Classroom Assessment Techniques

The fol­low­ing are some exam­ples of for­ma­tive assess­ment tech­niques that take a short peri­od of time to do but add a lot of val­ue to the learn­ing expe­ri­ence for stu­dents. Some­times called CATs, these were orig­i­nal­ly cre­at­ed by Ange­lo and Cross in 1993 via their book by the same name.

Method
Description
How To Use
Tick­et-Out-The-Door

 

 Dur­ing last few min­utes of class, stu­dents write response to a ques­tion or two about class con­cepts. Hand in as exit class. Review/read all before next class and use to clar­i­fy, cor­rect or elab­o­rate more for stu­dents.
One Minute Paper                                     

 

 Dur­ing the last few minute of class, stu­dents write response to “Most impor­tant thing I learned today” and “What I under­stood the least today”. Review/read all before next class and use to clar­i­fy, cor­rect or elab­o­rate more for stu­dents.
Mud­di­est Point Sim­i­lar to One-Minute Paper – but only ask stu­dents to describe what they didn’t under­stand dur­ing class and what they think might help them. Same as One-Minute Paper but if many stu­dents have same prob­lem, reteach con­cept anoth­er way.
Stu­dent-Gen­er­at­ed Test Ques­tions Divide the class into groups and assign each group a top­ic on which they are to each write a ques­tion and answer for next test. Use as many of the ques­tions as pos­si­ble on next test.
Mem­o­ry Matrix

 

 Stu­dents fill in cells of a two-dimen­sion­al dia­gram with instruc­tor-pro­vid­ed labels such as a com­par­i­son chart out­lin­ing sim­i­lar­i­ties and dif­fer­ences in two columns against a vari­ety of con­cepts in the dis­ci­pline. Tal­ly the num­ber of cor­rect and incor­rect respons­es. Look for pat­terns amongst the incor­rect respons­es. Address in class.
K‑W-L Chart                        

 

 Label three charts K (What I KNOW Already), W (What I WANT to Know) and L (What I have LEARNED). Com­plete the first two before a unit/topic and the last one at end. Dis­cuss with stu­dents per­cep­tions of what they thought they knew, what they have come to know etc.
Direct­ed Para­phras­ing

 

 Ask stu­dents to write a layperson’s “trans­la­tion” of some­thing they have just learned (geared for a non-expert audi­ence) to assess their abil­i­ty to comprehend/transfer con­cepts. Cat­e­go­rize stu­dent respons­es accord­ing to char­ac­ter­is­tics you feel are impor­tant. Address in class.
One Sen­tence Sum­ma­ry Stu­dents sum­ma­rize knowl­edge of a top­ic by con­struct­ing a sin­gle sen­tence to cov­er the core con­cept. The pur­pose is to require stu­dents to select only the defin­ing fea­tures of an idea. Eval­u­ate the qual­i­ty of each sum­ma­ry in brief fash­ion. Note if stu­dents have iden­ti­fied the core con­cepts of the class top­ic. Share with stu­dents.
Pri­or Knowl­edge Sur­vey                          

 

 Short sur­vey you give stu­dents at begin­ning of course or any new unit/topic on con­cepts to be stud­ied. Review imme­di­ate­ly and make adjust­ments to class­es based on what class knows/doesn’t know.
Think-Pair-Share

 

 Give the class a ques­tion. Allow every­one to think on own for a few min­utes jot­ting down some thoughts. Then ask stu­dents to pair up with a peer and dis­cuss thoughts for anoth­er few min­utes. Can do groups of 4 as well. Ask to share with whole class. Use when you want to have a bet­ter dis­cus­sion by a greater num­ber of stu­dents. By think­ing alone first and with small groups of peers, shared respons­es should be rich­er and more var­ied.
Appli­ca­tion Cards After teach­ing a the­o­ry, prin­ci­ple or pro­ce­dure, ask stu­dents to write down at least one real-world appli­ca­tion for what they have just learned to deter­mine if they can see the trans­fer of their recent learn­ing. Quick­ly read through once and cat­e­go­rize them accord­ing to qual­i­ty. Pick out a broad range of exam­ples to share with the class the next day.
Week­ly Report Writ­ten by stu­dents each week in which they address three ques­tions: What did I learn this week? What ques­tions remain unclear? And What ques­tions would you ask your stu­dents if you were the instruc­tor to find out if they under­stood the mate­r­i­al? Read at end of each week, cat­e­go­rize respons­es and share with class. Fol­low up on unclear ques­tions with class or small group of stu­dents.
Con­cepTests Instruc­tor presents one or more ques­tions dur­ing class involv­ing key con­cepts, along with sev­er­al pos­si­ble answers (mul­ti­ple choice). Stu­dents indi­cate (by show of hands, or poll vot­ing) which answer they think is cor­rect. If most of the class has not iden­ti­fied cor­rect answer, stu­dents are giv­en a short time to per­suade their neighbor(s) that their answer is cor­rect. The ques­tion is asked a sec­ond time to gauge class mas­tery. Often lasts a few min­utes but uncov­ers mis­un­der­stand­ings, and great con­ver­sa­tion amongst stu­dents. Share answer after sec­ond vot­ing ses­sion to see how the class respons­es changed or didn’t change.
Instruc­tor Meet­ings Instruc­tor meets infor­mal­ly with stu­dents either in class or after class to answer ques­tions, inquire about con­cep­tu­al under­stand­ing or pro­vide feed­back on stu­dent learn­ing. Design spe­cif­ic ques­tions to help guide the meet­ing and address con­cepts and under­stand­ings you want to know more about.
Ques­tion-And-Answer / Class Dis­cus­sion Instruc­tor cre­ates a series of ques­tions to pose to the class or small­er groups for dis­cus­sion. Stu­dents may pre­pare through home­work or in class with respons­es. Pro­vide feed­back to stu­dents on how well they engaged in dis­cus­sion. Ensure all stu­dents had a chance to par­tic­i­pate and fol­low up next class with areas for clar­i­fi­ca­tion.