Explain Everything Perfect Tool For Analyzing Text in an American Literature Assessment

About a month ago, American Literature Teacher, Ms. Rheingans, wanted to assess students in a different manner than paper and pencil.

She created a tremendous document of reading options for students.  Once six texts were analyzed by students, they needed to take a screen shot of the text, place it into an Explain Everything slide, and SPEAK about the connection that they had to the piece and the connection to American Literature.

View The Moderns Project

View Students At Work
Students knew the requirements prior to starting the process.  View Rubric

American Literature Using Explain Everything to Discuss

Students used Explain Everything to show what they knew to the instructor.  The question posed to them was "Is Emerson's philosophy about individualism a real possibility for society? Why or Why Not?

Ms. Rheingans stated, "As I was listening to these, I was so amazed at how well I was able to see how much they actually understood from reading."

In my opinion, having students "show what they know" provides some truthful insight as to whether they understand and can communicate their understanding.  A traditional multiple choice test may not provide this type of insight.  Of course, there is a time and place for every type of assessment.

This appeared to be the right time and place for students using Explain Everything.