Alternative+Assessments+-+NLU

=Creative Journaling= ===Linda, an elementary art teacher used creative journaling, the very tool which was at the heart of her research question, as her own medium for journal reflections. She and the students filled their journaling sketchbook pages with a series of visual prompts related to design elements, art history or self expression; then each week both she and her students wrote and visually embellished the pages to express their understanding of the prompts.===

=Sculpture = == ===Leah, a secondary art teacher, did her educational autobiography in the form of a schoolhouse created out of wood, a virtual shrine treated with various paints and finishes and filled with artifacts memorializing her educational journey. Her literature review also took the shape of a sculptural dress as a metaphor for pedagogy transformed over time. The breastplate was made of firm, yet not impervious, materials embossed with hand-written research reflections, ideas, quotations, imagery. The free-flowing skirt made of partially new, partially recycled materials represented the mix and movement of new ideas and traditional ideas made new again, and the need for the educator to continually renew and re-invent herself as a role model of lifelong learning. In her willingness to follow a creative path in pursuing her research question, “How does modeling artistic creativity affect the classroom community or climate?” she became the embodiment of her answer.===

=**Visual Journals **= ===**Cara**, a secondary art teacher used her mother’s pre-electronic red English grade book as the counterpoint for her **educational visual autobiography**. She pasted over the traditional linear pages with the rich artifacts of her life, interwoven with her sketches and written reflections and splashed with the colors and textures of her experiences.  Her **action research project**, a variation on this, took the form of a SnapFish published book of 84 scanned journal pages of two students and snapshots of others during downtime throughout a semester. Using the same diversity of media as she did in her autobiography, they reconstructed their teenage worlds as they reached deeply inside and represented themselves visually and verbally. The published book as a product is an exceptional example of rich artistic self expression; but even more extraordinary is the growth process it underlies. As reflected by Cara in the introduction, “It became a thing of organic growth as students began to appreciate their thoughts more and acquire a sense of self expression. It was powerful to watch them initiate the journal process in the classroom themselves. Watching them work on their own, makes me think they will continue these journals on their own time.” ===

** Alternative Journals **

===** Jason **, a secondary art and philosophy teacher, created journals filled with quotations, pictures from old text books, planning notes, debriefings on his classes, sketches and trial runs of projects planned for students and reflections on the big issues of his curriculum. ===



===** Holly **, a secondary English teacher, created a combination scrapbook/journals filled with memorabilia from her classroom and her experiences as a teacher, interwoven with her own reflections. ===


 * Dialogue Journal **
 * Two kindergarten teachers, Pat and Andrea researching the same question did their Literature Review by sharing their reflections in an electronic dialogue journal. Each journal traced a pathway through the literature; each reflected on the readings, and periodically they passed the journal to the other for feedback. A richly nuanced dialogue resulted. **


 * PowerPoint Presentations **
 * Tami, a secondary special education teacher, presented both her literature review and her action research in a PowerPoint, inserting audio and video for a complete multi-representational presentation, which in her own words, was as much about process as it was about the finished product.. **