Feedback and Assessment

For my final project, I'm creating a Ning to use with my English 9 To Kill a Mockingbird unit. They read the book during spring semester, so it will be nice to go into the unit this year with the Ning! The basic components of the unit are reading and discussing the novel, completing optional study guides, taking quizzes every 10 chapters or so, and writing a literary analysis at the end. Students always struggle with understanding the historical context, both of the time the novel was written (1960), and when the story takes place (1930s). I'm shaping the Ning so that it's a place to collect sources to help everyone understand the novel, add to the discussion forum topics, and hold online chats while reading the novel and writing the literary analysis.

My assessment of the Ning "assignment" would be pretty straightforward, and I would discuss the criteria with my class at the beginning of the unit. Yes, I know the research tells us to create the rubric with the class, but I'm just not convinced that my students would know what would be appropriate to assess, since I'm sure this is their first experience using a Ning. Here's a draft of what I'd present to them:

To Kill a Mockingbird Ning assessment

1. Response: Student responds X number of times to discussion forum, by set due date. Response is thoughtful, original, and/or responds to others in a constructive manner.
2. Contribution: Student contributes to Ning by adding hyperlinks, forum questions, text, and/or other sources that promotes further understanding of the novel.
3. Accuracy: Student is accurate in his/her responses and contributions in terms of proper citation of sources and writing conventions (spelling, grammar, capitalization, punctuation).

As far as feedback goes, I like the idea of commenting on their responses/contributions daily, so that they have a sense of how well they're understanding the novel and using the Ning. When we get to the literary analysis drafting point of the unit, I'll have them email their drafts to me so that I can add comments in Word and send it back to them. I've used this technology this semester with my older students, and they love it! They can read the typing so much better than my handwriting, and the highlighting function allows them to see exactly what I'm talking about in the accompanying comment. If you don't already do this, I highly recommend it!