Will Richardson has bookmarked a site that inspires rethinking how we assess student learning.  The APA website has posted Using the New Bloom’s Taxonomy to Design Meaningful Learning Assessments. Researchers  Kevin Smythe and Jane Halonen provide a staircase graphic with “create” at the top, replacing Bloom’s “evaluate.” “Remember” remains at the bottom.  One more researched-based reason for eliminating AR multiple-chose testing from elementary computer curriculum…

For the past three or four years, many teachers in my district have been using the free online literacy program Star Fall with their primary grade students.  I’ve wondered about something along those lines for our older students. Thanks to Paul Turtola and the NCTE Talkies group, I just discovered an excellent freebie – http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/. Created  by Bill Zimmerman, who explains:

> As one who learned to read with comic books, I know that creating
> comic strips can help people tap into their creativity and practice
> their language and storytelling skills.  The site is free and stems
> from my lifelong mission to create resources that help people find
> their voice and express themselves. The concept for
> makebeliefscomix.com is derived from my earlier books, Make Beliefs
> and Make Beliefs for Kids of All Ages (which can be found on my other web site:  http://www.billztreasurechest.com).

Paul also shared his first use of this tool with a group of his high school students: “the assignment i gave them was to make comic strips with 10 vocabulary words. rather than just listing the words in the strip, they have to set up a situation that leads to the word, thereby providing context.”