Student-led Final Review

By Noah Geisel (@SenorG)

Others on this blog have been writing about student-produced/student-driven final exams. I'd like to add to the conversation the student-produced final review. This is the third semester that I have foregone handing out a big semester review before the final and instead left it up to my students to guide the review and I have not been disappointed. Just as there is a wide range of abilities in my classes, students produce an array of activities that go far beyond what I would have created, especially on the high and low ends of ability/readiness. I would be lying if I claimed that 100% of students subsequently took advantage of class review time to diligently study and prepare for the final exam but the vast majority do and, from my viewpoint, appear much more engaged in the whole process. I think that the student ownership creates buy-in and interest in what we are doing.

Note that while this is for high school Spanish students, most of the tools and resources here can be adapted to meet the needs of other subjects. This year, the most popular and beneficial study guides came in the form of the dice maker, fakeconvos.com, awards show and Quizlet. Below is an abbreviated version of how I introduce this to classes (I post it to them on Edmodo, and those who create digital reviews share them with classmates on the group page):

One of the ways that you can demonstrate your own understanding of learning is to be able to show it or teach it to another student. To that end, you will help others study for the final exam (and they will help you) by creating a review activity or game. We will dedicate block day and Friday to preparing for the final exam by using YOUR review activities.

You must be able to explain the game to your peers. If you are unsure about your idea, run it by me before your create it. You may do more than one activity. If you have a bigger project to attempt, I am open to allowing you to work in pairs but clear it with me first. Same goes for any doubts you have...if you have questions, ask!

Some ideas:
1. Write stories that classmates can read. By reading them, they are studying and preparing for the test.
http://www.artisancam.org.uk/flashapps/superactioncomicmaker/
www.makebeliefscomix.com

2. Record a listening practice. You can record a reading of one of our stories from class (They will be in your edmodo library) and have questions that classmates answer to demonstrate their listening comprehension.

3. Adjust one of these games to meet your needs:
http://its.leesummit.k12.mo.us/gameresources.htm

4. This site is a gold mine of activities you can use: awards certificate maker to do your own awards show for classmates, dice games, board game generator to invent your own board game, crossword puzzles and more. A lot of you used this one last semester:
http://www.toolsforeducators.com/

5. Create a story (usng target vocab!) in the form of a fake Facebook conversation:
http://fakeconvos.com/index.php

6. Here's another site with great resources, including a Jeopardy game maker:
http://www.superteachertools.com/index.php

7. Make your own online review game!
http://www.purposegames.com/

8. Make your own poster series (Hola meme addicts!). This site has some good resources:
http://bighugelabs.com/

9. Create a stack of digital flash cards. There are a ton of resources out there. Here's one:
http://www.brainflips.com/

10. This is a step up from a dice game: Sentence Generator
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/games/sentence/

This is but a partial list of what resources are out there. What would you add to the list? Have you had success (or struggle) with tasking students to take ownership of their own final review? Let us know in the comments!

Authentic Assessment: Let's Publish an eBook

by Shelly Blake-Plock

My Latin III students and I sat around this afternoon chatting about what to do with the last month of their high school Latin career. They decided they wanted to write and publish a book about their favorite Roman poet -- Catullus.

And they don't want to fake it.

By the end of a 45 minute session, they had chosen two editors-in-chief, worked out assignments ranging from writing and translating to public domain picture vetting. Two students took the lead figuring out how to publish an eBook that would be available on Amazon; by the end of class, they had figured out how to get an ISBN number and were talking about how to distribute any money from sales to charity.

They set up a Google Group for organizing, and a Tumblr and Twitter account to promote their work and to connect with folks interested in what they are doing. As I understand it, they want to set up a video streaming channel to talk to other Latin students; and they are looking at different ways of putting a book together.

Finally, they are going through all of the translation and critical analysis they've done all year and they are editing it all into something that can stand on its own.

This is authentic assessment. It's assessment directly integrated into the process of "the making of the learning". It's assessment that will likely live on in Amazon comment boards and archived chats long after I've done the work of giving grades. And it makes something as potentially arcane as ancient poetry into something with which the students can work and make new things.

They'd love it if you followed their progress at @CatullusDivided and soon on the YouTube channel where they will be documenting their experience.