I’m making a separate category for this, as I did with David’s Textivate contribution this morning. Robert attacks the Interpretive Skill with this zinger of a reading/writing activity:
For Interpretive Communication, perhaps you can get them to go along with something similar to what I did last year for the first semester final in several classes. Give students an extended text, such as a couple of chapters from a reader. Students then choose 10-12 Essential Sentences* to tell the story of the text. Then they illustrate those sentences to show that they understand them.
*Essential Sentences is a nice buzz term. It has the weight of administration behind it. This assessment genuinely allows students to demonstrate higher-level thinking skills without having to know sophisticated language. They weed out the extraneous “window dressing” to get to the essentials.
Here is the rubric I used in my level 2 class:
Read chapters 1-2 of Die Reise seines Lebens
Choose 10-12 Essential Sentences that tell the story so far
–An Essential Sentence contains basic, necessary information
–An Essential Sentence is often the main sentence of a paragraph
Copy the Essential Sentences onto your paper
–One sentence per square and set of lines
–Write the sentence on the lines (the squares are for drawing)
–You may edit sentences from the book – but be careful doing so
Illustrate the sentences
-The drawing must show that you understand the essential sentence
-The drawing needs to be clear
-The drawing does not need to be great
–Stick figures are wonderful
Grading based on
–Relevance and pertinence of sentences
–Do these sentences tell us something essential?
–Do these sentences reveal something about the characters?
–Do these sentences move the story forward?
–Do these sentences speak to the theme of the story?
–Accuracy of writing
–Are the sentences written correctly on your paper?
–Depth of understanding as shown by drawings
–Do the drawings show that you understand the sentences?
–Do the drawings show that you understand connotations?
–Do the drawings show that you are making connections?
N.B.: The drawings do not have to be great artwork – that isn’t the point. They do have to convey your understanding of the reading.