Wood Middle School is a public school in Alameda, California. Tinkering and Making Facilitator Ngà Nguyêñ, a recent Agency by Design fellow, recently incorporated student driven assessment practices in his Design and Technology classroom to promote reflection and agency. As part of projects where students design, prototype, and build their projects, assessments are completed along the way to help students drive their own reflection process. As Ngà describes, “[It’s about] always looking for that motion to move forward. Perfection never happens.”

Check out the video below, which was created with Agency by Design Oakland as part of a series showcasing the work of participants in the 2016-2017 fellowship cohort. And click here to read a longer blog post about the incorporation of making into class curriculum at Alliance Academy of Integrated Learning!

Agency by Design is a research project exploring the promises, practices, and pedagogies of maker-centered learning. The project began in 2011 as collaboration between the Abundance Foundation and Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero. The initial phase of research studied the practice of maker-centered learning in the K-12 context and included an action research component based in Oakland, CA. The most recent phase of the project includes an ongoing Oakland-based fellowship that provides professional development, coaching, and funding opportunities to local educators who incorporate maker-centered learning in their practice.