Assessment Post 2

This lesson is for a sixth grade class. My goal is that students will be able to write one sonnet in the Shakespearean format. This will be done through the social cognitive learning theory.  I picked this theory because students will learn a bit about Shakespeare as a person and a writer, read and observe some of his sonnets, and model his writing.  Though this may sound difficult, it is one poem that is fourteen lines long, and I will be looking mostly for the rhyming pattern. I will also assist students in need of help, because I realize that poetry can be difficult. I will assess the final poem that the students write as a formal, summative assignment, grading based on effort, rhyme, content, and format. It will be formal because a grade will be given. It is summative because it is at the end of a unit of material. As a formative assessment, something that requires this much work could be overwhelming. Students will want a grade to reward their hard work and the poem will be better if it demonstrates learning from the entire unit. This will also be a performance assessment, since it requires the students to perform the activity (writing poetry) about which they learned. This shows a thorough understanding of the material.