Time Hacks for Teachers - C - Creative Assessments

As I said before, this post will bring together the ideas of using oral feedback, always coaching and constantly assessing. I'm going to use the concept of a summative test to illustrate creative assessments, but when we use the word creative, really, the sky's the limit.

Suppose I'm covering a standard with five strands, as I've used in prior posts. And, suppose my summative test has four questions per strand (yeah, like that ever happens). Because I'm constantly assessing, not ever student really needs to answer all twenty questions for me to finish assessing their knowledge of the standards (See figure 1 - If you haven't read Time Hacks for Teacher - C - Constantly Assessing you might want to go back and read it.)

figure 1

Obviously, it could get a little crazy on test day if I'm telling Kaylan, "Okay, you only neded to answer questions 6-10 and 16-20," but I'm telling Jared he needs to answer 1-5 and 16-20. Even if I don't tell the kids anything, and let all of them answer all the questions, then I only grade the ones they need it could be confusing (not so much if I set up my test like I talked about in Time Hacks for Teachers - O - Oral Responses Give Immediate Feedback - see figure 2)

figure 2

But I found an even better way to alleviate the confusion. I began giving oral test. I know, I know, that takes longer, and I'm supposed to be saving you time. So let's address how I went about it first, and then look at how it actually saved me time.

My tests were posted on my door the day of the test, and were usually just diagrams, equations, pictures or paragraphs (see figure 3 for an example). But there were no questions. I'd made out the test questions, but I used the pictures or diagrams to get the discussion going. Figure 3 is an actual test, minus the questions of course. This was based on a project the kids had done, and I actually used three different students' work.

figure 3

I would bring kids out one at a time and begin talking about something in the project. The great thing is that for one student I might focus on C, and for another I might bounce around (When they go back in to discuss - something I expressly forbid them to do, but knew they would - they have a hard time figuring out what to talk about).

Because I've already assessed certain strands, I only ask Kaylan questions about the strands I still need to assess. Since I have my gradebook right there with me, no confusion. And I have the benefit of oral responses, so i can dig deeper for understanding if I need to.

Okay, so how does this save time if it actually takes longer? First, it's really hard to take an oral test home to grade, so everything's done in class. Victory! On top of that, let's say I'm assessing standard 1c, and I can tell Deshaun doesn't get it. Since I'm always coaching, I reteach right then, not in an after-school tutoring session a week after he took the test. I let him know that if I had graded his assessment it wouldn't have been pretty, and since I didn't want to see either of us cry I'm going to let him come back out and try again the next day. By doing that, I've placed reteaching and retesting both into class time - where they should be - not during my family time.

This strategy worked great for me, but here are a few things I want to point out:

1. You obviously have to plan some self-directed work during your testing block. I usually took about one week for testing and retesting. On any given day that week, I might have spent half the period working with the whole class on the next unit, and then testing the other half of the period.
2. Bring out your lowest performing students near the beginning. They can be tested, retaught and sent back in to study more, and then retested later in the week.
3. Bring in your highest performing students near the beginning. I used to ask them questions way beyond what they needed to show mastery just to stretch them. If I had time, I would bring them back out to see if they had come up with answers to the questions I'd posed. These questions didn't effect their grade, and I let them know that, but often they would rise to the challenge. 

I want to challenge you to try this at least once to see how it works for you. Think about it: one unit with no tests to take home and grade, no tutoring sessions, no retest schedule. Sounds glorious, and it can be yours if you grade like a coach. Let me know how it turns out!