| Instructional Management. Core Elements Learning Objectives The major learning objectives of this project are: 1- To calculate the distance between two cities using map scales. 2- To solve real-life situations involving distance, rate and time. 3- To unravel real-world problems concerning time by using a world time-zone map. 4- To manipulate currency exchange rates by means of the ratio/rate concept. 5- To interpret line graphs. 6- To utilize the trend of a line graph in order to make predictions. Standard (Sun Shine Standards) & Bench Marks This is an 8th grade project which enhance the learning objectives of the followings: MA . A . 134, 232 MA . B . 132 MA . D. 132 MA . E . 131, 132, 133 LA . A. 236, 237 LA . B. 131, 132, 133, 231, 234. SS . A . 131, 132 SS . B . 131, 137 SS. D . 133 Assessment Strategies Overview In this multidisciplinary project students are asked to collect, graph, and analyze data, do projections and form conclusions. They are also asked to examine and summarize the historical and cultural aspects of a Latin American country. Students are also required to submit a final budget for their two-week vacation. Students are required to submit a final report to the project explaining what they've learned in doing the project. Below are two suggested strategies that can be used to assess students' performance in “Vacation Latin Style”. In addition, the language arts and the social studies components should be assessed by the student’s teachers for those two subjects. We are going to discuss assessment strategies for the math component only. Assessment. There are a variety of methods for assessing student learning for an Internet-based project. However, regardless of the strategies used, we believe that first and foremost, the method for assessing this project should be clearly defined prior from the start. Secondly, emphasis should be put on the four principles that must underline any assessment: 1. Learning is constructive, reflective and self-regulated; 2. Meaningful assessment plays a critical role in every level of instruction; 3. Assessment must take the whole child into account specially his/her learning style; and, 4. The purpose of assessment is not only to evaluate a student‘s progress but also a teacher‘s effectiveness. In closing, we will add that the assessment must be performance based and sensitive to language and culture. Hence, we are proposing two assessment strategies: A) Students' learning and performance should first be assessed through the final report: the accuracy of the data collected, the ability of the student to construct the graph and to do the projections. More value should be given to the accuracy of the student's conclusions taken his/her data into consideration. This final report should, therefore, constitute 40% of the final project grade. The remaining 60% should be attributed to an oral presentations. B) Student’s learning and performance could also be assessed, as a complementary measure, by teachers asking them to apply what they've learned in the project to a new situation. Specifically, since the students have been studying how to project currency rate fluctuation, they may be given a specific currency in Europe, with a line graph showing the latest performance and they will be asked to predict the changes over a specific amount of time in the future. |