Creating assessments WITH your students. Pt. 3

Creating assessment together

In this final post about assessment, for now, I'll talk about how I create assessments with my students and not for them. I have used this a lot in my teaching now, so I thought I'd share why I think it is useful and how you can go about doing it. 

Click here to see part 1 on self-assessment

Click here to see part 2 on peer-assessment

Making assessment more accessible

I was worried that my assessment methods were too subjective. By this I mean my students and I had different ideas as to what was being assessed. This happened for two reasons. One, I didn't explain the assessment system to them clearly, two, my students didn't understand it, or interpreted it differently. With this in mind, I wanted to make my assessments and rubrics, clearer and less vague.

I started by changing the language in my rubrics. A lot of rubrics I have seen are written in an overly complex way, so I wrote all my rubrics in a way that my students could easily understand and without needing to use any decryption software. Next, I wanted all my students to be able to access it at any time, so I created a page on my Wiki just for assessments, which means at anytime or anyplace they can check out what is expected of them for a particular task.

Even with the rubrics written in plain English and posted in a place, where it could be easily accessed, I still felt that I needed to do more to make the assessment process less of a mystery. 

Why create assessment with your students

While doing my MA I had a conversation with a co-worker on how to make assessment less subjective and more accessible. He and McConnell (2002) suggests creating the assessment with the students. It sounded so simple at first, that I couldn't believe I had never done it before.

Take a look at the two rubrics below. The first one I created by myself and the second was created with my students input.

Rubrics created by the teacher

Rubrics created with students

I used the first rubrics in a project. Even though the project asked students to write, it also asked them to create a Wiki page for the writing. I was only concerned with assessing the writing whereas in the second rubric, my students voiced that the design element of the project should also be taken into account.

The two rubrics helped me to see that sometimes, the teacher's and students' interpretations of what exactly is being assessed can be different. Therefore, when a teacher and his/her students create assessment together, both know what is to be expected. Then, there is no argument as to why certain criteria were not fulfilled. 

How to do it

This is quite straight forward to do. With your students, ask them what would make a good, or bad project. If it is the first time doing it you may want to give them some ideas. However, the more you use it, the more your students will be able to identify what can be classified as good. It is a learning process for both you and your students, so take it slow and see how it goes. 

Reflection

Before getting into assessment, I thought it was an unnecessary burden on students. Now I have looked into it more and experimented with it, I have completed changed my view of it. A lot of students, and teachers for that matter, may be weary of assessment as we don't talk about it that much. It is often seen as something that the teacher controls and comes at the end of a task or activity. 

I realise now that assessment is an integral part of the learning process, especially when it is in a situation where a final grade is required. If not, assessment can help students to keep track of their progress. If I have learned anything, it is to keep the students involved in the whole learning process. I like my students to be active learners, as well as content creators and assessors. By doing this, I hope they can get a lot more out of the classroom experience. 

References

McConnell, D. (2002). Collaborative assessment as a learning process in e-learning. Conference on Computer Support for Collaborative Learning: Foundations for a

CSCL Community.

Post test XP bonus points!!!!

I think that some my students expect and to some extent enjoy taking quizzes and tests. However, some of them, no matter how much they study find tests and quizzes intimidating. 

I realised this and thought, after the test I'll give my students a few more days to study, then I'll give them another chance with a similar quiz. I thought this was fair and a great way to keep students involved and thinking about the topic which needed to be learned. As I should of expected, few of them actually studied, and ended up with the same grade, something slightly lower or some marginally higher. A failed idea I thought.

Anyway, a few days later I asked my friend what XP was, as he was always talking about it when playing computer games. He said it meant "experience", and went on to say, "When I play, I obtain experience points which I can then use  to buy weapons, spells and stuff."

I had read about using game theory in education and thought it was a great opportunity to apply it. Here's how I did it.

Step 1 - There is still hope!

When I give back the grammar, reading, writing, speaking, or writing test, there are often some students who look disappointed. I tell them not to worry, as they can earn more points on their test.

Step 2 - Here's how you do it.

If student a gets 8/20 on a test, they can gain XP points. If it is a grammar test, they do this by completing more grammar work on that theme. At first you may need to give them some extra work. However, after the first time, tell them they have to find their own XP points by finding extra work online or in books.

For example: Sarah gets 9/20 on her test, so she wants more points.

1 - She can do some online practice, take a screen shot and send it to me. 

Screen shot taken from: Perfect English grammar

2 - She can complete a worksheet/PDF, take a pic of it and send it to me.

Taken from: ClassWiki

Step 3 - Awarding points.

This is completely up to you. But when I did it, I awarded half to 1 point depending on how many pieces of work the student did.

In Sarah's case, if she sent me a screen shot of 10 questions answered, I may give her an extra point. Her score has gone from 9/20 to 10/20. Now, if she does more work she can get even more XP points!

Step 4 - Too much!

There is a chance you will get lots of students sending you work to get extra XP points. In this case, I create a page on my class Wiki for the students to upload their work to. It helps me to keep everything organised. 

I like giving my students extra chances to earn points for their tests, as well as helping them to become more autonomous in their learning. It means they keep learning about the topic, which in the end I hope helps them to understand it more. 

I have used this with my writing, grammar and reading classes, and there is no reason why you couldn't use it for speaking and listening. They can record their voice on vocaroo and email it to you, or listen to some tracks and answer questions about it. All you need is that evidence of learning. 

I'm hoping to use the system as an alternative or instead of tests. What other methods do you use to assess your students learning? I'd love to hear them.