Evidence 2.0

As is usually the case, it did not take long for Version 2.0 to come out.  Two days into my evidence of learning project, I realized adaptations needed to happen.  A great brainstorm session with my friend and colleague Adam Pierce produced a new version of an evidence sheet.  Adam & I have been collaborating on how to track student evidence throughout the unit in different ways for the past two years.  Adam, an Economics and History teacher, was working from the beginning toward the end of a unit by means of a student-involved unit plan.  I have been working from the opposite direction, concentrating on the reflection and self-assessment end of the unit.  When I told Adam I was ready to attempt to combine the two ideas, he revisited his unit planner and came up with a very clean and simple document.

Like I said, after the first lesson or two, I quickly realized that my evidence sheet had to change.  My idea of giving space for students to take notes as well as space to include evidence into the same document was making the document difficult to read and follow for the students and for me.  As Adam was showing me his new and improved document, our minds were racing.  For me, it was truly a magical time of collaboration. I wish we would have recorded the process.  I really liked the way Adam had laid out his planner to simplify the end product.  His layout allowed the students to identify which learning targets the evidence is showing and an opportunity to reflect on feedback given during the unit.  I still wanted to give students an option to take notes so we included a link to a "Notes" page and added a section for the students to record what they needed to work on before the summative based on the feedback given from the formative assessments throughout the unit.  Version 2.0 product is now in use and looks like this:

We also added the column to the left of the learning targets to add a visual checklist for students as they provided evidence for each learning target of the unit.  In addition to this, I added a link (currently dead) that will link to the students' self-assessment & reflection about the unit that they will fill out after the summative.  Out thinking on this would be for ease of use for the students when reviewing at the end of a course, specifically in an IBDP course that spans over two school years.

I introduced this to my students yesterday and will again today with my second and third groups of students.  Initially, the students seem to have accepted the change and have given positive feedback about Version 2.0.  We'll see if the positivity continues today.