The most important elements in PBL are assessment and accountability on the part of the students. For example, rubrics are critical components in the process. To design and create an effective rubric will allow the students to work towards a good end product. Plus on my side as teacher it makes it easier for purposes of grading. I believe the rubrics are an essential component in PBL.

The important qualities of the assessment rubric are how well the student understands the content, how well the student masters the key skills and how well the student applies their knowledge and skills. It is important that students know prior to beginning the project what is being assessed.

Important qualities for a PBL assessment to support standards and student engagement:
Students are required to master the conventions, core principles, and vocabulary of a topic.
Projects should include performance assessments, or rubrics, that measure each skill to be learned in the project.

Formative assessment plays a role in a PBL experience because they build the background students need to complete the final assessment. The process of a project, which is formative, can also be assessed with student records that document their progress.

What are important qualities for a PBL assessment to support standards and student engagement?

PBL assessment must contain both summative and formative assessments. It is important to provide multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate learning. Since ideal PBL units assume that students will progress along a standard/benchmark-the progress should be assessed on all standards/benchmarks. It is important to assess multiple projects as milestone points. As an instructor you can assess understanding, control the progression of both the student and the PBL unit and make changes as needed.

Formative assessment is huge. Some kids are lousy test takers. Many of the summative assessments available to us do not meet the needs of assessing content for specific units and/or individual learners. Formative assessments keep all players on task. Teachers have immediate feedback using things such as exit cards, 3,2,1, Frayer model, ...This helps me to know where I need to scaffold and reinforce concepts. Jason commented on accountability. What a great way to support colaboration. Joanne mentioned the importance of rubrics. Students must know what is expected and teachers needs this tool for grading. I also liked Kathy's comments on multiple opportunities to learn information. I wish there was more time to spiral. Thank you Kathy for reminding me of how important it is.

Formative assessment is something that I see missing in projects that come into my media center. Students are graded only on their final product with no self-assessment to help them decide how they could be more effective next time they work on a project. I believe the formative assessment is key to students learning so they can be successful with their final project.
I agree that formative assessments are helpful not only to the student but it me as a teacher, as well. If everyone is struggling at a formative assessment, then I know that I need to rethink my instruction and revisit that immediately so my students can be successful.

•Post your PBL assessment, and explain how it meets the needs of your driving question and learning outcomes.
One of my summative assessments will be a group presention to report on fund-raising, service learning project. This meets the needs of my driving question by asking students to report on how they have helped women entrepreneurs of Africa. It will satisfy learning outcome, 7 – P4.2.3 Participate in projects to help or inform others.

PBL units should contain both summative and formate assessments. Summative assessments provide data that shows if students have mastered skills and understood major concepts. Formative assessments provide data during instruction that can help the teacher make decisions about what students are understanding. It allows teachers to reteach or otherwise revisit things that we assume students understood, but really didn't. It is important that students understand the expectations, both academic and process, in advance. A clear understanding of the content and outcomes will keep students focused during the project. The final, summative assessment can be the project product (as defined by a rubric), tests & quizzes, and other data-based tasks.

How does formative assessment play a role in a PBL experience, and leads to the final assessment? Formative assessment is important in every class setting, and even more so in the PBL setting. It helps pinpoint exactly where the students' need for scaffolding for the project lies. PBL has a lot less sit and get and a lot more of the students exploring, but the formative assessments are going to be a great measure to let the teacher know when to slow down the show and say "Hey, I notice our project is going awry here, and I might have a piece of information that can help you out." And that's our job, to know when we're at that point.

My assessment: A multimedia presentation/ PSA on checking accuracy and credibility of sources- It will allow for UDL, meet the standards addressed by the driving question, be published to an audience, hopefully stopping all of my forwarded obnoxious emails and land me on Oprah :)

How does formative assessment play a role in a PBL experience, and leads to the final assessment?

This is the part that I love the most about PBL. The assessment is really how assessment should be. You give the outcomes and the level to which the students need to grasp to be proficient at these outcomes. Then as the project moves forward the students can read and determine the outcomes they need to accomplish and the teacher can use these outcomes continuously along the way to determine if the student has mastered the outcomes. If not then the teacher can determine which outcome is causing the most struggle and give the student resources specific to that outcome to then be able to master it. So in the end you are essentially not "done" with the project until you have met the proficient level of the outcomes. If the student has not hit proficient on all outcomes then typically the student already knows this but since it is in the rubric it can easily be referenced. No more surprises as to how successful the child will be based on a test. In PBL the proof is in the project and really the work put in leading up to the completion of the project.

Post your PBL assessment, and explain how it meets the needs of your driving question and learning outcomes.
I will be developing an assessment that is a rubric listing all required proficient skills based on unwrapping the standards begin assessed. I will also list exemplary skills for students to strive for if they come in at a proficient level early on in the project. This thinking around grading is new to me and I love it! It has really changed my thinking around grading and I love the fact the way it keeps teacher and student informed.