Ideas from Friday...

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I have been thinking about assessment lately, especially student feedback. I am interested in finding ways for students to use feedback on tests and quizzes to improve (I’m actually doing my action research on this). Well, I had a conversation on Friday with some of my peers, and professors, which provided a few ideas on how to do this. There were a few that I particularly liked, and I’m writing them down now, so that hopefully I’ll remember them and try them.

1. Getting students to give their own feedback on quizzes. Give the answers on the blackboard, and get students to pair up and explain the answers to one another.

2. Letting students re-write unit tests. The tests would obviously not be identical, and would give students a chance to show what they’ve learned. I’m not sure what the weighting would be on the second test. Maybe it would be beneficial to figure this out with the class. Also, an idea that was mentioned was to make it so that the students would have to get a 75 on the second test for it to count. Otherwise the first test would still count. I think this was to discourage people from not studying at all the first time.

3. Not from the conversation on Friday, but I like the idea of kids having journals or notebooks in which they write their quizzes, and feedback. This way they have a “body of work” and can look back on what areas they need to work on. It would be a useful tool for monitoring student progress, and the students themselves would have a good resource for studying, as opposed to crumpled up pieces of paper in their binders.

4. Putting a short “review” section at the start of each test. I think that this forces students to stay on their toes, and would really help preparation for final exams.

I’m interested in trying all of these things. I think that sometimes learning happens after a particular area has already been tested, and I want to find a way for this to be recognized. I also want to make sure that the learning that is happening isn’t just turned off after a test. I like the idea of students being able to keep working on specific areas after they have completed a test, and get recognized for it. Who says that a summative has to be a one-shot deal?

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