We usually think that it is the adult's responsibility to pace students and motivate them through an assignment.

Suppose you create a self-monitoring gague that allows the student to create a graph of where there are at each work session. They begin the work session by creating their own personal goal to meet or exceed the steps needing completion that day. And, they keep asking themselves, What is the most important task I need to be doing right now?

If they are working in small groups, then this is critical to the group success. The group has a sheet that visually shows where each member of the group is in doing their part of the task on time and with excellence.

There are three levels each student needs to understand:

My personal expertise that keeps growing and developing.

Cooperative group work where my piece of the "engine" fits perfectly so that the car can move.

Collaborative intelligence 0 the idea that together, we can come up with fresh new ideas, creative ideas, innovating solutions that none of us could have done alone.

This is such an important part of helping kids take command of their own learning, that I am creating this challenge:

Develop a self monitoring system WITH LEARNERS in your school.

Try it out in a project with them.

Get their reaction about whether it helped.

Submit the system to me by Nov. 5.

I will announce the winner at my AASL talk in Hartford

And, will award the winner with $100 from my own pocket.

I will get a team of folks to help in the judging.

Just hoping that we might make progress in this.

P.S. You will hold the copyright to your work; not me.

On Sun, Oct 13, 2013 at 9:24 AM, Lou Ann Jacobs <ljacobs363@aol.com> wrote:

I was thinking of a timeline added to your criteria. I had used that in the past with a long term assignment such as yours.

By this date you should have finished so many daily assignments to gain an A, so many for a B, etc.

In regards to their final project, a timeline for various components. Use of due dates is helpful to keep them working toward that final product.

I would try to meet with each student at different times before the date approached to see what they had accomplished. That seemed to help. Some are not good at budgeting their time and need prodding to get or stay on task.

Hope that helps.

Lou Ann Jacobs

-----Original Message-----
From: Sarles Patricia (18K500) <PSarles@schools.nyc.gov>
To: aaslforum <aaslforum@ala.org>
Sent: Sun, Oct 13, 2013 5:35 am
Subject: [aaslforum] a rubric for daily research assignments

So I'm teaching a College Research Skills class to my seniors in which they are 
doing a GREAT DEAL of hands-on work with various databases - learning the ins 
and outs of each, searching them, reading the articles that they find, and 
writing about them using writing prompts that I have given to them - all for 
their culminating project, which will be a Web site either informing an audience 
about an issue, in which case they will offer both sides, or arguing for or 
against an issue. This will also form the basis of their senior capstone project 
- a school-wide graduation requirement.

As expected, my students are all working at their own pace - some way ahead of 
everyone else, some way behind, and then many in various places in the middle. 
Some are rushing through the daily assignments, while some are hardly getting 
anything done, while others are thoughtfully and carefully doing the work, 
taking their research seriously, and are motivated to do the daily assignments.

Meanwhile, during class, I go from student to student to check in to see how 
each student is doing and where they are at in their work. I don't get to all 
students each period because some require more help than others and if I end up 
spending more time with one student, I may not get a chance to get to all of the 
students that day.

After class and before the next class, I take a look at the work they 
accomplished during that class period (they are doing everything on their wikis 
- its a paperless classroom) and I write comments on their work directly on 
their wiki pages, which they have given me permission to access.

This is the thing though, I think I really need a rubric in order to give proper 
credit to those who are doing well with the assignment and those who are not 
doing so well so everyone knows what is expected of them and how well they are 
doing or not doing.

I'm aware of rubric makers but what to put into each of the fields is what is 
stumping me.

Does anyone have a research rubric that they've made that they'd be willing to 
share? Right now, I am giving credit to everyone who does SOMETHING, but it 
doesn't seem fair to give the same credit to a kid who does something, but is 
really barely doing anything.

Thanks if you have any ideas,
Patricia


____________________________________________
Patricia Sarles, MA, MLS
Librarian
Jerome Parker Campus Library
100 Essex Drive
Staten Island, NY 10314
718-370-6900 x1322
psarles@schools.nyc.gov
http://library.nycenet.edu/common/welcome.jsp?site=6467

Librarians, in particular, have a multi-dimensional responsibility in the Common 
Core environment. School librarians assist teachers in finding appropriate 
classroom materials, such as informational texts, and assist students in 
completing research to support evidence-based arguments. - Jeffrey W. Cannell, 
The State Education Department, the University of the State of New York in a 
memo dated April 11, 2013

To be ready for college, workforce training, and life in a technological 
society, students need the ability to gather, comprehend, evaluate, synthesize, 
and report on information and ideas, to conduct original research in order to 
answer questions or solve problems, and to analyze and create a high volume and 
extensive range of print and nonprint texts in media forms old and new. The need 
to conduct research and to produce and consume media is embedded into every 
aspect of today's curriculum. In like fashion, research and media skills and 
understandings are embedded throughout the Standards rather than treated in a 
separate section.- Introduction to the Common Core State Standards Initiative, 
2010, p. 4

There is no fiction or nonfiction area of the Internet. - Alan November

Professor David V. Loertscher
School of Library and Information Science
San Jose State University
Home address: 123 East 2nd Ave. #1106
Salt Lake City, UT 84103
mobile: 801-755-1122
Home: 801-532-1165