Assessing our student's skills is important, but not for the grade they will receive. It is important to understand how much they know, and what they still need to learn.
In our society, we stress certificates, above average grades, and degrees. We equate them to our worth, and often, students will do the same thing. Every student I have, I assess skills not just for their knowledge, but my own as well. I take one class where I am observing and listening to the student with very minimal feedback, if any. I then mark down their strengths, weaknesses, and what I will suggest we focus on in the future.
What did I include?
In the assessment itself, I always assess what I have actually taught them. This time I chose the following areas, and I will provide snips from the lesson, with a mini description about the assessment piece.
Warm up:
I decided to play hangman with the vocabulary words that I have been teaching the student. Students enjoy warming up with a game or something fun to review and spark their interest in the lesson. 😊
Vocabulary:
As you can see, I made this a simple draw the line to the correct definition. This was difficult because it included vocabulary from the beginning of the book as well.
I did this to see which words the student was able to retain, and which we should review. I used the Merriam Webster Dictionary (online) to find these definitions.
So what I will probably do now, is create a short definition of my own to help the student learn the words.
This was challenging because there were in total 12 words that we reviewed from a total of 18 words the student learned. Since these words were quite difficult and completely new, I did not expect this student to get 100 % correct. This gives me an idea of which words the student retained, and which we should review again.
I also was sure to include new words (example below) for the new chapters the student will do for homework.
Reading:
This is very similar to what we have already been doing. The student read through 2.5 pages of a chapter, and then answer questions.
I always include some sort of reading to assess their comprehension abilities. The challenge was to read more pages at once and then answer comprehension questions once they finish reading.
Typically, we read a paragraph or two and then answer one question. This helps the student focus on important points and details, but when assessing skills, I wanted this to be more challenging. So the student had to read the entire section, and then answer the questions.
Writing:
This was a very different activity than what we normally do.
This was a great task to test my student’s writing ability. They had to create a job description, which was very different from our typical journal tasks. I wanted to see how the student would be able to write creatively and include important information in a more formal manner.
I also included a small outline for the student to use, which helped them know my expectations.
Listening:
Again, this was very similar to what we had already done in previous lessons. The student listened to an excerpt, and then answered questions about it.
We were only able to complete one listening task, even though there were two listening tasks. This task was a challenge because the listening task was longer, with no pauses, and no exposure to the questions before the task began.
Speaking:
It was finally time for my student to present on Rituals. We altered the speech because their home life was a little different and the student felt more comfortable talking about cultural differences/rituals. The rubric was given to the student so they could see what they needed to do to receive the most points.
This task was focused on assessing the student’s organization and time/effort put into the project. This was a month-long project and listening to my student present their ideas was inspiring, and fun. This is one of my student’s strongest areas, and they really took off with this project. I included a rubric, which I will include in the photos, to assess the student’s presentation.
Homework:
I always include a little bit of homework so the student can practice their skills outside of class. This week, I only had the student read and write vocabulary words in their journal.
Choosing a Template
I used a template from Microsoft Word, which was originally meant to be a resume. I used this to briefly describe what I noticed and how well the student scored on this assessment of their skills.
You want to choose templates that look professional, but also are simple to read.
Why should it be simple?
Because you want your student to understand their progress and not get intimidated by your assessment.
As you can see, this template shows the score that I would give my student out of 10 points, and then has descriptions right next to it. I have the student’s name at the top, and my name and contact information below that.
The descriptions are short and sweet. They state how the student is doing in this part of the lesson, but also a way they can improve. Or maybe you are satisfied with their progress, and instead tell them how great they did! Again, keep it simple!
Do not list 10 things specifically that they did wrong because this will potentially discourage them. *article link below on discouragement in the classroom and how to avoid*
Instead, make a general statement about how you want to see them improve their skills.
This assessment was a lot of fun, and a lot of work. It was a lot of information for the student to go through, but it was in a very similar format to my usual lessons. There are two differences between my teaching lessons and assessments:
1. The activities are more challenging in some way.
2. The student is not receiving help or direct input.
The thing to keep in mind with assessments, is that they should not be scary or intimidating for your students. They have plenty of assessments where there is a massive amount of pressure, and you are there to guide them. Besides, the more relaxed a student is, the better they will perform. :)
That is it for this week's article. Please enjoy the ideas, and read "The Giver", by Lois Lowry. It is a definite page turner. Let me know what you thought, and please subscribe and pass on the article to anyone you think could benefit from it! Bye! :)