Alternative Assessment with Make-a-Movie – A CBE Aha! Moment 3.20
Posted by cemignano on
We take great pride in our certification process and the fact that it leads to more student-centered teaching practices with BrainPOP. For more information on how our certification program positively impacts teaching, check out our efficacy report! In the following post, we’ll hear how March CBE of the Month, Jennifer Liang, has started using Make-a-Movie as a form of assessment.
1) Tell us your BrainPOP “Aha! Moment” from the certification process.
When I originally started using BrainPOP, I was just showing the videos in class and doing the quizzes as a group. As BrainPOP has evolved its offerings, I’ve adapted my teaching to take advantage of it. Make-a-Map was the first time I got really excited about using BrainPOP, because I saw the potential for an assessment tool that could be more flexible and finely tuned than just taking a quiz.
2) What is a specific lesson or unit you’ve taught in the past that you will re-formulate with BrainPOP?
One of the things I like to do at the beginning of a unit is give the BrainPOP quiz over the topic before we have even begun the unit. Then we do the work and afterwards take the quiz again and see the difference. I don’t take either quiz for a grade, this is purely for the student to see the growth they’ve made. It’s a teaching strategy that I learned from the Certified Educator course and it really works very well.
3) How will you integrate BrainPOP’s new features and tools to replace what you’ve done in the past?
One of our favorite tools to use on BrainPOP is Make-a-Movie. Many of my students have language delays and Make-a-Movie works really well as an alternative assessment. Being able to write out their text and have it read back to them really helps with getting ideas out. They do really well with creating imaginative backgrounds and characters for their videos. Some of my students have created a “cinematic BrainPOP Make-a-Movie universe” with recurring characters that crossover into each other’s work. It’s quite funny to see how creative they get with it.
