Rubric For “Game Creation” Project – 8Th Grade Physical Education

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RUBRIC FOR “GAME CREATION” PROJECT – 8TH GRADE PHYSICAL EDUCATION EXCEEDS MEETS APPROACHES DOES NOT MEET Game Creation: 4 points 4 3.5 3 2.5 The game created uses The game created uses two The game created uses one The game created uses three or more of the of the elements, school element, school equipment other elements not elements, school equipment is utilized is utilized appropriately discussed, school equipment is utilized appropriately most of the some of the time, and is equipment is rarely appropriately all of the time, and is school school apposite. utilized appropriately, time, and is school apposite. and is school apposite. apposite. Poster: 4 points 4 3.5 3 2.5 The poster employs The poster employs The game is described in a The game description is diagrams, pictures, and pictures and descriptions to clear and appropriate clear but incomplete, descriptions to address address each element, manner, but goes into little leading to students’ each element, helping helping students to depth and detail, leading to deficient understanding students to completely somewhat understand the students’ incomplete of the created game. understand the created created game. understanding of the game. created game. Teaching: 4 points 4 3.5 3 2.5 Teaching of the created Teaching of the created Presentation of the created Presentation of the game maximizes student game effectively game is moderately created game is learning. Class is able to communicates elements, effective, allowing students ineffective and hard to effectively participate and allowing class to to learn most of the follow, forcing students play game incorporating all participate and play game elements and attempt to to improvise during of the elements. incorporating most of the play the created game game play. elements. successfully. EDSC 182 Rationale for Formative Assessment Tool

The assignment for the rubric I have designed is an activity that allows students to create and teach a modified team game that incorporates various elements of Physical Education and English-

Language Arts Content Standards. Students will create a modified game and incorporate a poster to allow an effective teaching of the game to their classmates. Students need to form groups of approximately five or six for this activity. The teacher may feel it is appropriate to place students into groups rather than having them pick. This could be used as motivation to succeed in the project as long as students understand that they must act responsibly and be on-task at all times. Each group then brainstorms (a lesson on how to properly brainstorm may also be needed for students to be successful) to create a modified game incorporating elements of:

 Spin or rebound  A designated offensive and defensive space  A penalty system  A scoring system

Students are instructed to create a poster that clearly and thoroughly describes their created game. It required for them to include diagrams, illustrations, and descriptions on their poster that will allow their classmates to easily understand the game.

We will take approximately three class days for students to brainstorm, create their game, draw their poster, and think of how they can most effectively teach the game. Two groups will teach their respective games in the same class period, requiring approximately twenty minutes of teaching time for each group. Each group’s twenty minutes will consist of teaching the game and having the class play it. During the presentations, students will be encouraged to ask questions to clarify statements so that they can successfully participate in the activity. The class will also be encouraged to comment on the effectiveness of the presentation and how thorough and clear the directions were. In addition, the teacher may ask guided questions that will allow proper feedback from classmates.

2 EDSC 182 The rubric that I will use to assess the poster and presentation activity contains three evaluative criteria – game creation, poster, and teaching. For the game creation, I am looking for a game that is new and not previously played, that utilizes our current equipment so students do not need to buy or bring in their own. It should involve at least three of the elements mentioned above. For the poster, I am looking for the use of diagrams, pictures, and descriptions that help present the game in a clear, and appropriate manner that allows the class to learn and play the game successfully. All of the students at

Egan Jr. High are quite capable of respecting their peers, so I feel that incorporating the class’s ability to play the game successfully into the rubric is within acceptable limits. Finally, I am assessing the teaching of the created game to see that it is organized and presented in a way that encourages student learning and successful playing of the game. Outstanding presentations will be presented in a simple, yet understandable manner, which creates a successful environment that will allow all students to participate in the created game.

The evaluative criteria in the game creation and teaching are based on the following standards and objectives:

PHYSICAL EDUCATION CONTENT STANDARD 2.6:

Develop and teach a team game that uses elements of spin or rebound, designated offensive and defensive space, a penalty system, and a scoring system.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION CONTENT STANDARD 5.2:

Organize and work cooperatively with a group to achieve the goals of the group.

ELA STANDARDS FOR GRADE 8: LISTENING AND SPEAKING

1.5 Use precise language, action verbs, sensory details, appropriate and colorful modifiers, and the active rather than the passive voice in ways that enliven oral presentations.

1.7 Use audience feedback (e.g. verbal and nonverbal): a. Reconsider and modify the organizational structure or plan. b. Rearrange words and sentences to clarify the meaning.

The game creation and teaching activity connects with these standards and objectives because it allows students to use their creativity to ‘invent’ a new game and to teach their classmates how to play it using

3 EDSC 182 clear and concise means to help their classmates have a comprehensive understanding of the game so they can successfully participate.

The grading criteria for the game creation and teaching activity will be apparent to students as they will receive a handout on the instructions for the activity and also a copy of the rubric in advance.

The teacher will use instructional time to help explain the assignment and review the rubric to help clarify its function. Popham has recommended making assessments readily available to aide in students evaluating their own efforts. I am in agreement with his recommendation, as it will allow students to completely understand the assignment and make clear expectations of their creation of the game and the teaching of it. I will encourage students to use the rubric designed to help the students guide their own assessment of their progress during the activity. I will make available different examples from past classes that show exemplar and sub-par posters and games by providing rubrics that show the evaluative criteria according to the work done. This can even be done as a class to help show how the groups will be individually assessed by the teachers. This class assessment of a previous activity can help reinforce the fact that the evaluative criteria is clearly outlined for the assignment and is closely aligned with the standards and objectives for this game creation and teaching unit. This will help show the students the quality of work that they should be striving towards as well as the quality of work that they should stray from. As a teacher, I intend to utilize the rubrics to grade the students and to supply congruent feedback to them to help improve their efforts on similar activities in the future.

Each class will utilize the feedback from the activity to reteach any concepts and/or skill from which students may still be unclear. I anticipate areas of confusion to include team activity rules and possibly diagrams. It may be necessary to review how to properly diagram content so that classmates easily understand it.

The rubric that I have created has four performance levels that measure three evaluative criteria. It was important that I gave equal weight to each criterion, as all three are equally important. I did not want to make this rubric very specific or very general. Popham argues that a good rubric is one 4 EDSC 182 that is somewhere in the middle that is specific enough to measure proper evaluative criteria and not too general so that there could be areas of negotiation. My rubric is pretty clear and concise, which also is in agreement with Popham’s recommendation against creating rubrics that are excessive in length overly detailed. I used four levels of performance because I disagree with the idea that using an odd number will lead to many students gravitating towards the middle (I do not believe in grading on a curve as students are only as good as the best student. The rubric is used to give groups of students an overall grade on this activity. Each criterion will receive a performance level and the three scores will be combined to generate a single merged score that corresponds to a letter grade, based on the following scale:

10.5-12 = A 9-10 = B 7.5-8.5 = C 6-7 = D

The best rubrics, according to Wiggins, depend on an unambiguous and recognized definition of ideal performance. I have tried to model my rubric to this recommendation by listing tasks that could easily be measured to indicate a high achievement. I believe I have achieved this by describing what students can do at each performance level within each evaluative criterion. I do not doubt that as

I teach this unit multiple times that I may need to shift some language within the rubric to make the differences between the performance levels more synonymous. I feel that this preliminary rubric is a great start to giving my students a more meaningful activity that will undoubtedly lead to a more appropriate assessment of their learning.