Melanie Southard 5/16/18

Stage 2 – Determine Acceptable Evidence

What evidence will show that students understand?
Performance tasks:

Time Capsule Letter: You have just started a new job doing research on inheritance and
heredity at a genetics lab at JMU and they are tasked with researching grizzly bears.
You will draft a letter addressed to a future geneticist that will be put in a time capsule.
The letter will provide an accurate and justified account on what traits have changed in
grizzly bears from the past and how they believe grizzly bears will have changed in 500
years. You will provide thorough explanations about their predictions and explicitly state
how their knowledge of traits allows them to make their claims. These letters will be
peer reviewed by a geneticist at Sentara hospital and will be buried in a time capsule in
the local park.

Mix and Match: Mrs. Green, a 3rd grade teacher at our school and her family are looking
to buy the perfect family dog. She since she has heard our class has learned a lot about
inheritance of traits she wants you to help her decide what breed of dog she should get.
You will be given an extensive list of dog breeds and traits and based on the
requirements by the Green family, you will need to decide which dogs to breed together.
Once you make your final decision you will need to prepare a thoughtful, organized, and
efficient poster and presentation for the Green family. You will deliver your presentation
to the Green family to help them make their decision on their family dog.

Video Diary: It’s the year 3000 and you live in a society where they are genetically
starting to make everyone look exactly the same. You still look different than everyone
else but more and more people are starting to look the same. Your job is to record a
video entry of yourself analyzing why it is important to feel a sense of belonging in a
community through similar traits and also why it is important to have distinguishing
traits. The sensitive and tactful account you give will ask to respond to hypothetical
questions about dystopian societies where everyone is the same and provide
explanations about how they would feel in these scenarios. The videos will be shown to
your peer mentors in the grade above where you all will then have meaningful
discussions about their feelings on the subject. If you can get others to see what traits
are important to societies then maybe you can stop the government from trying to make
everyone look the same.

What other evidence will be collected in light of Stage 1 Desired Results?

Other evidence (tests, quizzes, prompts, work samples, observations):

Venn Diagram: The students will assess the similarities and differences between
inherited and acquired traits.
Adapted from Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd.ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Melanie Southard 5/16/18

Narrative: The students will create a personal narrative of them as an animal, describing
how characteristics change such as diet due to interactions with the environment and
how they evolve over time.

Question of the Day Exit Tickets: The students will answer the question of the day that
is on the board regarding the lesson/activity that they participated in during that class.

Quiz 1: The students will take a quiz of multiple choice and short answer questions
about traits being passed to offspring, inherited and acquired traits and genetics in
general.

Anecdotal Records: Teacher will make observation notes about the students as they are
completing activities. Teacher will ask student’s varieties of check point questions to
ensure they are grasping the material.

Post Card: The students will write a post card to an important person in their life
explaining an important part of the unit that they learned that week.

Quiz 2: Students will complete a quiz comprised of multiple choice and short answer
responses. The quiz will cover environmental factors and DNA inherited from parents.

Inheritance in Plants poster: The students will make a poster that illustrates 2 parent
plants and what their offspring will be. The students will explain how their plant makes
sense based on the pictures of the parents.

Blog Post: The students will make a blog post into our “What’s on my mind this week?”
bulletin board in the classroom why traits are important. They will reflect on personal
experiences as to why looking the same as people in their community is important and
why looking different than people in their community is also important.

Metacognition:

Self-Reflection
Green, Yellow, Red: The students will have the green, yellow, red cards at their desk at
all times. When the topic is introduced they will make an initial evaluation of how well
they think they know the material and use the color card to depict how much they know.
As the unit progresses, the students will monitor how they feel they are learning and
understanding the knowledge and continue to change the color card accordingly. The
teacher will walk around the room periodically taking note of students on red and getting
them help, then moving to yellow with various scaffolds, and then finally with green.

Adapted from Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd.ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Melanie Southard 5/16/18

Teach Someone Else: Using the card system above, students who are on green will
have the opportunity to teach their peers who may be on yellow or red. If a student can
explain a concept successfully in their own words then that shows signs of
understanding. If the student realizes they are unable to explain the content to another
student, they should go back and adjust the color of their card accordingly.

Self-Assessment

Journaling: Students will write a self-assessment paragraph in their think journals 2-3
times a week evaluating how they think they are progressing as a learner. In their
journals they will identify strengths, weaknesses, and practice goal setting regarding
how they want to improve their learning. Students will write their goal on a notecard that
gets stuck to their corner of their desk so they are reminded to keep working towards
their goal for the week.

I’m Feeling Cups: On a ledge in the classroom the teacher will provide a prompt such as
“My work…” a variety of cups labeled with statements such as “could be better”, “is my
best work” and “Im doing a great job but I can do more”. The students will have Popsicle
sticks with their names on it and will be asked to put their stick in the cup that best
applies to them. The teacher will keep track of where each student feels they are and
have conferences with students as needed to address questions and concerns.

Adapted from Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd.ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.