Examples of Evaluation Tools From CLL Curricula


CONNECTING LEARNING AND LIVING (CLL) combines Growing in the Garden, Where We Live, and Food, Land & People curricula with the purpose of connecting student learning to living on planet Earth. Students remember and apply a variety of subject matter areas and thinking skills through hands-on lessons. This purpose statement is backed by research that says when students have an opportunity to experience and apply what they learn they will remember it better. The next step after correlating CLL curricula with the Iowa Test of Basic Skills is to conduct studies to determine if there is a connection CLL curricula and ITBS test scores.

Evaluation tools are written into all the CLL lessons in the form of activity sheets, verbal questions, activities, reports, or other assignments. The tools will indicate how well the students accomplished the Content AND Life Skill Objectives written at the first of the lessons. An INDICATOR is written on the first page of the Growing in the Garden and Where We Live lessons. Examples of indicators include:

• Find and sort items into living and nonliving things.
  
• Select and place foods in the correct food groups with the most foods in the grains, vegetables, and fruits groups.
  
• Plant a flower that will attract butterflies.
  
• Draw the photosynthesis cycle.
  
• Identify and locate Iowa's geological resources and their uses.
  
• Identify nearby heroes and find ways to help other recognize them.
  
• Create a food web with cards or a puzzle or poster as an example of value-added agriculture.
  
• Prepare a snack using at least four food safety steps. Create a food safety flow chart from farm to table.
  
• Write a poem comparing oneself to something found outdoors on the land.
  
• List ways in which people use soil, complete data sheets from plant experiment, and complete homework assignment to identify ways people conserve soil.

If students complete the DO, REFLECT, and APPLY sections as written, there is usually an assignment within the lesson that can be used to measure achievement of the lessons objectives and progress on standards and benchmarks.