While this sounds like a lofty goal, and doubtless it is, there are a few reasons for this post. First of all, let me direct this post to two audiences.

First, teachers of middle school, this is for you. The goal with this lesson is to provide a way to reach all students in their journey to explain their thinking. As teachers, we need to find ways for kids to share what they think without being limited by their strengths and weaknesses. Writing isn’t for everyone! So, the goal is to offer a new platform, one that I tried out for the first time with this assignment.

Second, students, this is also for you, if in a roundabout way. I put this together for your teachers to be able to figure out what you know without it having to be done in a traditional way. So often you’re asked to write paragraphs to share your understanding…I know, I’ve assigned them. I’m hoping to get you to share your thinking with your teachers using a different platform, one that will let you use videos, images, slideshows, infographics, or whatever else you feel best showcases your strengths.

So, here’s the plan for the summative assessment for a unit on Who You Are. This assignment would be done at the end of a 4 week unit where much of the content would already have been introduced, discussed, and otherwise worked with. If you would like more information on this unit and how the students get to this point, feel free to comment and I can get in touch with more information.

One more thing…full disclosure. This learning experience has been created as part of a course that I am taking. It will be tried on a class this term, but has only been run once so far. As we all know, every lesson needs tweaking every year and for every group, but this is a place to start.

So, without further ado…

Unit of Inquiry: Who We Are, a Summative Assessment

* ELL Students: Google Translate will support you in your learning here. Feel free to use your home language to express your thinking and then translate into English when your work is complete.

دانشجویان ELL: Google Translate از شما در یادگیری شما در اینجا پشتیبانی می کند. با خیال راحت از زبان اصلی خود برای بیان افکار خود استفاده کنید و پس از اتمام کارتان به انگلیسی ترجمه کنید.*

Learning Outcome: Students will demonstrate a conceptual understanding of identity and where it comes from by developing a document that shares their identity and how it has been constructed. They will use Canva.com to express their thinking in a way that suits their strengths and preferred way of communicating learning.

Background

This activity is meant to demonstrate an understanding of the Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry for this unit. As a quick reminder, these are:

Central Idea: 
Being conscious of the influences on our identity affects our choices.

Lines of Inquiry: 
Our needs as humans 
Influences of media and society
Values

The End Goal:

At the end of this assignment, you will have a document that shares the major influences in your life, how you have constructed your values and what they are, and present a vision of your ideal self.

Below are the steps you will take on your journey.

Step 1

Let’s review the main ideas of this unit. Click the images to navigate to a brief reminder about each important piece of this unit.

Step 2

We are going to use Canva.com to complete this task. Part of the outcome of this assignment will be to have an understanding of how to adequately use Canva in order to express your thinking in a way that hopefully showcases your strengths in the area of communication, as well as show your understanding of the central idea and lines of inquiry in this unit.

Your job: Login to our class Canva and spend some time exploring the options in the platform.

Below, please see the series of images that will show you how to join our class on Canva.com.

(*note: I would ordinarily post a good deal of this in a closed Teams account, so I will not be including an actual link to the class on a public page).

Step 3

Now you’ve had a chance to play around with Canva, it’s time to get down to business! You are going to create a document, of any kind, that fulfills the following criteria.

Remember!

The goal of this project is to show what you understand from our unit. The format does not matter; only the content matters.
So film, write, use images (cited only!), draw, animate….however you express yourself best, that’s what I’m looking for!

Instructions

You are going to use Canva to create a document that describes you. It will need to contain all elements in the checklist below, but the format you use will be up to you!

It must include:

• What you need to be the most effective person you can be? In considering Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, where do you think you fall? What do you think you would need to be self-actualized?
• What is your favourite content to consume and why? How does it relate to your identity? How does it influence you?
• What are your values? What is important to you? How do your values help you make decisions?
• Create a mind map that shows all the influences on who you are.
• Create a piece of art (digital, analog, video, animated) that describes your ideal self and how you think you’ll get there.

Here’s how it will be marked:

Rubric:

	Emerging	Developing	Proficient	Extending
Thinking Skills   Generating Ideas – I can make connections between ideas and concepts; I can draw conclusions and generalizations	Document shows an emerging understanding of the connections between influences, values, and how we define our identity.	Document shows a developing understanding of the connections between influences, values, and how we define our identity.	Document shows connections are drawn between influences, values, and how we define our identity.	Document shows a deep understanding of the connections between influences, values, and how we define our identity.
Communication Skills   Interpreting – you are able to use and understand visual, symbolic, audio, and oral communication	Document showed an emerging ability to use media to share identity.	Document showed the ability to use some media to demonstrate a elements of identity	Document showed the ability to use multimedia to demonstrate elements of identity	Document showed the ability to use multimedia to demonstrate a sophisticated sense of identity.
Communication Skills   Presenting  – communicating ideas and information effectively in a polished and error free way.	Document shows an emerging ability to communicate information.	Document shows a developing ability to communicate information with few errors.	Document clearly communicates information in a polished and error-free way.	Document clearly communicate information in a polished and error-free way that shows an advanced understanding.

References

1622Shimi. (2013, July 17). The innovation of loneliness [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Bkr_udado

About Universal Design for Learning – CAST. (2022, February 8). CAST.   https://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl

Building Student Success – B.C. curriculum. (n.d.). https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/physical-  health-education/7/core

google translate – Google Search. (n.d.). https://www.google.com/search?q=google+translate&oq=google+translate&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyFQgAEEUYORiDARiRAhixAxiABBiKBTITCAEQABiDARiRAhixAxiABBiKBTINCAIQABiRAhiABBiKBTINCAMQABiDARixAxiABDIQCAQQABiDARixAxiABBiKBTINCAUQABixAxiABBiKBTIHCAYQABiABDIKCAcQABixAxiABDIGCAgQRRg80gEIMTQ1MGowajSoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Guyan, M. (2021, May 12). 5 Ways To Reduce Cognitive Load In eLearning. eLearning Industry.   https://elearningindustry.com/5-ways-to-reduce-cognitive-load-in-elearning

Home – Canva. (n.d.). Canva. https://www.canva.com/

How the PYP works. (2023, June 6). International Baccalaureate®.   https://www.ibo.org/programmes/primary-years-programme/how-the-pyp-works/

International Baccalaureate Organization. (n.d.). Primary Years Programme (PYP). International   Baccalaureate®. https://www.ibo.org/programmes/primary-years-programme/

Mcleod, S., PhD. (2023). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

Simon Ash. (2021, October 5). How do you work out your personal values [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPYHNPf5XpA

Sprouts. (2017, January 6). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-4ithG_07Q