I designed this assessment piece during my internship to fit into our unit on the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This three part assignment was one that covered two outcomes; Outcome: CR 20.2, as well as Outcome: CC 20.1. Because of the combination of comprehend and respond as well as compose and create, students were able to fully explore their ideas in different mediums and situations and work towards the end goal in a new way. While reading the novel, students were continually writing down significant quotes in their Writer’s Notebooks in order to fully grasp the important parts of the novel. This was expanded upon when students would share their quotes with one another and discuss why they found them to be significant. This correlates to the competency of developing collaboration, and this collaboration was expanded upon when students were asked to talk to different individuals in their own lives to receive important life advice. This also enhanced their communication skills as students had to talk to multiple individuals for the second part of the assignment, and then interview one of the individuals in depth for the third part of the assignment. Through the process of creating their Life’s Little Instructions Book they had to be creative and expand upon their digital technologies in order to research and incorporate pearls of wisdom from other resources. The main reason for having this three-part assignment was to really get students thinking about the significance certain excerpts from the novel and how they relate to their lives today. By continuing with the assignment through different assessments (analysis, instruction book and story-telling), students become critical thinkers within the context of their own minds while also given the opportunity to really expand on an idea. Each assessment piece in this assignment combines student inquiry, collaboration and critical thinking which is an important aspect of 21st Century teaching. Overall the students really enjoyed the assignment and the products created were very well done!
Task: Your assignment is to create your own Life’s Little Instructions Book. Your booklet must contain the following:
1. Five (or more) pearls of wisdom from To Kill a Mockingbird.
2. Ten (or more) pearls of wisdom from wise people in your world. Consider asking your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors, teachers, coaches, etc.
3. Ten (or more) pearls of wisdom from research sources, including other novels, books, newspapers, websites, television shows, movies, song lyrics, and speeches.
4. Five (or more) pearls of your own. Consider what you have learned thus far in your life. What advice can you offer?
Reminder: Quotes can be philosophical (“Never cut what can be untied”), practical (“Always own a good dictionary”), or humorous (“Never eat yellow snow”).
