Questions to Ask When Determining Assessments for a Unit

• What essential standards, concepts and skills need to be assessed for mastery?
  
  
• What is the goal of the assessment? (Is it to aid in the educational process? Is it to aid in establishing benchmarks for student achievement? Is it to measure student performance?)
  
  
• What method of assessment will provides the students the best opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the essentials according to the students levels of learning and academic needs?
  
  
  • Determine the types of informal assessments you will use during the unit. (How will you check for student understanding of the material through observation, class participation, etc.?)
    
    
  • Determine the types of formal assessments you will use during the unit.
    
    
    • What formative assessments will be used to check for student understanding during the course of the unit? (What quizzes, essays, projects, activities, etc. will be used?)
      
      
    • What summative assessments will be used at the end of the unit to measure student mastery of the unit essentials? (What tests, projects, portfolios, research papers, etc. will be used?)
      
      

  click here to see the classification chart of assessments >>>

• Are the objectives of the assessment clearly defined and linked to the essentials?
  
  
• Does the structure of the assessments provide the students the ability to respond according to their levels of learning?
  
  
• How will the assessment measure student mastery of the essentials?
  
  
• If a student does not perform well on one particular type of assessment, is there another type of assessment a student could use in order to prove mastery of the essentials?
  
  
• At the end of the assessment - Did the assessment accomplish the intended goal?

Helpful Links

Classroom Assessment >>> - The Florida Center for Instructional Technology provides a complete guide for classroom assessments. Learn the basic concepts along with how to develop and implement the proper assessment for each task.

Types of Assessments >>> - A website by UTS: Institute for Interactive Media & Learning that discusses the advantages and disadvantages of many types of assessments.

Teaching Tips Index >>> - A terrific resource of information from the educational department at Honolulu, Hawaii. It includes a variety of topics regarding instructional strategies.

Linking Classroom Assessment with Student Learning >>> - Classroom assessment is among an instructor’s most essential educational tools. This publication by Educational Testing Service (ETS) will help teachers learn to properly developed and interpret assessments in order to better understand what their students are learning.

Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation >>> - This paper by Barbara M. Moskal provides a set of recommendations for developing classroom performance assessments and scoring rubrics similar to the sets of recommendations for multiple choice tests provided in this journal by Frary (1995) and Kehoe (1995a, 1995b).

Classroom Assessment Practices >>> - This article by the NEA discusses aligning classroom assessments with State/Local student standards.

Copyright © 2008 EducateInteractive LLC | All Rights Reserved