Guidelines For Unfamiliar Material

The following guidelines are useful for subjects that may not be pre-testable because material is unfamiliar to students.

1. Alternative work extends the regular curriculum. Therefore, extension projects should earn at least a grade of B or the equivalent because the students are going beyond what is required.
2. All criteria for evaluation should be presented and understood before students begin an extended activity. Teacher expectations should be clearly stated.
3. Students earn a grade of B if the completed work represents typical research that merely reports secondary sources and if the presentation is properly made to an appropriate audience.
4. Students earn a grade of A if the completed work represents unique or creative research, provides evidence of primary sources, or represents an interesting or unusual synthesis of available data, or if the material is presented in an original manner.
5. It is important for students to understand that they need to be working productively during school time. If they do not follow the expected working conditions, they need to rejoin the regular instructional group and may be required to make up some of the regular work. If students become immersed in the topic and wish to continue beyond the expected date, they must provide a progress report at regular intervals.
6. If point systems, rubrics, or holistic assessment methods are used for other activities, these methods may also be used to evaluate students’ extended projects. Students may become engaged in the creation of the scoring rubrics and evaluate their own work as the project progresses by measuring their project against the rubric criteria. Responsibility for evaluating student work is then shared between teacher and students.