Summative Assessment: Creating a Toolbox for Racial Justice

While the activities listed below are designed to introduce the toolbox project, students will likely need additional time either in or outside of class to finish the project. We encourage teachers to set further guidelines and deadlines for this project that meet the needs of their students. Consider designating a space in your classroom or school to display students’ completed toolboxes.

There are many ways to incorporate toolboxes in the classroom, depending on your goals and the time available. Students can “build” virtual toolboxes or can actually construct three-dimensional toolboxes that can be shared in a gallery walk or presented at a student exhibition. Toolbox projects can be based on content covered in class and/or additional research. Toolboxes also provide a stepping stone to an essay or a class discussion. When students are asked to explain, using evidence, how particular tools can help achieve specific goals, toolbox projects provide an effective way to evaluate student learning at the end of a Facing History unit or course.

Depending on your students’ experience with project-based learning, you may need to create additional scaffolding to help them brainstorm their list of tools, think about how to represent them in their toolboxes, and manage their time. It is always helpful when the teacher provides a model for part of the project to help students visualize abstract concepts. For example, you might create an artifact that represents one of the tools in your toolbox and do a “think aloud” to help students understand your process in coming up with it. Teachers can scaffold this assignment by giving students the option of working with a partner. Such scaffolding is especially helpful for students who are English Learners or who have disabilities, but these steps can also be used to shorten the time it takes to complete the project and provide extra support to all students.

Students can learn a great deal from seeing each other’s toolboxes. Once students have finished their project, you might have them pair up to discuss their choices with a partner. Or students could showcase their toolboxes to the whole class or school community as a gallery walk, student exhibition, or oral presentations. If time is limited, you may ask each student to share one tool from their toolbox with the class. Have students take notes as their classmates share in order to help them remember the variety of tools the class has created. 

After viewing each other’s toolboxes and/or listening to student presentations, provide time for students to reflect in their journals, and then hold a class discussion. Sample reflection and/or discussion questions include the following: 

• What tools are the most popular? Why might that be the case? 
• Which tools seem most accessible? To whom? Who might not have access to these tools? Why? 
• Which tools seem out of your reach at the moment, and what could be done to gain access to them?
• Were there any “tools” that you would like to add to your toolbox? If so, what were they and why do you need to add them to your toolbox?