|
|
Formative Assessment Techniques
|
|
|
|
|
An anticipation guide consists of a list of statements that are related to the topic of the text your students will be reading. While some of the statements may be clearly true or false, a good anticipation guide includes statements that provoke disagreement and challenge students’ beliefs about the topic. Before reading the text, students indicate for each statement whether they agree or disagree with it.
Anticipation guides serve two primary purposes:
Elicit students’ prior knowledge of the topic of the text.
Set a purpose for reading. (Students read to gather evidence that will either confirm their initial beliefs or cause them to rethink those beliefs.)
Choose a text. (This strategy works well with most expository texts. It works particularly well with texts that present ideas that are somewhat controversial to the readers.)
Write several statements that focus on the topic of the text. Next to each statement, provide a place for students to indicate whether they agree or disagree with the statements.
Tips for writing statements:
Write statements that focus on the information in the text that you want your students to think about.
Write statements that students can react to without having read the text.
Write statements for which information can be identified in the text that supports and/or opposes each statement.
Write statements that challenge students’ beliefs.
Write statements that are general rather than specific.
Have students complete the anticipation guide before reading. The guide can be completed by students individually, or in small groups. Remind students that they should be prepared to discuss their reactions to the statements on the anticipation guide after they have completed it.
Have a class discussion before reading. Encourage students who have differing viewpoints to debate and defend their positions.
Have students read the text. Encourage students to write down ideas from the text that either support their initial reaction to each statement, or cause them to rethink those reactions.
Have a class discussion after reading. Ask students if any of them changed their minds about their positions on each statement. Ask them to explain why. Encourage them to use information from the text to support their positions.
|
|
|
|
|
|
After teaching about an important theory, principle, or procedure, ask students to write down at least one real-world application for what they have just learned to determine how well they can transfer their learning.
Quickly read once through the applications and categorize them according to their quality. Pick out a broad range of examples and present them to the class.
|
|
|
Background Knowledge Probe |
|
Before introducing a new topic or major concept, find out what students already know about the topic. Prepare 2-5 open ended questions; be sure not to use unfamiliar terminology. Write the questions on the board or distribute on a handout. Ask students to write 3-4 sentence answers, making sure that students understand this is not a quiz and will not be graded.
Scan the responses and divide them into four piles: erroneous background knowledge, no
relevant background knowledge, some background knowledge, and significant background knowledge.
Report your findings to the class and adjust your lectures accordingly. You could also form study groups by numbering the four data analysis groups (1-4, lowest to highest) and forming groups of 3 to 4 students from the various knowledge levels.
At end of course, repeat the exercise, then hand back papers and ask students to compare their two responses. It can be motivating for students to realize just how much they've increased their knowledge. It may also motivate some to seek needed help.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Students pass around an envelope on which the teacher has written one question about the class. When the envelope reaches a student he/she spends a moment to respond to the question and then places the response in the envelope.
Go through the student responses and determine the best criteria for categorizing the data with the goal of detecting response patterns. Discussing the patterns of responses with students can lead to better teaching and learning.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Before class begins, at the end of class, or outside of class, ask students to paraphrase a given portion of the text or an article that puts across a crucial aspect of the course or of the particular topic for the class session.
You can scan responses and identify model answers as well as misconceptions. Or, you can have students critique one another's answers.
You can first clear up misconceptions and then read a few anonymous model examples to the class. This also helps prepare students for essay or short answer exams.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Select a type of test that you are likely to give more than once or that has a significant impact on student performance. Create a few questions that evaluate the quality of the test. Add these questions to the exam or administer a separate, follow-up evaluation.
Try to distinguish student comments that address the fairness of your grading from those that address the fairness of the test as an assessment instrument. Respond to the general ideas represented by student comments.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ask students to list all the topics and ideas they know that relate to a key concept that you
have been emphasizing in lecture.
Compare your list to student lists, during or outside of class, or give your list to students
and have them make the comparisons. Discussion of discrepancies can be enlightening.
Reinforce ideas that students tended to leave off their list. Explain why some ideas on students' list are less important for purposes of the course. If student lists are weak, ask them to improve their lists and to turn their lists into essays. As a review for an exam, have students identify numerous exam questions that could be asked on the topics listed.
Choose a topic neither too broad or too narrow; some experimentation may be necessary.
|
|
|
|
|
|
What is Gallery Walk? --a discussion technique for active engagement
Gallery Walk gets students out of their chairs and actively involves them in synthesizing important concepts, in consensus building, in writing, and in public speaking. In Gallery Walk teams rotate around the classroom, composing answers to questions as well as reflecting upon the answers given by other groups. Questions are posted on charts or just pieces of paper located in different parts of the classroom. Each chart or "station" has its own question that relates to an important class concept. The technique closes with a oral presentation or "report out" in which each group synthesizes comments to a particular question.
Why use Gallery Walk? --promotes higher order thinking, oral/written presentation skills, and team building
Gallery Walk is flexible and has many benefits. Gallery Walk can be organized for a simple fifteen minute ice breaker or for a week long project involving graded oral and written reports. The technique encourages students to speak and write the language of earth science rather than just hearing it from the instructor. In addition to addressing a variety of cognitive skills involving analysis, evaluation, and synthesis, Gallery Walk has the additional advantage of promoting cooperation, listening skills, and team building.
How to use Gallery Walk? --student teams rotate between posted charts
In Gallery Walk student teams rotate to provide bulleted answers to questions posted on charts arranged around the classroom. After three to five minutes at a chart or "station" the team rotates to the next question. Gallery Walk works best with open ended questions, that is, when a problem, concept, issue, or debate can be analyzed from several different perspectives. In this section find a variety of instructional resources such as preparing students for this technique, a step by step guide for using Gallery Walk, evaluation rubrics, and challenges in implementing the technique.
Gallery Walk examples --a variety of sample questions for a variety of earth science topics
Find examples of Gallery Walk questions for the following categories: Atmosphere, Biosphere, Climate System, Earth History and Time, Earth Surface, Energy and Cycles, Human Dimensions, Hydrosphere and Cryosphere, Oceans, Solar System, Solid Earth. Complete sample exercises are also included for a Gallery Walk involving weather map analysis and soil morphology.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Students fill in cells of a two-dimensional diagram for which instructor has provided labels. For example, in a music course, labels might consist of periods (Baroque, Classical) by countries (Germany, France, Britain); students enter composers in cells to demonstrate their ability to remember and classify key concepts.
Tally the numbers of correct and incorrect responses in each cell. Analyze differences both between and among the cells. Look for patterns among the incorrect responses and decide what might be the cause(s).
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Muddiest Point is just about the simplest technique one can use. It is also remarkable efficient, since it provides a high information return for a very low investment of time and energy. The technique consists of asking students to jot down a quick response to one question: "What was the muddiest point in ........?" The focus of the Muddiest Point assessment might be a lecture, a discussion, a homework assignment, a play, or a film.
Step-by-Step Procedure:
Determine what you want feedback on: the entire class session or one self-contained segment? A lecture, a discussion, a presentation?
If you are using the technique in class, reserve a few minutes at the end of the class session. Leave enough time to ask the question, to allow students to respond, and to collect their responses by the usual ending time.
Let students know beforehand how much time they will have to respond and what use you will make of their responses.
Pass out slips of paper or index cards for students to write on.
Collect the responses as or before students leave. Stationing yourself at the door and collecting "muddy points" as students file out is one way; leaving a "muddy point" collection box by the exit is another.
Respond to the students' feedback during the next class meeting or as soon as possible afterward.
|
|
|
|
|
|
After your lecture, ask students to take 2-3 minutes to write down the three main ideas of the lecture.
Compare your list to student lists or give your list to students and have them make comparisons. Discuss discrepancies.
Reinforce ideas that students failed to mention. Direct student attention to the syllabus or course readings that emphasize the ideas that appeared on your list. Explain why you chose the ideas on your list. If there are large discrepancies between student lists and your own, devise ways to better emphasize major points and let students know how you will do this. You might also ask students to suggest ways to better emphasize major points.
Ask students to write one or two questions they have after hearing the lecture, or ask them to write their personal opinion responses to a specific concept on which you are lecturing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
This simple technique challenges students to answer the questions "Who does what to whom, when, where, how, and why?" (represented by the letters WDWWWWHW) about a given topic, and then to synthesize those answers into a simple informative, grammatical, and long summary sentence.
Step-by-Step Procedure:
Select an important topic or work that your students have recently studied in your course and that you expect them to learn to summarize.
Working as quickly as you can, answer the questions "Who Did/Does What to Whom, When, Where, How and Why?" in relation to that topic. Note how long this first step takes you.
Next, turn your answers into a grammatical sentence that follows WDWWWWHS pattern. Note how long this second step takes.
Allow your students up to twice as much time as it took you to carry out the task and give them clear direction on the One-Sentence Summary technique before you announce the topic to be summarized.
|
|
|
|
|
|
QUESTIONS OR PROMPTS
TO BEGIN INSTRUCTION
What do you already know about this?
What questions do you have from your reading?
Write one key point from yesterday’s lesson.
What is something important for you to know about this topic?
DURING INSTRUCTION
What do you think about this information?
How is this like ?
What is a significant question you would ask? Why?
What do you think will happen next?
Identify a potential problem or issue.
AFTER INSTRUCTION
What is something important you learned today?
What do you think are the two most important points?
Write three things you would say to explain this to a younger child (or adult).
What did you do to participate today?
What would you like to know more about?
What did you enjoy and/or not enjoy about this discussion?
What is something you are doing to help yourself learn?
What is something you have accomplished since we began this topic?
What might think about this idea/topic?
What do you not understand?
How could you use this to ?
|
|
|
Student- generated test questions
|
|
Allow students to write test questions and model answers for specified topics, in a format consistent with course exams. This will give students the opportunity to evaluate the course topics, reflect on what they understand, and what are good test items.
Make a rough tally of the questions your students propose and the topics that they cover. Evaluate the questions and use the goods ones as prompts for discussion. You may also want to revise the questions and use them on the upcoming exam.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Think-Pair-Share is a strategy designed to provide students with "food for thought" on a given topics enabling them to formulate individual ideas and share these ideas with another student. It is a learning strategy developed by Lyman and associates to encourage student classroom participation. Rather than using a basic recitation method in which a teacher poses a question and one student offers a response, Think-Pair-Share encourages a high degree of pupil response and can help keep students on task.
What is its purpose?
Providing "think time" increases quality of student responses.
Students become actively involved in thinking about the concepts presented in the lesson.
Research tells us that we need time to mentally "chew over" new ideas in order to store them in memory. When teachers present too much information all at once, much of that information is lost. If we give students time to "think-pair-share" throughout the lesson, more of the critical information is retained.
When students talk over new ideas, they are forced to make sense of those new ideas in terms of their prior knowledge. Their misunderstandings about the topic are often revealed (and resolved) during this discussion stage.
Students are more willing to participate since they don't feel the peer pressure involved in responding in front of the whole class.
Think-Pair-Share is easy to use on the spur of the moment.
Easy to use in large classes.
How can I do it?
With students seated in teams of 4, have them number them from 1 to 4.
Announce a discussion topic or problem to solve. (Example: Which room in our school is larger, the cafeteria or the gymnasium? How could we find out the answer?)
Give students at least 10 seconds of think time to THINK of their own answer. (Research shows that the quality of student responses goes up significantly when you allow "think time.")
Using student numbers, announce discussion partners. (Example: For this discussion, Student #1 and #2 will be partners. At the same time, Student #3 and #4 will talk over their ideas.)
Ask students to PAIR with their partner to discuss the topic or solution.
Finally, randomly call on a few students to SHARE their ideas with the class.
Teachers may also ask students to write or diagram their responses while doing the Think-Pair-Share activity. Think, Pair, Share helps students develop conceptual understanding of a topic, develop the ability to filter information and draw conclusions, and develop the ability to consider other points of view.
Uses for think, pair, share
Note check, Vocabulary review, Quiz review, Reading check, Concept review, Lecture check, Outline, Discussion questions, Partner reading, Topic development, Agree/Disagree, Brainstorming, Simulations, Current events opinion, Conceding to the opposition, Summarize, Develop an opinion
Hints and Management Ideas
Assign Partners - Be sure to assign discussion partners rather than just saying "Turn to a partner and talk it over." When you don't assign partners, students frequently turn to the most popular student and leave the other person out.
Change Partners - Switch the discussion partners frequently. With students seated in teams, they can pair with the person beside them for one discussion and the person across from them for the next discussion.
Give Think Time - Be sure to provide adequate "think time." I generally have students give me a thumbs-up sign when they have something they are ready to share.
Monitor Discussions - Walk around and monitor the discussion stage. You will frequently hear misunderstandings that you can address during the whole-group that discussion that follows.
Timed-Pair-Share - If you notice that one person in each pair is monopolizing the conversation, you can switch to "Timed-Pair-Share." In this modification, you give each partner a certain amount of time to talk. (For example, say that Students #1 and #3 will begin the discussion. After 60 seconds, call time and ask the others to share their ideas.)
Rallyrobin - If students have to list ideas in their discussion, ask them to take turns. (For example, if they are to name all the geometric shapes they see in the room, have them take turns naming the shapes. This allows for more equal participation.) The structure variation name is Rallyrobin (similar to Rallytable, but kids are talking instead of taking turns writing).
Randomly Select Students - During the sharing stage at the end, call on students randomly. You can do this by having a jar of popsicle sticks that have student names or numbers on them. (One number for each student in the class, according to their number on your roster.) Draw out a popsicle stick and ask that person to tell what their PARTNER said. The first time you do this, expect them to be quite shocked! Most kids don't listen well, and all they know is what they said! If you keep using this strategy, they will learn to listen to their partner.
Questioning - Think-Pair-Share can be used for a single question or a series of questions. You might use it one time at the beginning of class to say "What do you know about ________ ?" or at the end of class to say "What have you learned today?"
How can I adapt it?
Think-Write-Pair-Share - To increase individual accountability, have students jot down their ideas before turning to a partner to discuss them. You can walk around the room and look at what they are writing to see who understands the concept. It also keeps kids from adopting the attitude that they will just sit back and let their partner to all the thinking.
Science - Making predictions about an experiment, discussing the results of an experiment, talking over charts and graphs, drawing conclusions, developing a concept through discussion, talking about environmental problems.
Health - Discussing healthful practices, talking about how to handle stress, discussing proper placement of foods in food groups, analyzing problems in a diet, reviewing body systems,
Social Studies - Discussing political viewpoints, learning about latitude and longitude, discussing economic trends, analyzing causes and effects of important events, discussing important contributions of historical figures
Math Problem-Solving - Place a complex problem on the overhead (For example, use one of the Weekly Math Challenges found in the Math File Cabinet.) Ask students to think about the steps they would use to solve the problem, but do not let them figure out the actual answer. Without telling the answer to the problem, have students discuss their strategies for solving the problem. Then let them work out the problem individually and compare answers.
Math - Practicing how to read large numbers, learning how to round numbers to various places, reviewing place value, solving word problems (as described above), recalling basic geometric terms, discussing the steps of division, discussing how to rename a fraction to lowest terms
Spelling - Call out a word, have them think of the spelling, then designate one person to turn and whisper the spelling to their partner. The partner gives a thumbs-up to show agreement, or corrects the spelling. You can reveal the correct spelling by uncovering the word from a chart.
Reading - Discuss character traits and motives, make predictions before a chapter or at the end of a read-aloud session, discuss the theme of a book or story, make guesses about vocabulary words based on context clues in the story, discuss the meaning of similes and metaphors in a story
Language Arts - Discuss Daily Oral Language responses, discuss ways to edit or revise a piece of writing, talk over story ideas, discuss letter-writing conventions
Art - Discuss elements of artistic compositions, discuss symbolism in artwork, compare and contrast the various works of a particular artist, analyze the use of color and line in works of art
Music - Identify elements of musical compositions, identify instruments in musical selections, compare and contrast types of music
Assessment and Evaluation Considerations
Listening skills, communication skills, using appropriate structures and features of spoken language, effective note taking and co-operative skills are most effectively assessed when using this strategy.
Student Benefits
With Think-Pair-Share, students are given time to think through their own answers to the question(s) before the questions are answered by other peers and the discussion moves on. Students also have the opportunity to think aloud with another student about their responses before being asked to share their ideas publicly. This strategy provides an opportunity for all students to share their thinking with at least one other student; this, in turn, increases their sense of involvement in classroom learning.
As a Cooperative Learning strategy, Think-Pair-Share also benefits students in the areas of peer acceptance, peer support, academic achievement, self-esteem, and increased interest in other students and school.
Teacher Benefits
Students spend more time on task and listen to each other more when engaged in Think-Pair-Share activities. More students are willing to respond in large groups after they have been able to share their responses in pairs. The quality of students responses also improves.
|
|
|
|
|
|
After students figure out what type of problem they are dealing with, they often must then decide what principle or principles to apply in order to solve the problem. This technique focuses on this step in problem solving. It provides students with a few problems and asks them to state the principle that best applies to each problem.
Step-by-Step Procedure:
Identify the basic principles that you expect students to learn in your course. Make sure focus only on those that students have been taught.
Find or create sample problems or short examples that illustrate each of these principles. Each example should illustrate only one principle.
Create a What's the Principle? form that includes a listing of the relevant principles and specific examples or problems for students to match to those principles.
Try out your assessment on a colleague to make certain it is not too difficult or too time-consuming to use in class. After you have make any necessary revisions to the form, apply the assessment.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Agreement between students and teacher regarding partner conversations. 1) Stay on topic. 2) Use information that is accurate and appropriate for the topic. 3) Think deeply about what the partner has to stay. Strategies: 1) clarification and explanation. “Could you describe what you mean?” 2) Justification. “Where did you find that information?” 3) Challenging misconceptions. “I don’t agree because…” 4) Evidence. “Can you give man example?” 5) Interpret and use each other’s statements. “David suggested…”
|
|
|
|
|
|
Analyze students’ own beliefs and listen to the positions held by others. Students are asked to evaluate a statement and instructed to line up according to their degree of agreement of disagreement with the statement. After forming a line, the queue is then folded in half so that the students who most strongly agreed and disagreed with one another are now face to face. Students then discuss their reasons for their positions and listen to the perspectives for their partners. This cultivates a broader understanding of the distinctions of understanding on a topic.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Retellings are new accounts or adaptations of a text that allow students to consider information then summarize, orally, what they understand about this information. Retellings require that students processing large segments of text think about the sequence of ideas or events and their importance. Emphasize: recreate the text in your own words. After retelling, discuss similarities and differences. Variations: oral to oral, oral to written, oral to video, reading to oral, reading to written, reading to video, viewing to oral, viewing to written, viewing to video.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Analyze and clarify. “Why do you think that?” “Let’s explore why that could not be the right answer…”
|
|
|
|
|
|
The teacher poses a question or a task. Students individually respond on a scrap piece of paper. When they have done so, the students stand up. The teacher randomly calls on a student to share one of his or her ideas from the paper. Students check off any items that are said by another student and sit down when all of their ideas have been shared with the group. The teacher continues to call on students until they are all seated.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Index cards, signs, dry-erase boards, magnetic boards, or other items that are simultaneously held up by all students in class to indicate their response to a question or problem presented by the teacher. Variations: Hand Signals, Audience Response Systems
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reciprocal Questioning. Teacher leads the whole class in silently reading a segment of text. Students then ask questions of the teacher about the content of the section of text they read. Next, students and teacher change roles. They all read the next section of the text silently. When they finish the second segment of text, the teacher questions the students. They take turns back and forth alternating between questioning and responding. As the ReQuest process continues, students learn to imitate the teacher’s questioning behavior.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dialectic method: examining opinions logically, by question and answer method.
Text: narrative or information text can be used, must be complex and engaging enough for participants. Question: begin with a question posed by the leader. Should require participants to return to the text to think, search, evaluate, wonder, or infer. Should generate new questions. Leader: participant and facilitator of discussion. Participants: study text in advance, listen actively, share opinions and questions.
|
|
|
|
|
|
After agreeing on a message orally, students take turns writing. First, the writers discuss a topic and agree on a message. The teacher then asks students to come write a section of the message. This can be a letter, word, or a phrase. As each writer finishes, the whole group reads the message aloud.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Precis: a short piece that contains the major ideas or concepts of a topic. The emphasis is on an economy of words and an accurate rendering of the read or observed phenomenon. Word choice is critical.
|
|
|
|
|
|
RAFT writing prompts were designed to help students take different perspectives in their writing and thus their thinking. RAFT prompts provide a scaffold for students as they explore their writing vased on various roles, audiences, formats, and topics. ROLE: what is the role of the writer? AUDIENCE: to whom is the writer writing? FORMAT: what is the format for the writing? TOPIC: what is the focus of the writing?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Classroom activity in which students read directly from scripts to tell a story or inform an audience. They do so without props, costumes, or sets. Can be done with narrative or information texts; students PERFORM the reading. Have small groups of students take a piece of text and turn it into a script.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The name of this technique is self-explanatory. The instructor provides students with an empty or partially completed outline of an in-class presentation or homework assignment and gives them a limited amount of time to fill in the blank spaces. To help students better organized and learn course content, many instructors already provide outlines of their lectures at the beginning or end of class sessions. Fewer teachers use the outline format to assess students’ learning of that same content.
Create an outline of the lecture, presentation, discussion, or reading you want to focus on. Make conscious decisions about the level on which you will focus the Empty Outline and, thus, the students’ attention. Do you want students to supply the main topics, the main subtopics, or the supporting details? These decisions will determine what information you supply in the form and what you leave out. When students are to complete the form from memory—that is, without any notes or other information—limit the number of items the Empty Outline elicits to fewer than ten. Let students know how much time they will have to complete the outlines and the kinds of responses you prefer—words, short phrases, of brief sentences. Be sure to announce the purpose of the assessment and the time when the students will receive feedback on their responses.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Categorizing Grid is the paper-and-pencil equivalent of sorting objects in a warehouse and putting like ones together in the right bins. Students are presented with a grid containing two or three important categories—superordinate concepts they have been studying—along with a scrambled list of subordinate terms, images, equations, or other items that belong in one or another of those categories. Learners are then given a very limited time to sort the subordinate terms into the correct categories on the grid.
Select tow or three related categories that are particularly useful for organizing the information presented in class. Make a list of several good examples of items in each category. Review your list to make sure that all items clearly belong only to one category and that all items are ones students can be expected to recognize from class or homework. Make a grid by drawing a large rectangle and dividing it into as many rectangles of equal size as you have categories. You can either hand out copies of the Categorizing Grid or draw it and have students copy it themselves. The items that students are to categorize can be listed, in scrambled order, next to the grid on the copies or on the chalkboard, or they can be projected from an overhead transparency. Alternately, you can use real objects or slides as the examples to be categorized.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Focus on a decision, a judgment, a dilemma, or an issue that has teaching and learning implications in your discipline and for your students. Write out a prompt that will elicit thoughtful pros and cons in relations to this issue or dilemma. You may wish to indicate a specific point of view that students should adopt in coming up with their lists. Doing so will make the pros and cons more comparable. Let students know how many pros and cons you expect and how they are to be expressed. Are parallel lists of words and phrases adequate, or should the pros and cons be expressed in sentences?
|
|
|
Content, Form, and Function Outlines |
|
This technique is also called “What, How, and Why Outlines.” To respond to it, the student carefully analyzes the “what” (content), “how” (form), and “why” (function) of a particular message. That message may be a poem, a newspaper story, a critical essay, a billboard, a magazine advertisement, or a television commercial. The student writes brief notes answering the “what, how, and why” questions in an outline format that can be quickly read and assessed.
Choose a short text, a passage, or a film clip that contains important content and is clearly structured in a form that is common to the genre—for example, a five-paragraph essay. If the structural subsections of the message are not explicitly defined—by subheadings or numbers, for example—you may want to mark them clearly yourself, so that all students will divide the text into the same subsections. Find a parallel text that you can use as an example and write a Content, Form, and Function Outline for that text. Hand out your outline to the students and take them through your analysis step by step, modeling the process you want them to use. Many students find it difficult to understand and then express the distinction between function and content at first; so give several clear examples. The handout detailing your analysis allows students to review the steps you have demonstrated. You may wish to prepare an outline form for students to use. Such a form can help you read and compare responses more quickly. After you are confident that the students understand the technique, present the message they are to analyze. Go through the directions carefully and given them sufficient time to carry it out. Unless it is a very short text or message, the assessment should probably be completed outside of class.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Analytic Memo is basically a simulation exercise. It requires students to write a one- or two-page analysis of a specific problem or issue. The person for whom the memo is being written is usually identified as an employer, a client, or a stakeholder who needs the student’s analysis to inform decision-making.
Determine which analytic methods or techniques you wish to assess. Locate or invent an appropriate, well-focused, and typical problem or situation for the students to analyze. Get background information on the problem or invent some plausible information. Specify who is writing the memo and for whom it is being written, as well as its subject and purpose. Write your own Analytic Memo on the subject. Keep track of any difficulties you have in writing the memo and note how long it takes you from start to finish. Ask yourself whether it really required the type of analysis you were hoping to assess and whether you found it an informative and instructive exercise. Decide whether you want students to work alone, in pairs, or in small groups. Develop an explicit, half-page directions sheet for your students. Specify the students’ role, the identity of the audience, the specific subject to be addressed, that basic analytic approach to be taken, the length limit (usually one or two pages), and the assignment deadline. Explain to students how this assessment can help prepare them for subsequent course assignments and for their careers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Word Journal prompts a two-part response. First, the student summarizes a short text in a single word. Second, the student writes a paragraph or two explaining why he or she chose that particular word to summarize the text. The completed response to the Word Journal is an abstract or a synopsis of the focus text.
Choose one of the short texts that your students will be assigned to read. Decide what aspects of that text—main theme, central conflict or problem, core metaphor—you want students to focus on. To determine whether the exercise is feasible and productive, try following your own directions. Tell the students that the choice of a specific word is less important than the quality of the explanation for that choice. Give them some ideas about what their explanations should contain, and inform them that the words they choose must be connected to their interpretations of the text.
|
|
|
|
|
|
To respond to the Approximate Analogies assessment technique, students simply complete the second half of an analogy—A is to B as X is to Y—for which their instructor has supplied the first half (A is to B). Consequently, the student can respond in as few as two words.
Select a key relationship between two facts or concepts that is important for your students to understand well. Create an Approximate Analogy, using the two related concepts or facts as the A and B elements in the “A is to B as X is to Y” format. Quickly generate a number of appropriate completions. Present one or two sample analogies to the students before asking them to complete an Approximate Analogy on their own. When you are ready to carry out the assessment, simply write the prompt on the board, or display it on an overhead, and explain what students are to do. You may wish to hand out small index cards or slips of paper for the responses. In most cases, the students will need only a minute or two to complete the Approximate Analogy, after which you can collect the feedback.
|
|
|
|
|
|
By inventing dialogues, students synthesize their knowledge of issues, personalities, and historical periods into the form of a carefully structured, illustrative conversation. There are two levels of “invention” possible with this technique. On the first level, students can created Invented Dialogues by carefully selecting and weaving together actual quotes from primary sources. On a second, more challenging level, they may invent reasonable quotes that fit the character of the speakers and the context.
Select one or more controversial issues, theories, decisions, or personalities that are important topics in your course and lend themselves to the dialogue format. Write a short dialogue—no more than 10 to 20 exchanges long—on the focus you have selected, and use this dialogue as an example in your class. Make an instructive handout to help students get started. Suggest a few possible topics, give time and length guidelines, explain what you expect in the way of citations, and list your criteria for a successful dialogue. Let students know how much, if any, of the material they can invent, and how much they should cut and paste. Make it clear to students that the object is to create an original, lively, persuasive, natural sounding, and self contained dialogue. Encourage students to assess their own dialogues by reading the draft versions out loud before putting them in final form.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Annotate Portfolios contain a very limited number of examples of creative work, supplemented by the students’ own commentary on the significance of those examples
Choose one of the central topics, questions, or problems dealt with in your course and invite students to respond to it with two or three samples of their work that demonstrate some creativity. Ask the students to explain, briefly, in writing, how the pieces in their portfolios respond to the topic, question, or problem you posed. You may need to give the class several examples of the kinds of annotations you are looking for. Have students turn in their work samples and annotations in a folder, a binder, or an envelope.
|
|
|
Problem Recognition Tasks |
|
Problem Recognition Tasks present students with a few examples of common problem types. The students’ task is to recognize and identify the particular type of problem each example represents.
Choose examples of several different but related problem types that students find difficult to distinguish. Make sure that each example illustrates one and only one type of problem. Decide whether you will provide information about the types of problems that students are to recognize, allowing them simply to match type with example, or whether you will ask students to name the problem types as well. Make up a short Problem Recognition Task form or overhead projector transparency containing a handful of example problems for students to recognize.
|
|
|
Documented Problem Solutions |
|
To become truly proficient problem solvers, students need to learn to do more than just get correct answers to textbook problems. At some point, they need to become aware of how they solved those problems and how they can adapt their problem-solving routines to deal with messy, real-work problems. The Documented Problem Solutions technique prompts students to keep track of the steps they take in solving a problem—to “show and tell” how they worked it out. By analyzing these detailed protocols—in which each solution step is briefly explained in writing—teachers can gain valuable information on their students’ problem-solving skills.
Select one, two, or three representative problems from among the problems students have studied during the previous few weeks. If you decide to assign three problems, for example, try to select at least one that all the students can solve, another that most of the class can solve, and a third that will challenge most of your students. Solve the problem yourself, and write down all the steps you take in solving them. Note how long it takes you and how many steps each problem solution required. Once you have good problems that you can solve and document in less than thirty minutes, write them up for the students. Assume that it will take students at least twice as long as it took you to document the solutions. Make your directions very explicit. Hand out and explain the assessment problem(s), making clear to the students that it is not a test or a quiz. It is more important for students to explain how they try to solve the problems than to get the right answers. Having well-documented steps is even more important if they fail to get a correct answer, since they can then diagnose where and how they went wrong. If you assign the assessment problem as homework, let students know the maximum amount of time they should spend on it.
|
|
|
Audio- and Videotaped Protocols |
|
By studying an audio or video recording of a student talking and working through the process of solving a problem, teachers and students can get very close to an “inside view” of the problem-solving process.
Choose a problem that clearly requires the application of a several-step solution protocol, which students have already been taught or can be expected to know. Make sure the problem lends itself to “talking through” on audiotape or “showing and telling” on videotape, and that it can be solved in a few minutes by most students. Figure out in advance what you will look for in their responses and how you will analyze and respond to the protocols. Make sure the necessary facilities and equipment are readily available to students. Draw up a problem statement and detailed directions for recording the solution protocol. Give students clear time limits for their recordings and/or length limits for the transcriptions. Let students know what you are looking for in their recordings. Be prepared to give examples and to demonstrate what you would like them to do. Explain also what they are supposed to learn from this assessment exercise. Make clear to students what kind and how much feedback they can expect to receive on their protocols from you and/or from each other.
|
|
|
Human Tableau or Class Modeling |
|
Groups of students create “living” scenes or model processes to show what they know.
Select a process or an image that has particular teaching and learning importance. Write down a direction sheet that explains the purpose, the procedure, and the points students should make through their tableaus and models. Be very clear about what students should highlight in their responses. Divide the class into groups, explain the task, hand out the direction sheet, and elicit questions. Make sure the students understand what they are to do, how, and when.
|
|
|
Paper or Project Prospectus |
|
In this context, a prospectus is a brief, structured first-draft plan for a term paper or term project. The Paper Prospectus prompts students to think through elements of the assignment, such as the topic, purpose, intended audience, major questions to be answered, basic organization, and time and resources required. The Project Prospectus, on the other hand, may focus on tasks to be accomplished, skills to be improved, and products to be developed.
Determine the general outline of the term paper or project assignment for which students will write the prospectus. Write a clear and informative first-draft assignment sheet for students. These general directions should tell students how much freedom they have in determining the topic, form, content, purpose, audience, and the like. The assignment sheet should also tell students what criteria you will use to evaluate their final products. Try to keep it under one page in length. Decide which elements of the assignment are most critical to the learning task and predict which are least likely to be handled successfully by the students. Make a checklist of qualities or elements you will look for in the final product and rank them in the order of their importance. Then rank those same elements again, this time in the order of their difficulty for students. Revise the assignment sheet to reflect your priorities as expressed in the ranked list mentioned above. Decide on the focus of the prospectus. Compose three to seven questions or prompts to elicit information about those central and problematic elements. These are the questions that students should answer for you through the prospectus. Make sure to include a prompt that invites students to indicate their questions and concerns about the assignment. These are the questions that students should ask you through the prospectus. Give out the assignment sheet first, and then the specific directions for the prospectus. Ask students not to begin substantive work on the assignment until they have received feedback on their prospectuses. Give them a brief but adequate amount of time to complete the prospectus—from two days to two weeks, depending on the nature of the assignment and the course meeting times.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Preview the material that you plan to teach, looking for questions or issues about which students may have opinions that could affect their learning. Choose one or two issues for your Classroom Opinion Poll and draw up the question or prompt and the response choices. Decide whether the question or prompt requires a binary response choice, such as “yes” or “no”; a scalar response with several choices ranging along a continuum, such as the scale running from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”; or a multiple-choice response. Explain the exercise to students, remind them not to put names on the responses, and give them a couple of minutes to respond to the Classroom Opinion Poll.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Students begin Double-Entry Journals by noting the ideas, assertions, and arguments in their assigned course readings that they find most meaningful and/or most controversial. These notes on the text are the first half of the Double-Entry Journal. The second entry in the Double-Entry Journal explains the personal significance of the passage selected and responds to that passage. In this way, students engage in a dialogue with the text, exploring their reactions to the reading.
Select an important text or part of a text from the course readings. The text or passage should be challenging and provocative, but also relatively short and self-contained. Ask students to divide a few pieces of notepaper in half lengthwise by drawing a line down the middle from top to bottom—or provide a form. Let the students know before they start that you will collect and read the notes and give feedback on them, but that you won’t grade them. On the left half of the divided notepaper, students should copy a few lines or short passages from the text (3 to 5 excerpts) that they find particularly meaningful. On the right half of the page, students should explain why they chose each specific excerpts and then should write their reactions to those excepts—their agreements, disagreements, questions, and the like. Suggest that they think of their Double-Entry Journals as a dialogue—a conversation with the text.
|
|
|
Profiles of Admirable Individuals |
|
This straightforward technique requires that students write a brief, focused profile of an individual—in a field related to the course—whose values, skills, or actions they greatly admire.
Draw up clear directions for the profiles, defining the population from which the admirable individuals are to be selected. Let students know how long their profiles should be. One or two pages are usually sufficient. The most useful information these profiles can yield is on the qualities and characteristics—what students cite as most admirable—of the individuals that students select.
|
|
|
Everyday Ethical Dilemmas |
|
Students are presented with an abbreviated case study that poses an ethical problem related to their discipline or profession they are studying. Students respond briefly and anonymously to these cases, and faculty analyze the responses in order to understand the students’ values.
Decide on one specific ethical issue or question to focus on. Locate or create a short case that poses the essential dilemma realistically in a few lines. Write two or three questions that require students to take a position on the dilemma and to explain or justify that position. Ask students to write short, honest, anonymous responses. Allow enough class time for students to write responses, or make this a take-home assessment exercise.
|
|
|
Course-Related Self-Confidence Surveys |
|
Course-Related Self-Confidence Surveys consist of a few simple questions aimed at getting a rough measure of the students’ self-confidence in relation to a specific skill or ability.
Focus on skills or abilities that are important to success in the course. Make up questions to assess students’ self-confidence in relation to these skills or abilities. Be as specific as possible in your questions. Create a simple survey form for gathering the data. Allow students a few minutes in class to respond to the survey. Be sure to tell them that their survey responses are to be anonymous.
|
|
|
Focused Autobiographical Sketches |
|
In this technique, students are directed to write a one- or two-page autobiographical sketch focused on a single successful learning experience in their past—an experience relevant to learning in the particular course in which the assessment technique is used.
Determine what element or elements of the students’ learning experiences you want to focus the autobiographical sketch on. Clearly limit the focus and make sure it is directly related to the course goals and objectives. Limit the sketch still further by determining what period or periods in the students’ lives and what specific areas of their lives—for example, professional, academic, or interpersonal—the sketch should cover.
|
|
|
Interest/Knowledge/Skills Checklists |
|
Course-specific Interest/Knowledge/Skills Checklists are brief, teacher-made versions of the commercial interest and skills inventories long used by guidance and career counselors. Teachers create checklists of topics covered in their courses and skills strengthened by or required for succeeding in those courses. Students rate their interest in the various topics, and assess their levels of skill or knowledge in those topics, by indicating the appropriate responses on the checklist.
|
|
|
Goal Ranking and Matching |
|
Goal Ranking and Matching is a simple procedure that many faculty have adapted to use in the first or second day of class. It takes only a few minutes for students to list a few learning goals they hope to achieve through the course and to rank the relative importance of these goals. If time and interest allow, students can also estimate the relative difficulty of achieving their learning goals. The instructor then collects student lists and matches them against his or her own course goals.
|
|
|
Self-Assessment of Ways of Learning |
|
Self-Assessment of Ways of Learning prompts students to describe their general approaches to learning, or their learning styles, by comparing themselves with several different profiles and choosing those that, in their opinion, most closely resemble them. Since there are a number of ways to describe learning styles and ways of learning, faculty have to choose their own sets of profiles to use in assessing students.
|
|
|
Productive Study-Time Logs |
|
Productive Study-Time Logs are simply thumbnail records that students keep on how much time they spend studying for a particular class, when they study, and how productively they study at various times of the day or night.
Decide what you most want to know, and what you most want students to notice, about their use of study time. Make up the simplest log sheet possible for capturing the information you need. Explain the process and go over the forms. Make sure to have a couple of examples of completed sheets to show students. Let students know exactly what to include—and what not to—in their Productive Study-Time Logs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
This technique requires students and teachers to go through five steps: listen, stop, reflect, write, and give feedback. Students begin by listening to a lecture or demonstration. Then, after a portion of the presentation has been completed, the teacher stops the action. For a quiet moment, the students reflect on what they were doing during the presentation and how their behavior while listening may have helped or hindered their understanding of the information. They then write down any insights they have gained. Finally, they give feedback to the teacher in the form of short, anonymous notes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
This technique focuses students’ attention on the process—how they do their academic work. Process Analysis requires that students keep records of the actual steps they take in carrying out a representative assignment and asks them to comment on the conclusions they draw about their approaches to that assignment.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Diagnostic Learning Logs are essentially limited, tightly focused versions of the academic journals many teachers already use. In these logs, students keep records of each class or assignment. When responding to class sessions, students write one list of the main points covered that they understood and a second list of points that were unclear. For assignments, students record problems encountered or errors made, as well as excellent and successful responses. At regular intervals, the students reflect on, analyze, and summarize the information they have collected on their own learning. They then diagnose their strengths and weaknesses as learners and generate possible remedies for problems.
|
From Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
From Thomas Angelo and Patricia Cross, Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers
|
|
|