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Assessment
I
believe that all teachers struggle with student assessment
at various times during their career. It is a hard decision
to determine what method is best for assessing student
learning. Before I decide how I will assess my students,
I always decide exactly what it is that I expect them
to learn. In many cases this includes multiple things
that I want them to understand and be able to apply.
Below are several of my favorite methods for assessing
my students. After much trial and error, I feel that
a mixture of these techniques is the most accurate means
of assessing student learning. I tend to stay away from
long exams as a tool for assessment. Giving students
many short assessments seems a much fairer method for
evaluating middle school students.
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Teacher made rubrics: Give to the students
at the beginning of the activity or lesson. This allows
students to set personal goals from the very beginning.
This also leaves no room for surprises. One of my
favorite web sites for creating rubrics is http://www.rubistar4teachers.org.
Rubrics not only serve as guides for students, but
for teachers as well.
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Performance
Assessment: This method takes time and practice
to implement effectively. I like this method because
it requires that I take time to observe each individual
student working in class. I make a simple check list
that is used to check off each skill I want to see
the student display during my observation. I ask questions
and use the student's response to determine the level
of understanding. Actually applying knowledge in a
lab situation is a true test of understanding of concepts.
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Short
objective quizzes: These are fast and sure, but
often show what a student remembers better than what
they have internalized. I use these periodically to
encourage students to work on building a good scientific
vocabulary.
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Writing
prompts: Give students an open-ended question
to write about. This is a good way to tell what the
student is thinking especially if they are shy and
do not speak up in class. These are difficult to assign
a grade to, but they give me information about the
direction my teaching should take to clear up misunderstandings.
I use these to guide my teaching and evaluate student
learning. Writing a conclusion to an activity or experiment
is one of my favorite writing prompts.
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Checklists:
These are easy and quick methods to assess student
learning. Make them simple and complete them after
enough practice has occurred so that students have
had time to learn the concepts you want them to know.
I put these on a clipboard and check them off as I
ask students questions during class. Usually one or
two questions and answers are all that is needed to
assess understanding of a concept. You can check off
one item each day for a week and then send the checklist
home as a graded paper.
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