Place Based Assessment
Using Landmarks and Monuments To Teach
Assessing Student Learning with Landmarks
No matter how engaging and relevant your project may be, unless you have a strong
assessment plan built into it you’re no better further than half done. Assessment doesn’t
mean “teacher grading” , rather it is the mechanism that we have to help student check in
with their own progress so they can determine next steps. A formal grade is of course part of
that, but in most cases it is the smallest part, coming at the end of multiple formative steps
where teachers and students take equal responsibility for ensuring that learning is
happening.
Strong assessment plans follow a principal similar to the weather channel - constant, regular
updates. Assessment should take place throughout the project, not just at the end but at
regular intervals. We call these strategically-placed assessment points “mile markers” and
just like the markers used to guide mountaineers along precarious trails they provide
guidance for students as they work towards completion of their project. Without them your
students will wander.
Now before you throw your hands up in angst and cry, “Now I have to overhaul my grading as
well?!?” let me say this; you can continue to use the same tools you’ve always used to teach
and assess the subject. Feel better? The difference between grading in a student-centered
classroom and traditional teacher-centered classrooms is the way you leverage those
materials. Teachers shouldn’t be the only ones who assess their students. In most cases the
students will do a good chunk of the assessing in the form of self/peer critique and
reflection. This is also true of most project-based models.
One way that Landmark History projects are different from other forms of PBL is by
anchoring assessments around the landmarks themselves. Using more visually-based
assessment methods is advantages for several reasons;
If the landmark you have chosen is high quality (meaning it has passed the Three R’s test
mentioned earlier) then there are a multitude of ways to build your assessments around it.
What follows are just a few possible ways that the landmark can be incorporated into your
assessment plan;
1) Bookend Reflection
This technique leverages the entry event and Anchor Question to provide individual
measures of growth in the form of qualitative data. What does that mean in english? It
means that you use the same assessment tool twice, once at the beginning of your project
and once at the end, and compare the two for evidence of learning.
Although this approach seems to work best with written assessments such as model
paragraphs, short-form essays, or oral examinations you can use more traditional tools like
multiple-choice questions. You can also use student generated questions for your bookends
to make sure your questions contain student friendly language.
2) Dissection
This assessment technique works best as an early assessment at the beginning of a project
when students are first being introduced to a landmark. It can be applied both to sculpture-
based landmarks as well as plaques and markers, the more complex or wordy the better.
Have students read the text of plaque or read it to them and at the end have them
underlining and key words such as people, places, dates, events, etc. Tell them that they
need to identify each of these and that you’ll be quizzing them on how each of the annotated
elements are related to the larger subject you are discussing. You can have students record
their findings in notes, visuals, etc.
3)
Connecting
Demonstrating understanding by transferring knowledge to an unrelated situation or concept
is a time-honored way to show deeper learning. This same method can be used to include
analysis of landmarks as a form of assessment by asking students to make direct connections
between the marker and the content you have helped them to learn. This is a great way to
take the text of a marker or quotes and text from a monument and use it as a secondary
source document that students must contextualize.
4) Bridging the Gap
If you are using a collection of landmarks or creating a tour from several different locations
this assessment technique is a great way to help students synthesize and otherwise disparate
narrative. Begin by asking students to focus on the project landmarks. Show another
monument or marker related to the same period or concept from an entirely different state
or geographic zone. Then, tell them that you expect to see them draw a connect between the
one you’ve introduced and one of the ones they are working on. They should then work
either individually or in pairs to defend their selection and elaborate on its connections
either in written or oral form.
5) Rewrite
This assessment is one that is best used at the end of an instructional sequence and can
easily take the place of a test, quiz, or other short-form assessment tool. Students first learn
about the subject of the landmark. Then, to demonstrate their depth of their understanding,
they return to a picture or the text of the monument monument and offer revisions that
more accurately describe the event or its impact. Teachers can also provide guiding questions
that force students to show specific knowledge like they would on short-answer test
questions. This approach also works Great for outdated monuments or ethically questionable
ones.
6) Design Challenges
This form of assessment is an example of “segmenting” or taking pieces of your larger project
and turning them into your mile markers. Have your students work in pairs to create an
interpretive panel for the landmark that gives relevant background and well as speaks along
the lines of a theme related to your Anchor Question.
Show them examples of panels from similar parks or landmarks so they can analyze how the
panels use mixed-media to interpret the sites. Teachers that are used to “presentation
boards” or “posters” can use this assessment with the same rubric. Tools such as Google
Slides, PowerPoint, or even good old-fashioned pencil and paper are all good supplies to help
with construction.
No matter how you choose to assess students, reference the landmark as much as possible.
Reconnect to it when you can even if it is not the center of the task. Something as simple as
using portions of the language from the plaque or portions of the symbolism from the
monument as recall stimuli is especially powerful!
When you create your larger assessment plan;
Lastly, if you find yourself lost or confused regarding what to assign, ask yourself this;
Rigorous, Relevant, and Real
How DOK and UBD align to Place Based Learning