous history of the space before the park. Students will work with their teacher as a class to develop the rubric, in order to to fully involve our students in all of the learning processes. The teacher will be responsible for making sure all curriculum content outcomes are present in the rubric.

 

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Prototypes