Based on the skills and content that should be addressed and the agreed-upon characteristics of quality, teachers (or more powerfully, students and teachers) identify the important targets on which the project will be assessed.

For example, if the task is to create a poster showing what students have learned about ancient Greece, the non-negotiables might include:

1. The poster has to be 2 ft. by 3 ft.
2. It must represent culture, politics, religion, and architecture.
3. It must include a timeline.
4. There must be a title and caption for each illustration or photo explaining why it is important.
5. There needs to be a map of ancient Greece.
6. There has to be an example of how a particular aspect of ancient Greece affects our culture today.

For example, characteristics of a quality poster might include: organized, good use of color, effective use of space, creative, pleasing to the eye, accurate illustrations.

Help students form a picture of each characteristic of quality. Look at student work and professional models to name the attributes of weak and strong work. What does “organized” look like? What makes illustrations accurate? How can color enhance meaning? What is effective use of space, fonts, contrast? What does “creative” look like?

For rubrics, explain the difference between levels of quality.

For example, lessons might focus on organization, determining importance, synthesis, word choice, sentence fluency, citation, layout, lettering, and illustration.

They need to assume responsibility for their own learning. They can assess themselves on the rubric or checklist at different points in the process.

We have to teach them how to give descriptive feedback, based on the rubric, which is kind, specific and helpful. It is useful for the teacher to run formal critique sessions with the whole class to model how to analyze and improve selected aspects of the work; students can then formally and informally use this model in peer critique.

Students need to focus revision on one skill, concept, or strategy at a time. Ideally, each significant revision is followed by critique and feedback, possibly with more instruction.

Move around the room and support as many students as possible with brief check-ins that are focused on the target at hand. Particularly important is a final gateway conference, before a student produces a final draft.

Knowing that the work will be presented to an audience beyond the classroom creates a need to care about quality. The more formal the audience or exhibition, the more powerful the urgency and excitement will be.

Let students ponder: What did I do well? Where did I meet the learning targets? Where did I fall short? What do I need to work on to reach them next time? What did I learn from creating this product? What did I learn from engaging in the project as a whole?