Rubrics and competency quest

Competency instruction is a way of designing a course so that students get all essential elements rather than just 70% of all elements. In the past, I have not structure my classes this way, but I may do so in the future.

To show that I am competent at designing course competencies, I have designed competencies for a physics lesson on analyzing graphs.  Here is the Georgia Performance Standard for which I have designed competencies.  In my example, I am teaching students how to compare the relationships among position, velocity, and acceleration graphically.

SP1.C Compare graphically and algebraically the relationships among position, velocity, acceleration, and time. 

Before designing my competencies, I need will specify learning objectives.

1. Interpret points on graphs.
2. Interpret the slopes of graphs.
3. Interpret the areas of graphs.


In order to learn these skills and how they apply to physics, students will complete a number of assignments from the chart below.  They will either a) read the section in the book on interpreting graphs and write a summary of the reading or b) watch three videos - one on interpreting points, one on interpreting slopes, and one on interpreting areas - and write a summary of each.  All students will do the motion graph worksheets.  Students will either do the constant velocity lab or the constant acceleration lab.  These are open ended labs where the students design their own experiments.

Learning objective	Assignments	Competency indicator
Interpret points on a motion graph	*worksheet on reading points *read section on interpreting graphs and write a summary *watch video on interpreting points and write a summary *motion graph worksheet *constant velocity lab *constant acceleration lab	*make a slideshow presentation on how to read points on a graph *write a paragraph length essay explaining the meaning of indicated points on motion graphs
Interpret slope on a motion graph	*worksheet on reading slope *read section on interpreting graphs and write a summary *watch video on interpreting slope and write a summary *motion graph worksheet *constant velocity lab *constant acceleration lab	*make a slideshow presentation on how to read slopes on motion graphs *write a paragraph length essay explaining the meaning of indicated slopes and how slopes change on motion graphs
Interpret area on motion graph	*worksheet on reading area *read section on interpreting graphs and write a summary *watch video on interpreting area and write a summary *motion graph worksheet *constant velocity lab *constant acceleration lab	*make a slideshow presentation on how to read areas on motion graphs *write a paragraph length essay explaining how to interpret slopes on motion graphs

In the introductory learning, the students have the opportunity to read about graphing or to watch videos about graphing.  In either case, they have to produce something (a summary) to show their learning.  Below is a link to a youtube video that I could use for part of the assignment. (I did not create the video.)

All students would have to do seperate assignments (worksheets, which could be converted to online quizzes with feedback for wrong answers) for interpreting points, interpreting slopes, and interpreting area.  All students would be required to do the motion graph worksheet as well.

The students could then choose between several lab activities.  These would all be open response, student produced labs.  The students would be given a task and have to design their own lab.  They may be asked to measure the speed of a contant velocity cart, to measure the acceleration due to gravity, or to analyze the motion of a ball rolling down an incline for examples.  Below is a written text description of one such activity.

I would be checking skills for mastery from each assignment.  Each assignment would be categorized and a certain number of points for successfully completing it would be assigned to each competency (learning objective).  As a final competency indicator, students would either choose to write paragraphs explaining different ways to interpret graphs, make a slideshow presentation explaining how to interpret graphs, or some combination of the two.  These would also have point values assigned.  If a student reached  a set number of points, he would receive credit for the competency.

It'd be possible for the student to get credit for reading the slope of a graph and not get credit for reading the area.  Hopefully, the student would master all three, but using competency indicators gives more information than simply one test on reading graphs.

For this section, set up a competency structure for one unit of your sample course. Associate the assignments in that unit with the competency. Submit both a screenshot of the structure and a detailed explanation of why you created the structure that way. Include a discussion of the various pathways a student may go through to attain the competencies in the unit and document all in your blog.

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