DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

I used the RI Skills Commission Response to Informational Text entitled “Order Out of Chaos” to assess students after our part of the unit on world religions that was on the three Chinese philosophies: Confucianism, Legalism and Daoism.  Before we began the task we spent a class period reviewing the criteria for success on the task as outlined on the rubric, including using student models. Students in both classes demonstrated a very high level of knowledge and comprehension of the material we learned about these three philosophies which showed that my teaching techniques had improved since one of my classes did poor on my first test on Rome (that also had an essay.) Most students were also able to compare the philosophies ideas on good government and use the documents to support their claims about the philosophies ideas of good government. However almost no students, the only exception being the one shown in the second work sample below (who had some factual inaccuracies about legalism), did not evaluate. While I wanted to show students they weren’t meeting the requirements of the task for proficiency as decided by myself and by calibrations, I did want to recognize their ability to narrate each philosophies ideals of government, so I awarded two separate grades. The first was a rubric grade so they knew where they were on the goal of improving their skills in regards to the rubric. The second was a number grade for the class in which they were only marked down from an A for not using the documents, explaining the quotes they selected, or not using specific enough (or accurate enough) knowledge from class—all skills they should have mastered by now—and not marking them down for not evaluating at this point in their development. I explained this clearly to the students and discussed with them how the rubrics are designed for things they have to be able to do by the time they graduate and how they still have three years and they certainly can (and will) continue to improve. Essentially, I wanted to use this as a summative assessment on their knowledge of these philosophies but a formative assessment in their evaluation skills, which I would go on to teach if I had more time.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.