Project-based Learning Contest

Study Island is excited to announce the launch of a new project-based learning contest. With this contest, we are giving our customers the opportunity to submit project-based learning activities and have them published within our products! In addition, they can win some great prizes including an Apple iPad 16 GB (WiFi), a $200 gift Amazon gift card, or a $100 Amazon gift card. To announce this contest, an email and a Message Center announcement will be sent to all current customers. Additionally, we will be posting a link to www.studyisland.com/pblcontest on the Teacher Page.

Here's how the contest will work:

• Grade-levels will be broken into four categories:
  K-2 3-5 6-8 HS
• Within each grade-level category customers can submit as many individual project-based learning activities as they would like, so long as the activities are their original work and they submit the corresponding entry forms for EACH submission. Each activity will be judged individually which will give them more opportunities to win a great prize!*
• Each grade-level category will have a first, second, and third place prize.
  
• All activities and corresponding entry forms are due no later than March 14, 2011 at 11:59 PM CST.
  
• Our panel of expert judges will review all entries and choose winners based on creativity, relevance, quality, and broad appeal.
  
• Winners will be announced on May 1, 2011. The best of the best will also be published in our products!
  

You can visit our new microsite with all of the contest details, rules, entry forms, and FAQs at www.studyisland.com/PBLcontest.

Please direct all additional questions to contest@studyisland.com.

Apple and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.
Amazon is a registered trademark of Amazon.com, Inc.
*Limited to one prize per person.

Common Formative Assessments Using Study Island

Study Island is much more than a drill ‘n’ kill/test-prep tool. Although there are many other new features like the paperless, digitized Writing Assignment, Parent Notification, LiveView, and Common Core Standards, I would like to highlight the Custom Assessment tool in this posting.

The custom assessment option allows teachers to create online assessments for one student in a class, a group of students in a class or an entire class. The teacher can browse through questions by topic or standard. He or she can select a topic question and tell the system how many of that type of question he or she would like included in the test.

The software will randomize the numbers in a math question or change the text in a language arts question. This allows the teacher to have multiple questions that assess the same skill.

By having the ability to create custom assessments, faculty members are able to quickly develop formative assessments that will help guide instruction. The fact that these assessments can be taken online, with a student response system (classroom “clicker”) or on paper provide a number of options.

The newest release of Study Island now allows teachers to share the custom assessments that they create with the other teachers in their school as part of the teachers’ Custom Assessment Library.

When implemented correctly, Study Island is a valuable instructional tool. The software offers numerous, actionable reports, customizable options and an intuitive interface. Teachers can collaborate by sharing not only the Custom Assessments but also the resulting data. Reports can even be automatically emailed to parents

This article was adapted from an original post from:
Mr. Walker's Technology Blog
Developing 21st Century Skills One BYTE at a Time
http://blogs.jefftwp.org/wordpress/walker/2011/01/31/common-formative-assessments-using-study-island/