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Assessment: How Do You Know If You've Got It Right?

Click on the image above for a printable version of my checklist.

If I had to sum it all up, I'd do it in three words: surface, deep, transfer.  If the teacher can structure projects around these three phases of learning, and if students understand what it means to be in each phase, then everyone is on the right track.   The checklist on the left is meant to serve as a simple guide for building projects that focus on Common Core standards and ensure surface, deep, and transfer learning.  I developed the checklist after learning from Michael McDowell, who formulated his research from John Hattie, who based his research on 1200 meta-analyses.  I might me a pedagogical half-pint, but I'm standing on the shoulders of giants!

Categorizing teaching methods into surface, deep, and transfer has helped clarify how I need to shape project based learning to teach the standards and 21st Century skills.

"(Learning is) the process
of developing sufficient surface knowledge
to then move on to deeper understanding
such that one can appropriately transfer
this learning to new tasks and situations." 
-John Hattie, Visible Learning Plus

Students reading "Oh Captain, My Captain"

In Other Words...

PBL builds transfer knowledge, but only if surface knowledge and deep understanding are in place.

LESSONS

HOW-TOs

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