Assessment Piece

Unit

Canada’s Indigenous and the Justice System (Moving Forward: Establishing and Realizing)

This unit is created for English Language Arts 20. It will strive to have students examine Canada’s justice

system and analyze the overrepresentation of our Aboriginal population in our correctional facilities. Students

will use various forms of literature (novels, poems, and articles) to explore how outside factors including, but not

limited to, poverty, residential schooling, etc. continue to affect our indigenous populations and allow them to be

overrepresented in the justice system today. Students will begin to examine racial limitations in current news

stories, media and justice cases in Canada as well as make suggestions as to how to move forward from this

vicious cycle.
Performance Task

Throughout this unit, students will have two forms of “Assessment of Learning” to complete by end of unit.

The first task will be continuous throughout the unit and involve prompted journal entries displayed on a blog

that will be assigned and due throughout the unit. These journals will be further explained below. The second

performance task will be a current events presentation at the very end of the unit.

Blog Entries – As a requirement for this unit, students are asked to create a blog website using wordpress.com.

The teacher will provide prompts throughout the duration of the unit, and students will be asked to respond. This

will be a response to their main text The Ballad of Danny Wolfe. The students are asked to explain their thoughts

and make connections by utilization of critical thinking, while taking into consideration the impact of the contents

of the novel on Indigenous peoples and cultures in relation to class discussion. Using a blog will increase student’s

technological awareness and prepare them for the possible demands of high school and post-secondary

schooling. The blog postings will also be available to all students; therefore, the blogs will be a great resource for

all students to create a community of learning and contribute to mastery of the content.
Current Events Presentation – Students will use what they have learnt to display, in a form of their choice, a

current event (within the last 5 years), that depicts the criminal justice system in a way that either: correctly

handled an indigenous incarceration or justice effort or, a depiction of the justice system in Canada failing to

provide culturally adequate justice efforts. This project can be done in whatever form the students choose

whether that be a PowerPoint, a poster board, or using some other form of presentation that they choose. This

element of choice will allow students to use their individual strengths and display their learning in the best way

possible. Inquiry based learning is the goal of this project and will hopefully result in student awareness and

increased knowledge and enthusiasm of the unit content overall. The students will be expected to be creative,

have relevant information and provide a plausible argument for their position on the case. This project will aim to

have students explore current events in their country and educate their classmates on the importance and

prevalence of indigenous overrepresentation in the justice system. The presentation will be self and peer

assessed using a simplified rubric and will be used to determine a final grade in cooperation with the teacher’s

rubric, all of which are located below.

The following are two rubrics that I have chosen to grade each project. I have edited them to fit my performance

tasks and have them correlate with expectations I would have for these projects:
Current Events 4 - Excellent 3 - Good 2 - Fair 1 – Needs
Presentation Rubric Improvement
Delivery • Holds attention of • Some use of • Displays minimal  No eye contact
audience with direct eye eye contact with audience,
use of direct eye contact with with information all
contact, seldom audience, audience, read from
looking at notes, returns to while reading notes. No
is confident with notes mostly from confidence in
all material occasionally, the notes and material
only has little  Speaks in
• Speaks with confident confidence in inappropriate
appropriate with some material 
 volume with
volume and material no enthusiasm
inflection to • Speaks too causing
maintain • Speaks with quietly or too disengagement
attention
 volume but loudly with
limited little or no
inflection inflection

Content/Connections • Provides clear • Has somewhat • Attempts to • Does not clearly

purpose and clear define define subject
subject; includes purpose and purpose and and purpose;
examples, facts, subject; subject; provides weak
and/or statistics; some provides or no support
supports examples, 
 weak of subject;
conclusions/ideas facts, and/or examples, gives no
 with evidence statistics that facts, and/ or support for
support the statistics, ideas or
• Discusses relevance subject; which do not conclusions 

to unit material includes adequately
and makes clear some data or support the • No connection
connections for evidence subject; made between
classmates to that supports includes unit content
understand conclusions limited data and
or evidence presentation
• Provides 

connections
with limited • Little or no
explanation connection
to explained
classmates between
content and
unit, weak
connections
made

Enthusiasm/Awareness • Demonstrates strong • Shows some • Shows little or • Shows no interest

enthusiasm and enthusiastic mixed in topic
position about feelings feelings presented with
topic during about topic about the no clear
entire and has topic being position 

somewhat presented,
 presentation 
 clear doesn’t not • Fails to increase
position choose a audience
• Significantly throughout clear position awareness of
increases presentation on the topic knowledge of
audience 
 topic
understanding Raises audience
and knowledge awareness about • Raises audience
of topic; chosen case/topic awareness
convinces an with most points and
audience to knowledge of
recognize the few points 

validity of their
position and
importance of the
subject
Blog Assessment 4 - Excellent 3 - Good 2 - Fair 1 – Needs Improvement
Content Response to prompt is Response to Response addresses Does not respond to the
thorough and well prompt is some aspects of the prompt, or written
written, with varied thoughtful and prompt but not all. opinion is unrelated to the
sentence structure and fairly well Opinions or prompt
supported with facts written. Most statements based on
based on research or opinions incorrect or
class discussion supported with unsupported
facts information
Idea Development/Connections Excellent use of Good examples Limited development Personal ideas or opinions
examples and detail in and details of of personal ideas and not present, no
connections to explore connections to opinions, examples connections made to
prompt and develop develop ideas not consistently prompt
personal ideas and and opinions evident, connections
opinions through unclear
educated lens
Organization Very logically organized. Contains Ideas discussed Entry has no introduction,
Contains clear introduction, randomly, entry lacks development of ideas or
introduction, idea some defined introduction, conclusion
development and development of idea development and
resulting conclusion ideas and conclusion
conclusion
Mechanics Flawless spelling and Few spelling Several spelling and Numerous incorrect
punctuation, errors. Some punctuation errors. spelling and punctuation.
minor
 grammatical risks taken punctuation Lacking grammatical No grammatical risks
and succeeded in use mistakes. risks taken
Grammatical
risks taken but
unsuccessful
Peer/Self Presentation Rubric 4 - Excellent 3 - Good 2 - Fair 1 – Needs Improvement
Delivery Holds attention of Holds attention Minimal eye contact, No eye contact or
audience with volume of audience read mostly from confidence in material,
and is very confident with some use notes. Little reading from notes
of notes. confidence, speaks
Confident with quietly
most material
Content/Organization Has clear purpose and Has somewhat Unclear purpose and No clear purpose or
lots of examples. clear purpose weak examples. Little examples. No connection
Connects with unit with some or no connection made between content
clearly examples. explained and unit
Provides
connections
without
explanation
Enthusiasm/Awareness Strong enthusiasm and Some Shows mixed feelings
position. Increases enthusiasm, about topic. Raises No interest or position on
audience awareness on clear position audience awareness topic. Does not increase
project content and raises with few points awareness or knowledge
awareness with on topic
most points
Justification

Both of these performance tasks will be used throughout the unit for various reasons. The blog postings are

both assessment for learning and assessment of learning. The blogs will be used for both teacher purposes; to

keep track of development and progress throughout the unit, and for class betterment. The students will have

access to their classmate’s blogs in order to gain knowledge through each other and view other’s opinion on the

same subject matter. I chose a rubric to assess both the blog posts and the presentation because I wanted the

students to have consistency in their marking and room for movement on the grade scale. Each student will be

given a rubric prior to beginning their performance tasks.

Each individual blog post will be graded using the rubric so that students can see what they need to

improve upon for their next posting. The areas being marked apply directly to the assignment and have clear

expectations laid out for student success. Because each post will be marked separately, there is ample
opportunity for feedback and communication about what is expected regarding standards. The blog allows for

consistent improvement and multiple opportunities to develop over the course of the unit. If a student is failing

to demonstrate the expected learning, intervention can take place in the form of a meeting with a student and

discussing reasoning for their challenges. Alternative forms of this assignment could be written journaling (if

technology is the challenge), or oral conversations about the content that can be marked with the same criteria.

These blog posts align with the outcomes of ELA 20: Comprehend and Respond. The blog postings will largely

pertain to their novel The Ballad of Danny Wolfe, and they will be expected to connect this text with other First

Nations material discussed in class fulfilling outcome CR 20.1 - View, listen to, read, comprehend, and respond to

a variety of grade-appropriate First Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan, Canadian, and international texts that address

identity, social responsibility and social action. The blog will also require comprehension of material throughout

the unit, and exploration of ideas beyond that discussed in the classroom. Students will have to express their

educated opinions on FNIM material and text connecting to the outcome CR 20.4 - Read and demonstrate

comprehension and appreciation of grade-appropriate informational (including instructions and procedural texts)
and literary (including fiction, nonfiction, script, poetry, and essays) First Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan, Canadian,

and international texts.

. The current events presentation will be the end of unit project for students to demonstrate their

progressive learning and challenge their extension of the unit beyond comprehension. This will be an assessment

of learning. Students will receive the rubric for the assignment at the beginning of the unit in order to allow them

to be thinking of their project throughout the unit and give numerous opportunities for questions and check-ins

with the teacher. This will allow students to understand what is expected of them and what they have options for

in regard to the project format. This rubric will be familiar to the students by end of unit because of their

experience with it being used for their blog postings ensuring communication of standards is consistent. Having

the students be peer and self-assessed will also practice their agency and contribute to their final mark, making

them an integral part of the marking process. This will result in the students knowing specifically where their

mark comes from as opposed to relying solely on teacher feedback and opinion. Intervention planning for this

performance task will only happen before the project is due. Teacher will check in with every student during class

time, making sure they have a plan that sets them up for success prior to presenting their information. This
assignment has the opportunity to fulfill outcome CR 20.2 (View, comprehend, and develop coherent and

plausible interpretations of informational and literary First Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan, Canadian, and

international texts that use specialized visual features including illustrations, photographs, art works, maps,

charts, graphs). This project also demonstrates outcome CR 20.3 (Listen to, comprehend, and develop coherent

and plausible interpretations of grade-appropriate informational and literary First Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan,

Canadian, and international texts, including spoken instructions, and argumentative and persuasive speeches) by

allowing students to explore and interpret the case of their choosing and responding via presentation of First

Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan, Canadian, and international text.

References

Saskatchewan Curriculum | English Language Arts 20. (2018). Curriculum.gov.sk.ca. Retrieved 3 February
2018, from https://www.curriculum.gov.sk.ca/webapps/moe-curriculum-
BBLEARN/CurriculumOutcomeContent?id=38&oc=75001

Oral Presentation Rubric. (2018). Readwritethink.org. Retrieved 23 October 2017, from

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/printouts/30700_rubric.pdf

Rubric for Assessing a Journal Entry. (2018). Rcs.k12.in.us. Retrieved 3 February 2018, from
http://www.rcs.k12.in.us/files/Rubric%20for%20Assessing%20a%20Journal%20Entry.pdf