Holistic Rubric

Holistic Rubric for Tops and Bottoms Written Activity
Expert 3 points	·      List 3 edible plant middles for Hare ·      Compose complete sentences with capital letters  and punctuation ·      Accurate illustration of bear with the tops and bottoms and Rabbit with the middles ·      Clear written comparison and contrast between Bear and Rabbit’s plant parts with an explanation of why Bear was upset
Novice 2 points	·      List 2 edible plant middles for Hare ·      Compose complete sentences but lacking capital letters and proper punctuation ·      Illustration of  bear with the tops and bottoms and Rabbit with the middles but lacking in details ·      Somewhat clear  written comparison and contrast between Bear and Hare’s plant parts with an explanation of why Bear was upset
Apprentice 1 point	·      List 1 or fewer edible plant middles for Hare ·      Incomplete sentences lacking punctuation ·      Inadequate or no illustration of bear with the tops and bottoms and Rabbit with the middles ·      Unclear written comparison and contrast between Bear and Hare’s plant parts with little or no explanation of why Bear was upset

Assessment Plan

The purpose of this assessment plan is to assess student learning and exploration of the plant life-cycle.   At the end of this unit students will be able to identify and describe each stage of plant growth from seed to plant.   Hands-on activities involving planting, experimenting, and documenting observations will provide students with a deeper understanding of the needs of plants as well as the functions of the four main parts of the plant(root, stem, leaves and fruit).  Throughout the unit students will be exploring what part of plants are edible.

Activities:
Activity#1: Read a children's trade book and make connections to the different parts of plants we eat.

Learning Outcome: The learner will create a list of plants with edible parts, then using the list students will write sentences describing the edible part that Rabbit will get and the inedible parts that Bear will get. 

For the purpose of this activity we will focus on the edible science aspect of the story.
Click here for a reading of the story Tops and Bottoms 

• Read  Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens   Stop reading at p.24
• Create a list of plants that have edible middles (stem, some leaves)
• Write sentences to describe the part of the plant Hare would get and the parts of the plant that Bear gets
• Illustrate Hare with his edible parts of the plant and Bear with his inedible parts
• Compare what Hare and Bear got in the story and explain why Bear was upset
• After students have finished their assignment finish reading Tops and Bottoms

Activity #2: Plant 2-3 seeds of the same type and experiment with water, sunlight and soil quality

Learning Outcome:  The learner will experiment with different plant growing conditions and explain the results of his/her findings drawing conclusions of a plants needs for growth. 

• Plant seeds
• Students determine different tests they want to perform with at least 2 seeds
• Observe, document daily changes
• Compare and contrast the differences between each plant
• Draw conclusions about what seeds need to grow and stay alive

Assessment Context

Assessment Context

The  assessment plan set fort for this assignment involves the following activity and learning objectives

Activity#1: Read a children's trade book Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens and make connections to the different parts of plants we eat.

Learning Outcome: The learner will create a list of plants with edible parts, then using the list students will write sentences describing the edible part that Hare will get and the inedible parts that Bear will get. 

Book Summary: Bear is lazy and Hare offers to help him by planting and caring for the crops while Bear sleeps.   Each planting season Bear chooses if he wants the tops or bottoms of the crop planted.   Bear chooses the tops the first season so Hare plants all kinds of carrots, beets and potatoes.   At the end of the harvest Bear is upset and demands that Hare plant again and that next time he'll get the bottoms.   As you may have guessed Hare plants broccoli, lettuce and other plants that have edible tops.  Bear learns his lesson and starts planting his own crops where he gets the tops, bottoms and middles.

Here is a reading of the story Tops and Bottoms 

• Teacher will read  Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens   Stop reading at p.24
• Students will create a list of plants that have edible middles (stem, some leaves) using what they know about plants, picture dictionaries, textbooks and various other classroom resources
• Then students will write sentences to describe the part of each of the three plants Hare would get and the parts of the plant that Bear would get
• Next students will illustrate a picture of Hare with his edible parts of the plant and Bear with his inedible parts
• Lastly, students will compare what Hare and Bear got in the story and explain why Bear was upset
• After students have finished their assignment the teacher will finish reading Tops and Bottoms

This lesson is an integrated science, reading and writing  lesson.   The lesson involves reading a fiction trade book and drawing connections to real world situations involving edible plants.   Students will respond to the assignment using first grade second semester appropriate writing expectations.

Testing Constraints

Testing Constraints for this assessment plan will be time and materials.  Students will have 25 minutes to complete written and illustrated portion the activity.  Students will have access to picture dictionaries, their textbook and a few classroom materials that contain pictures and explanations of different types of edible plants that can be used for the activity.

Rationale for Test Items

 The classification test item  number one provides and opportunity for students to apply what they have learned about the parts of plants that we use as food.   Kuzbisyn and Borich(2010) make the statement, “Pictures, drawings, graphs, tables, and so on require the student to think at the application level of the taxonomy of  educational objectives and may involve even higher levels of cognitive processes.”  (p. 145).  I wanted to use pictures in this test item for multiple reasons.   First graders are still emerging readers and I don’t want to them to feel overwhelmed by all the text on the test but rather demonstrate what they have learned  about plants throughout the unit.   I’m not testing on their reading ability but rather on the objectives set forth at the beginning of the unit.  This test item involves higher cognitive processing skills as first graders sort and classify different food items.

Test item number two is fairly straightforward and coincides with the objective of observing, collecting and evaluating data from plant growth. Students will need to use the data they have collected during the assignment and deduce what things a plant needs in order to grow.  Taking into consideration the advice of  Kuzbisyn and Borich (2010) to make sure that my test items match the cognitive level of my learning objectives I added this test item.   It gives the student the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding and synthesis of plant needs and growth as a result of their hands-on experience.

Test items three and four  go right along with the learning objective; Students will describe the function of each of the four plant parts.  This is a basic knowledge question but is necessary to check for student understanding of the purpose of each plant part.   If there is a lack of understanding at this basic level then other interventions and re-teaching needs to take place.  Scoring if these items is highly objective and takes only a short time to grade.   Also, based on the time allotted to complete some of the other parts of the assessment these are quick test items that  allow more material to be tested in a short amount of time and gives the student an opportunity to shift gears.

The essay question for this assessment is a restricted response item because the response is limited to plant growth and is not applied to a novel situation.  Kubiszyn and Borich contend, “A well-constructed essay makes it easier for you to evaluate accurately the student’s response.” (Kubuszyn, Borich, 2010, p. 158).   The validity of this essay question will come from the scoring scheme or rubric that is designed to measure it.   This essay question gives students and opportunity to supply an answer based on their own exploration and investigation.   Organizing and thinking through their response in a minimum of four sentences is developmentally appropriate for second semester first graders. 

Reference
Kubiszyn, T., Boarich, G., (2010), Educational Testing and Measurement: Classroom Application     and Practice, 9th Edition. John Wiley & Sons.

Learning Outcomes

Unit Title:  Plants

Subject: Science

Grade Level: 1^st

Introduction:  The purpose of this unit of study is to teach students the four different parts of a plant (roots, stem, leaves and fruit) and their function as well as introduce the concept that some of these plant parts are edible.  This unit will consist of five instructional periods and will end with an individual hands-on classification activity to check for understanding.  

Some of the activities included in this unit are;

• Collecting and planting seeds from various sources
• Observing them as they grow. 
• Collecting and sorting different plants according to the part (root, stem, leaves, fruit) that is edible.   
• Read and compare different fiction and non-fiction books written about plants we eat.   Dramatize the plant life cycle.  

Reading Resources:  
  


Plants We Eat by Christine Peterson,

Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens

 From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons

Instructional Objective:  Students will observe, collect and evaluate data from plant growth day 0-day 15.

Learning Outcome:  Students will illustrate or describe the plant life cycle

Instructional Objective:  Students will describe the function of each of the four plant parts

Learning Outcome:  Students will write 1-2 sentences to explain the function of at least three different plant parts.

Instructional Objective: Students will identify edible plant parts (root, stem, leaves, fruit).

Learning Outcome:  Students will classify pictures of plants according to what part of the plant is edible with 90% accuracy.



Below are test items that correlate to these instructional objectives and learning outcomes:

1.            Classify each food item.   Write the name of each food item in the correct column.             Some foods may go into more than one column.

Plant Parts We Eat

Root	Stem	Leaf	Flower	Fruit

strawberry

asparagus

celery

lettuce

carrot

leek

potato

artichoke

banana