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The scavenger hunt assignment is an activity to promote and facilitate students to move beyond skimming towards more meaningful, engaged deep reading. It can be used for a full text or a series of readings. Students create a series of ten quiz questions and an answer key based on the content of reading material for a particular week. Students are responsible for 2 chapters/readings.

It is recommended to allow students to work solo, in partners, or in groups up to 4. Instructor pairs up question creators with question responders based on group size and week.

Questions must be right or wrong, can be multiple choice or short answer but not essay or interpretive questions.

Quizzes are disseminated in the last 2 weeks of the course as a final exam. Students in groups must work together to collaborate and ensure they agree with each others’ answers.

Criteria

• Total Grade: 20%
  • Construction of HUNT and answer key 10%
  • Doing classmates’ HUNT 5%
  • Assessing classmates’ response 5%

Rubric

Peer and Self Assessment (Group / Partner work)

• Course name and number and term/year
• Title of the project on which you worked.
• Your name
• The names of the other members in your group
• Provide an assessment of yourself based in the criteria/elements listed below (grade out of /10)
• Provide an assessment of the other members of your group based in the criteria/elements listed below (grade out of /10)
• Comment on the group’s overall functioning based in the criteria/elements listed below.

Self and peer assessment criteria/elements:

• Respectful interactions with each other
• Abiding by the agreements made about the project and the distribution of tasks
• Using compromise and negotiation for disagreements
• Being flexible regarding contingencies
• Timely communication
• Timely task completion
• Commitment to understanding and implementing/applying course material
• Willingness to plan and share responsibility
• Open communication regarding challenges/ conflicts/ problems
• Seeking assistance when necessary

Group functioning elements:

• Awareness of a balance between task focus and human focus
• Equal contribution to grunt work and preparation
• Able to consider many alternatives and approaches to build/design the project
• Commitment to the project
• Able to put aside differences for the good of the project in the spirit of trust and respect
• Timelines set and accountability built in
• Realistic goal setting given the abilities and contingencies of group members

Technology Used

Questions and answer key are submitted using the assignment tool.

Quizzes are disseminated, answered, and peer graded using forum discussion boards

Facilitation Tips

This activity requires extensive organizational skills and input from the instructor to match the groups, assign readings, and disseminate quizzes, and allocate grades.

It can be resource intensive but students find that this activity does help their learning and encourages them to read more deeply. Since students are grading each other, some time should be given to the importance of feedback as there can be push back on peer grading. This assignment was used in a course with many students who want to become teachers so the construction of assessments is a core skill and desired learning outcome.

Student Work Examples

See De Lio, CHYS 3P30, Scavenger Hunt Example