Credit: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html Evaluation is a skill that sometimes gets neglected in the intermediate grades, but I feel is extremely important in order for students to become thinkers, rather than just doers. According to Bloom's Taxonomy, Evaluation is a skill at or near the top of the pyramid. This higher-order thinking skill is complex and requires an understanding of each part in order to make judgments about each. If students are putting things in some sort of order, there is a constant comparing & contrasting that is happening in order to move one ahead or move one back. What makes one component a better alternative to another? Students have to decide!
Our "Conductors Lab." In a recent science lab, I taught my students what conductors and insulators are. We learned that conductors transfer heat and insulators prevent heat from transferring. In order to find out which materials made good conductors (and therefore poor insulators) we put five rods made of different materials into a glass of increasingly warming water and stuck frozen butter pats to the ends. The butter that slid early, we learned, must have been on rods made of materials that conducted heat well. The butter that stayed on the longest, therefore, must have been on materials that were poor conductors of heat.
The next day, we began focusing on insulators. We wrapped a plastic bottle with various materials, filled it with hot water, and submerged it in an ice bath for 15 minutes. Based on the temperatures at the end of the experiment, we learned that some materials kept the heat in better than others. These materials were considered good insulators, while the bottles that lost a lot of heat were considered poor insulators.
The next day, we began focusing on insulators. We wrapped a plastic bottle with various materials, filled it with hot water, and submerged it in an ice bath for 15 minutes. Based on the temperatures at the end of the experiment, we learned that some materials kept the heat in better than others. These materials were considered good insulators, while the bottles that lost a lot of heat were considered poor insulators.
Creating their insulated bottles. In order to test my students' understanding of conductors and insulators, I had them participate in a PBL activity. I told them that we were going to participate in a contest: Who can design the best insulated bottle in class? The winner would be determined by subtracting their minimum temperature recorded from their maximum temperature recorded during the experiment (we called it the range).
Students could use any three materials that they themselves brought into class or that I had in the classroom to wrap their bottles with. In order to have my students use the skill of evaluation, I told the class about each material that I had for them. They were instructed to write them down, and rank order each from good insulators to poor insulators in some format to the best of their knowledge (since we had not used some of these materials yet). Since everyone did this in different ways, their thinking became visible to me.
Students could use any three materials that they themselves brought into class or that I had in the classroom to wrap their bottles with. In order to have my students use the skill of evaluation, I told the class about each material that I had for them. They were instructed to write them down, and rank order each from good insulators to poor insulators in some format to the best of their knowledge (since we had not used some of these materials yet). Since everyone did this in different ways, their thinking became visible to me.
 Click on me to see a larger version!  Click on me to see a larger version!   Click on me to see a larger version! | (1) Some students made a T-Chart. As they saw each material and heard me describe them, some students classified each material as either a poor insulator or a good insulator. On this particular photo, you can see them making a revision as well, moving cotton from a good insulator to a poor one. (2) Some students made a list of each material, preferring to wait until the end to determine which materials would be the best insulators (notice the numbers next to three of the materials). These students had to hold all the information in their heads while each new material was introduced, because they made no notes as reminders, nor categorized them ahead of time. This particular student noticed that two of the materials were so similar that they didn't even deserve separate rankings (glittered felt & felt), so they clustered them together. (3) Some students didn't stop at just ranking the top three insulators, but ranked all 13 materials! Looking closely at these rankings, what do you notice about this student's understanding of insulator materials? I was able to learn a lot about this child's readiness from looking at this one. (4) Some students wrote all the materials down and then re-wrote them in order from worst to best insulator (or vice-versa). Afterwards, they determined which three materials they would like to choose first, second, and third. Clearly, students used different techniques to evaluate the information. Again, this format for evaluating insulators made their thinking visible, and I am better able to see who I need to re-teach or give extra support to. |
The next step was partnering them up with two other students in class. They compared lists (and methods for making their lists). As a team, they decided which materials to grab as they were randomly called into the "Materials Room." Once a material ran out, that was that! So students tried to grab their best insulators first! We conducted our experiment and our winner was able to keep the temperature inside the bottle within 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit of its starting temperature!
| Another activity we did recently that involved Evaluation was choosing our first books for novel groups. I give my students 10 book choices and they are asked to look at the front cover, back cover, and the first few pages of the book. | My students with their thinking faces. |
Click on me to see a larger version! They are then asked to write down some notes that will help them make a decision as to their favorite five books at the end (that means they can eliminate five books that they don't like). If they have read a book before, they are not allowed to choose it (to ensure that predictions & inferences are legitimate). This student chose to do a score out of 10 for each book.
Click on me to see a larger version! After they've looked at all ten books, I hand out an index card and each student writes their five favorite books in order for me to choose from. I choose groups completely based on their interest and the number of books I have.
Students have a vested interest in evaluating effectively during this activity because their next ten days of reading will be based on their input! They take this process very seriously and, in my opinion, they develop the skill of evaluating during the process!
Students have a vested interest in evaluating effectively during this activity because their next ten days of reading will be based on their input! They take this process very seriously and, in my opinion, they develop the skill of evaluating during the process!
A great Bloom's Taxonomy Diagram
(All images below are from:
http://lccfestivaloflearning2012.wordpress.com/olta-2012-13/):
(All images below are from:
http://lccfestivaloflearning2012.wordpress.com/olta-2012-13/):
Credit: http://lccfestivaloflearning2012.wordpress.com/olta-2012-13/
Credit: http://lccfestivaloflearning2012.wordpress.com/olta-2012-13/
Credit: http://lccfestivaloflearning2012.wordpress.com/olta-2012-13/
Credit: http://lccfestivaloflearning2012.wordpress.com/olta-2012-13/
Credit: http://lccfestivaloflearning2012.wordpress.com/olta-2012-13/
One of my favorite tools to use to help students evaluate and rank order something is Intel's Visible Ranking Tool (now a free app): http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/education/k12/thinking-tools/visual-ranking.html
https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/education/k12/thinking-tools/visual-ranking.html?
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