My Fav Assessment

An assessment that I really enjoyed as a student was as a senior in Contemporary Literature. Our class was studying the beat-nick generation, paying close attention to Allan Gingsberg and even listening to music such as "Desolation Row" by Bob Dylan. Upon finishing a close read to "Howel" by Gingsberg, Mrs. Dickhut asked that we create our own piece of literature modeling "Howel." Our creation was to have the same format, style and similar language. This assessment forced us to have an understanding of the poem and language used, while being able to use our creative side. Not only did this assessment force us to understand, but we were able to internalize the poem and make connections. This was also a way for us to fully understand allusions and be able to integrate our own allusions into our piece. I still have by poem along with the examples Mrs. Dickhut provided us.
I would consider this activity to be a performance task assessment. We were asked to demonstrate our understanding of Gingsberg’s "Howel" through individually writing our own piece of literature. Mrs. Dickhut assessed our product, the piece of literature, for our format, language and content. I feel as though this was a valuable assessment because I still remember the experience and it is one piece of literature from school that I clearly remember and still enjoy reading. Not only was I learning, but I was given a chance to express myself and tap into my creative side.
I always wanted to teach this assignment to my future class. This style of assessment is one that I think would fit most students. Even if I were not to give this assignment to the whole class, I think that if they were working on a final project and were given choices, this would be one of them (differentiation). This idea would work great in a history class, looking at the Declaration of Independence and having to create your own declaration.