Here's a thorough way to catch students doing something correctly. it's good for motivation and "self control" and the form communicates to students that they have the choice to improve their grade. They get a message from the teacher that self-generated projects are valued.
Monday (10) ___ ______________
Tuesday (10) ___ Name
Weds. (10) ___ Date: ____________
Thursday (10) ___
Friday (10) ___ Participation ____
Special Projects (40) ____
Write to a penpal Talk on Skype
Make a poster Write something 954.646.8246
Talk to a camera Talk about a city
Learn 10 new words (human body and problems)
(words for my job) (business words)
I switched my social network to English
I found the teacher on Facebook / tuenti / Orkut
Call the teacher (phone English practice)
Select songs and videos for the China/Iran DVD project
Write about songs and videos: What happened in the song?
What is it about? Why do you like it? What changes from start to end?
Other: _________________________________
Portfolio (10) ____
You can show your portfolio to your next teacher. “This is what I did.”
Then you can choose your next homework.
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Total (100) ____ Send 5 sentences per day to TLASteve@gmail.com

Procedure (how to use this sheet)
1. Write some of the projects that you have observed each student doing.
2. Ask the students to assess themselves.
3. Write in the daily participation numbers (Mon-Fri) and give the total.
4. Paste the assessment in the student's folder.

By Steve McCrea, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

I benefited greatly from reading works by Lois Hetland, Howard Gardner, Dennis Littky (The Big Picture, ASCD.org) and Dr. Abraham Fischler (TheStudentIsTheClass.com). Dennis Yuzenas (WhatDoYaKnow.com) has been my mentor.