Evidence that students understand and use the targeted academic language and develop content knowledge.

I planned several large scale projects this fall that were culmination activities.  These involved multiple concepts and required the student to amalgamate information from seemingly unrelated areas into a synthesis of ideas that tap on all the prior expected learning and provide practical application of the information.  I can see why these are so widely used by teachers.  These projects take the concepts and provide a platform for the students to demonstrate their understanding (or lack of it).  In addition, I have found that my own children do well with check-ins on projects before the final due dates.  In this way, you can make sure students are on target for successful completion.  Another advantage of projects are their ability to accommodate a wide range of abilities and interests.