Yup. It's like the books. Except instead of choosing if they turn to page 6 or page 49 (and maybe ending up in quicksand), your students choose…their assignments.

That's right.

Pirate Quest or a Night at the Opera?

After your students finish devouring a bit of content (a chapter in their science texts, a novel, a math unit, research on WWII), you give them a handy list of potential assignments they can elect to complete, with each type of assignment worth a certain number of points.

Here are some examples:

• An illustration of a specific scene from a novel or a full-page comic explaining a mathematical concept (or other drawing-related exercise) may be worth 20 points.
• A 3-5-page essay (some students do rock it with writing) might be worth 40 points.
• A poem culled from words and phrases in a novel or written to illustrate the impact of a historical event could be a 10-pointer.
• A song that illustrates a concept or illuminates a theme could be worth 20 points recorded, 30 points performed live.
• A model, a video, a book review, a mathematical proof—30, 20, 40, 50, or whatever you decide.

Once you have a variety of assignments (and keep in mind: you can generate these ideas on your own or with your students), students must choose enough of them to reach a pre-determined total of points. For example, 100. Prefer 236? We'll leave it to you.

Then comes the adventure-choosing bit.

One student may choose two 30-point assignments, two tenners, and a 20, while another student may choose two 50-pointers. You'll want your list to be B-I-G so that students can find plenty of options that appeal to them. (That might be an argument for creating the list and the point values with your students, since they're sure to have ideas they'd want to take on.)

And just like that, the adventure is underway.

Grading the Adventure

We know, sounds a lot less fun when you remember you have to grade everything they do. But…we have an idea. It's called peer-assessment.

What better way to help lighten your load?

Here's how it goes:

The students fill out a project tracker form to keep track of the assignments they've chosen. They run their completed forms past a peer or two so that someone can double check their addition, and then they get to work.

And yes (since you asked), you can definitely give them class time to work on these projects. Imagine your classroom humming with activity as students reflect, analyze, and delve deeper into the content you've been working on for the past month. If you're a teacher, that should be a pretty nice out-of-body experience for you.

Onto the assessments themselves. When students complete their assignments, they should have them assessed by not one, but two of their peers. Which means you can create three-person groups for this purpose or let students choose their own assessors. If you go with the latter choice, you may need to stipulate that no student can act as an assessor for more than one (or two, or three) other students.

And also be wary of friendly grade inflation.

Just saying.

After reviewing the work, peer assessors should award a portion of the point value for each assignment (up to the total point value) and note it on the project tracker and assessment form. Then they total the points they have awarded and initial next to that total in the space provided.

Just like real paper-pushers.

Once this process is completed, students can either turn in everything (assignments and project tracker/assessment forms) to you for your okay, or you can just collect the forms and have students exhibit their work in the room for everyone (including you) to see. That way, you can walk around with the forms and see if anything seems out-of-whack.

If you feel that a student deserves far more (or far fewer) points than she was awarded, schedule a meeting with the student and the assessors to talk it over. Or, if everything seems kosher, the exhibit is yours to enjoy.

Wrap It Up

To tie it all together, give any students who wish to present their work to the class a chance to do so. Then provide closure for the whole class by talking through the process. The questions below are just ideas. Good ideas, but ideas nonetheless. No hard-and-fast rules here.

1. What was your favorite project out of the ones you completed?
2. Are you happy with the assignments you chose? Do you wish you had chosen differently? If so, why?
3. How did you feel about assessing your peers' work? Was it difficult? Why or why not?
4. Do you feel like you were fairly assessed? Why or why not?
5. What did you learn from completing your assignments, or how did they help you look at or understand the material in a new way?

And now that you've worked in some stellar self-reflection, consider the assignment complete. That is—consider the treasure un-dug, the dragon slain, or…the teacher gratified.

Aw yeah.