​​​​Jason Wakeman​

As I've discussed, in my planning and preparation I rely heavily on culminating projects. They provide an excellent focal point to design units around while also working as rich summative assessment, providing evidence of real student understandings and masteries. Working the Boise Schools District I was able to craft our culminating projects so they closely matched the district performance tasks. By using the same rubric, produced by Smarter Balanced, used for all our district performance tasks, I and my students are able to connect what they accomplish in these projects directly to the standards we've been working on all quarter and the district assessment they're expected to take. 

 

More than evidence of student successes though, well designed culminating projects can be a great way include authentic tasks and student choice in the classroom. To the right you will find two examples each from our first quarter narrative argument unit, which I taught with my lead teacher, and our fourth quarter expository, argument analysis unit, which I designed and taught alone. Both tasks are good examples of mixed-genre tasks. Writers in the "real world" don't sit down to write expository, narrative, or argumentative pieces. The genres we teach in an ELA classroom are important elements of good writing; no successful author treats them as rigid requirements. Most modern journalism mixes elements of narrative, argumentative, and expository writing. Professional writing mixes expository and argumentative styles. Creating mix-genre projects is one way I provide the opportunity for students to practice writing that more closely the sort of writing that real writers produce.

 

This connection to real life creates a more meaningful experience since students can use real-world texts as models for their own writing, see the relevance of these skills to their later lives, engage in dialogues going on in their community--in short it becomes and authentic task. In the two fourth quarter papers on the right, for example, one student was able to write about the sexism she saw in day to day life at Boise High School and another was able to write about the history of yoga, building on his interest in eastern religions. They were able to connect what they were doing in the classroom to what was going on in their lives which would have been significantly more difficult with a narrower more rigid task.
 

In addition to being more authentic, these tasks also allow for a large degree of student choice. In addition to traditional essays, several students wrote poetry like the first issue paper example, a number gave verbal/visual presentations, and a few even did paintings paired with written artist statements. As you can see from the diversity of topics and formats, projects like these allow students to pursue their own interests and passions in the classroom. Allowing for this choice does wonders for the quality of their work, engagement in the classroom, and even classroom discipline generally.