Community of Friends Performance Assessment
PKL: Performance-Based assessments, KUD, Learning Scales
Performance-Based Assessment(s):
Pre-Assessment
Personal Growth Data Scale – need to develop
Community of Friends for Evidence Evaluation
Description of the Community of Friends (COF) Assessment:
Personalizing one’s learning is a complex process that asks the learner to not only participate in the learning process but also to plan the
learning processes they will use. That planning involves posing and developing strong inquiry questions, researching topics of interest in a
variety of ways, and creating interesting and engaging forms of evidence of the learning process. Development and refinement of the evidence is
the central focus of the Community of Friends Protocol. Full-time students are asked to present a unique piece of evidence for each of the PL
Competency Learning Targets. The learner develops and poses a question about their evidence for the listeners to discuss and respond to in the
form of constructive feedback. The COF protocol allows the learner to present their evidence, receive warm and cool feedback about it related
to the strength the evidence provides in demonstrating their learning, their ability to interact productively within a learning community, and
revise and adapt their evidence from feedback. COF groups are made up of a consistent team of full-time learners, Advisors and possibly
community participants in the form of visitors to PL, mentors, or experts in the topic area.
The general agenda for each formative performance assessment will be:
Icebreaker: Discuss each other's Diigo entries to share resources
1. Update the group with your work as of now: answering who, what, how, when, where, why questions.
2. Share evidence you've created so far by showing what you've made and linked to your Competency Checklist.
3. Come with your own question or dilemma about your work that you'd like the group to discuss.
4. The group discusses and provides feedback.
5. You get to respond to their questions and ideas.
Learners will have the opportunity to participate in COF groups 4-5 times in a formative environment. Feedback on the COF Learning Targets
will be provided after each formative assessment using the Community of Friends Learning Scales (Rubric). The final COF of the semester will
be summative and reflected as part of the final semester report.
Degree of Transfer:
The learning requires a high Degree of Transfer because learners will be practicing this using evidence they create related to their topics of interest which
will determine their success at meeting the Competency Proficiencies, and the performance will require all 4 Depths of Knowledge.
Goal: The Community of Friends protocol is a meeting where learners, Advisors and sometimes outside experts or community members come
together to discuss learner’s evidence for demonstrating meeting the Proficiencies of the Mt. Abraham UMHS Competencies.
Role: Peer reviewer, active listener, supportive learner
Audience: On a regular basis: Peers in the discussion group (who will remain the same for the semester), at least one PL Team Advisor
On an occasional basis: Experts or mentors from the community, visitors or invited guests to the PL spaces
Scenario: Students will participate in this modified tuning protocol in order to improve their evidence by learning about new resources, going
deeper into their topic content or making new or deeper connections to the Mt. Abraham Competencies.
Product: Revised evidence based on warm and cool feedback and a self-assessment of participation in the process of the COF
Success Criteria/Rubric: See below.
Know.Understand and Do for Community of Friends Protocol:
Know
Understand
Do
(particular facts/terms
associated with the learning)
(limited # big ideas that recur
across topics )
(transferable skills aligned with school-wide outcomes)
Common terms/facts:
Learners who participate in a
Community of Friends
process learn that mutual
feedback produces best
learning and products with
depth of knowledge in a
chosen content area.
Advisor
Evidence
Mentor
Competency Checklist
Community Placement
PL Website
Library Agreement
Off-site Work Co
5 Mt.Abraham UMHS
Competencies
Inquiry
Annotated Bibliography
Peer feedback
Advisor feedback
Community of Friends Learning
Scales
Competency
Dimension
Skills
Inquiry Methods
Student Generated:
Demonstration of Topic Content: How do I prepare my Community of Friends
presentation to receive feedback to improve my evidence? How do I demonstrate what I
am learning about my topic(s) to my peers and advisors?
I regularly creating items to illustrate and display learning accurately as well as record
evidence, allowing for demonstration of proficiency in the skills in the personal and
learning areas I have set goals around.
Interact Productively: How have I interacted with others productively in a dynamic
Practicing learning in a
dynamic environment creates
opportunities to learn from a
variety of resources.
Knowing how to develop
quality, complex questions
brings learners to deep and
meaningful learning
opportunities.
environment?
I work in a dynamic environment to accept and give feedback on evidence generated by
myself and others, allowing for demonstration of meeting competency proficiencies.
Adapt from Feedback: How do I manage feedback from others?
I can thoughtfully consider and discuss feedback before making changes to my evidence
and I openly solicit feedback from others.
Inquiry: How do I manage feedback from others?
I practice developing strong questions and investigating a variety of resources about my
topic through regular contact in the community and learning environment, allowing for
reflection on my personal interests and inspiring my learning.
Community of Friends - Personalized Learning Formative Performance Assessment
Extending
Community of Friends
(COF) Content
How do I prepare my
Community of Friends
presentation to receive
feedback to improve my
evidence?
How do I demonstrate
what I am learning about
my topic(s) to my peers
and advisors?
I have a clear purpose
and subject for the COF
discussion.
I can provide multiple
examples of Common
Products and selfdesigned evidence that
supports my learning.
I can demonstrate full
knowledge of my topic
by answering all COF
questions with
explanations and
elaboration.
Proficient
I have a clear purpose question and
subject for the COF discussion.
I can provide examples of Common
Products (examples: Annotated
Bibliography entries, Diigo entries and/or
Reading Demonstrations), as well as selfdesigned evidence that supports my
learning.
I can answers all questions related to my
presented evidence.
Developing
Getting Started
I have determined the
general ideas I want to
present to the COF
group.
I am becoming familiar with
the COF purpose and how to
ask questions to help improve
my evidence.
I have created my first
draft of Common
Products and drafting
self-designed evidence
of my learning.
I am becoming familiar with
what the Common Products
are by reviewing the models
and beginning to construct my
own pieces.
I can respond to some
of the questions posed
in the COF.
I am working with my Advisors
to learn how to develop selfdesigned evidence of my
learning.
I can respond to some of the
questions posed in the COF.
Evidence:
PL Collaboration:
Interact Productively
How have I interacted
with others productively
in a dynamic
environment?
I can facilitate
interactions in the COF
process with my peers.;
I am able to problem
solves during the COF
process.
I reflect on my own role
in group and seek to
adjust for best results for
all COF participants.
I encourage others by providing appropriate
both warm and cool feedback.
I participate appropriately in different roles
in the group. (Roles: Presenter, listener,
discussion participant)
I work to identify resources for the group
through my suggestions.
I am an active listener to
others’ ideas and
feedback.
I have a fluctuating ability to
focus on others’ ideas and
feedback.
I participate appropriately
in some roles in the
group. (Roles:
Presenter, listener,
discussion participant)
I am learning about the
different roles I can play in the
COF process.
I contribute my own
resources to group.
I am learning about how to
share my resources with
others in the COF process.
Evidence:
PL Collaboration
I can consistently reflect
I can thoughtfully consider and discuss
I welcome feedback and
I am becoming familiar with
Adapt from Feedback
How do I manage
feedback from others?
and improve work with
very little guidance.
I can continuously make
changes to most
effectively reach my
goals as a result of using
the COF process..
feedback before making changes.
can apply it to revisions.
I can solicit feedback from others both in
the COF process.
I regularly reflect on my
evidence and seek to
improve it.
the idea of feedback and how
to apply it to my evidence.
I am beginning ask for
guidance to reflect and
improve my evidence.
Evidence:
PL Personal
Development & SelfAwareness
Inquiry
I update and maintains a
list of current and future
ideas and questions
during the COF process.
What do I do to generate
ideas and questions to
pursue?
I can listens for
opportunities to create or
improve evidence during
the COF process.
I use research to
generate new ideas from
ideas generated in the
COF process.
Evidence:
I can regularly reflect on personal interests
and surroundings to generate ideas.
I can create questions that allow my to go
in-depth in a variety of ways in my topic
area.
I can reach out to colleagues and peers for
inspiration during the COF process.
I look to my own interests
and ideas for potential
evidence of my learning..
I regularly identify
resources to find
questions of interest,
sometimes with
assistance from peers
and Advisors.
I am beginning to use my
peers and Advisors to
generate my interests and
project topics.
I am becoming familiar with a
process to develop my
questions to pursue with the
help of Advisors.