Evaluation Criteria The checklist below as given to students when I introduced the final project, creating a poetry book

of all of the poems the students created over the entire six week poetry unit as well as a glossary of terms that they learned. I created an example poetry book to show students what I was expecting and then walked them through the checklist so they were aware of what was expected of them. We talked about how each time they completed an item on the checklist, they should check it off and move on to the next item. Below is the checklist the students were given.

My Poetry Book Checklist I included in my poetry book:

Name: ________________________

1-2 cinquain poems 1-2 haiku poems 1-2 acrostic poems 1-2 concrete poems My alliteration My home poem

I used the poetry-editing checklist with a partner and made sure I got the ok from a teacher before I wrote my final draft.

I wrote neatly in my best handwriting. I titled all my poems. I created a table of contents. It has my poem names and what page you can find them on. I neatly numbered my pages. I carefully illustrated in color, each of my poems. I created colorful borders so there is no empty white space on my page. I made a cover page. I nearly wrote my title and my name and added lots of color. I have a glossary with at least 7 terms correctly defined. They are in alphabetical order.

For my final formal assessment, I used a rubric that I created that coincided with the above checklist. If the students completed all of the requirements on the checklist, then they would get full credit (4 points) in each

rubric category. Below is a blank rubric. Graded rubrics are included with the student work samples for students 1,2, and 3 as well as at the end of Task 3 Part C Assessment Commentary.

My Poetry Book Rubric 1 I am missing most of the poems and they are not correctly formatted. I am missing my alliteration. None of my poems have titles.

Name:______________________________ 3 4 I titled and included: 1 cinquain poems 1 haiku poems 1 acrostic poems 1 concrete poems My alliteration My home poem I titled and included: 1-2 cinquain poems 1-2 haiku poems 1-2 acrostic poems 1-2 concrete poems My alliteration My home poem

I only included 3 poems. I am missing my alliteration. Only some of my poems have titles.

I did not edit my poems.

I have a lot of mistakes.

I used the poetry-editing checklist with a partner.

I used the poetry-editing checklist with a partner and got the ok from a teacher. I created a table of contents. It is very neat and sets the tone for the rest of my book. I neatly numbered my pages. I wrote neatly in my best handwriting.

I did not create a table of contents.

My table of contents is incomplete or incorrectly numbered. I forgot to number some of my pages. Most of my poems are hard to read because I did not write neatly. My illustrations lack color and are messy.

I created a table of contents.

I forgot to number my pages. All of my poems are hard to read. I did not write neatly. I did not illustrate my poems or illustrated them very sloppily. I left a lot of empty white space on my pages. I forgot the cover page. I did not put my name on my poetry book. I did not make a glossary or all my terms or defined incorrectly.

I numbered my pages. I wrote neatly.

I illustrated each of my poems in color.

I carefully illustrated in color each of my poems.

I have some empty white space on my pages. My cover page has messy writing and no color. My glossary is not in alphabetical order and I did not define the terms correctly.

I tried to fill most of the white space. My cover page is neatly written with my name on it. My glossary is in alphabetical order and most of my terms are defined correctly.

I created colorful borders so there is no empty white space on my page. I made a cover page. I neatly wrote my title and name and added lots of color. I have a glossary with at least 7 terms correctly defined and in alphabetical order.

In reflecting upon my lessons and how I choose to informally and formally evaluate my students, I think that next time I would create a checklist and a rubric for the Home poem by itself as well. While the above rubric clearly and effectively assesses how well the students are able to complete the final poetry book project, it

does not assess their understanding of metaphors and their writing of the Home poem. However, at the time that I planned these lessons, this was intentional. I wanted the students to feel free to write poems that expressed themselves and did not want to worry them with how they were being assessed. I was more interested in the imagery they were able to create for their reader, the emotions and the expression of self that they were able to convey. However, I do think that to be fair, I should have included a rubric for the Home poem so that students had a better idea of what was expected of them and how to achieve it. It would be much simpler than the above rubric and would have to allow for student self expression as well as making sure they used at least 5 metaphors I would probably add that they could use similes as well but if they did they needed to have 5 metaphors and then as many similes as they wanted to add to complete their poem. As it was I did not have a way to grade them if they used metaphors and similes because I had not been explicit enough in my instruction and guidelines. So, I just made sure that I questioned each student and made sure that they could tell me if they were using similes or metaphors in their poem. If they had all similes, I asked them to change at least one of them to a metaphor so that I knew they knew how to write one. While some students, such as Student 1 benefited from the freedom, I think other students may have needed more specific guidelines, which I was not aware of until after the fact. However, I will know now how to better prepare for the next time I teach a poetry unit. Overall though, I felt the unit and this lesson segment were very successful. The students were able to incorporate their academic knowledge of poetry and writing with their personal and cultural heritages and it ended up being a mode of self-expressions. At the end, when all the books were finished, the students parents were invited into the classroom to read the childrens poetry books and give them complements. We will be attaching the complements and the final rubric inside each childs poetry book for when it gets sent home a report card pick up.