There are three categories of assignments, and each group has five different activities. If a student wants an A for a grade, the teacher proposes he or she chooses five activities, plus the written test at the end. If a student wants a B, then he or she chooses four activities, plus the written test. If the student wants a C, he or she only chooses three, plus the test, and so on for a D or F. The assignments of choice consist of things like traditional written reports, drawing political cartoons, writing poetry about the subject, a review of a movie, an editorial defending or condemning the rebellion of the British colonies, a poster discouraging or encouraging participation in the war, constructing a timeline, writing a play about the war, a debate with another student, writing a rap, an oral report, or presenting a newscast.
There are tons of more ideas to include with today's advances. A student can even look at primary sources to include in a digital presentation from The National Archive's site. An expert in the community, like a history professor at a university, can be interviewed on film to go with the presentation. This way, the students are going through the learning process their own way, making it more personal and using creative processes, instead of a mere lecture from the teacher. And, they choose how to present what they have learned. Afterward, it can all be uploaded to a digital portfolio. I have learned so much from this process within my studies.
I also like how Smith (1995) included the much dreaded, but much expected written test in the example. If a student seeks out the information himself, he will be more apt to answer multiple choice questions and true/false statements about the objective correctly, because his way of learning has taken place. The administration, whether it be the principal or the top of the chain in the central office, can briefly scan the results, and it appeases the whole element of let's practice how to take a standardized test, so it actually makes everyone happy.
Using an interview method for seeing how students feel about the process and during the process is important, too. There are lots of feelings that go with the inquiry, or research, process. Cathy Kulthau (1988-2001) further studied that at first, students have anxiety and uncertainty when choosing their topic. Then optimism when they have chosen it, followed by confusion, frustration and doubt, because they have difficulties searching for the information, especially when they know little about the topic at hand. Impatience is also present, because they have to sift through all the information to narrow it down to what they need. Clarity and interest come next because of their focus after the search, and then confidence and satisfaction after the presentation was completed. There are also differences between girls and boys, but I will not delve into that. These moods are important to recognize within the search process, because it lets the teacher and school librarian know when to give guidance, intervene, or to loosen the reigns. It is a lot to be studied and experienced. I have only studied it, but with my future students, I will surely apply the model. What I also look forward to is telling the students how they might feel, because it might lessen the frustration and burden in general.
In the past, I have just dealt out projects but have not gotten to the real root of the students performance, their motivation. I have not allowed them to choose, which is more motivation than me thinking about an activity or project that they might like. These are great assessment questions for framing future assignments.
Looking at the lengthy questions, I ask myself about time management with each individual student, one-on-one, but an e-survey could be set up for them so the students could complete them all at once in the computer lab or even on a mobile device.