Pacing and Clarity

Students need to have chunked assignments with clear guidelines and expectations. Rubrics should be concise.  Scaffolded instruction should be given to students through prompts and cues, and feedback, which is timely and specific, should be embedded along with formative assessments as students progress through projects. 

Jim Knight (2013) in his book High Impact Instruction, suggests the following checklist when designing authentic projects (whether papers or larger scale research projects):

  • Identify the purpose of the assignment: the purpose is best presented as a question, and students should be given some voice in what they are doing. Likewise the project should be central to the curriculum and tasks should be challenging.
  • Mediate relationships with experts and mentors: students should be given opportunity to learn from experts and collaborate with mentors on the topics of study to promote engagement and learning.
  • Identify and divide tasks: How will the students tackle learning, how will they show their learning? Students need help with pacing and frequent teacher support and check ins to ensure they are progressing in learning and tackling struggles confidently. pacing.jpeg
  • Establish criteria for success: Work is judged by "real world" criteria and high-quality work. Students should see modeled work of successful projects and have clear rubrics for reference. Additionally, students should be taught how to evaluate sources for credibility and be responsible for showing why their sources are worthy of inclusion. It is important to note here, as well,  that providing materials for students to succeed is key to a growth mind-set. Students often cannot afford extra materials for projects, so instructors need to have supplies and ideas on the ready to assist students with project needs. Don't let lack of supplies be the a reason for failure.
  • Identify a real audience: part of relevant teaching is a real audience, whether it is community involvement or feedback from a guest speaker. Even if this step occurs before final evaluation, the impact of an outside voice is immeasurable.
  • Teach the skills and knowledge students need to complete a project: with all of these steps in place, the instructor can now intentionally plan lessons to impart needed skills and knowledge to students, with formative assessments and imbedded feedback scaffolded into lessons.