So one of the biggest problems with using skills based assessment, or standards based assessment, or any of the other names that can be given to the process that Dan Meyer has been educating us on is that Alg 2 is just way to darn big.
I mean, really. Rational functions? Composition of functions? If we break these down in to the smaller, little skills that are part of either of these two concepts, then we will never actually assess the larger skill that is essential.
This is a problem. H. already discovered this, and she was very willing to say so. A couple of other people have said the same thing in the earlier comments on my blog. Given the previous experiences, should I scrap my idea of using this for Alg 3-4 or should I forge ahead and figure out a way to do it?
I vote for forging ahead.
I already posted a Concept checklist for Alg 3-4. It is still a rough draft, and I will be editing it and refining it. ESPECIALLY given my most recent idea.
I was introduced to “I Can” statements a couple of times this year, both in different contexts. What I thought of doing is making the learners do “I Can” statements and then using those “I Can’s” to create assessments based on my Concept Checklists.
Yes, the learners would have to keep track of two different things. They will have to keep up on what they Can and Can’t do AND keep up with how they are doing on their Concept Assessments. The Concept Assessments need to be linked to the “I Cans” very carefully and justified very well. If they are not justified both directions, then the reason for doing all of this work goes out the window. The learners will see it as busy work and throw away the paper on their way out the door.