I鈥檓 often surprised when teachers are surprised when their students perform poorly on tests. Sure there are kids whose scores belie their skills, such as those who have test anxiety or had a bad day or took the test on an empty stomach. For the most part, though, students鈥� performance on tests is predictable based on their day to day performance in class. And that鈥檚 the problem: teachers who are surprised by students鈥� performance on tests often aren鈥檛 assessing students鈥� understanding in class as routinely or effectively as they need to be.
Routine, effective assessment means knowing what students know or don鈥檛 know now. No waiting for the chapter test, much less a year-end standardized test. In fact, no waiting until you grade students鈥� papers after class, since the time for timely formative assessment is during class when you can identify ASAP what students don鈥檛 get and why they don鈥檛 get it, and clear up their confusion right away.
One key to such in-the-moment assessment is circulating to see how students are doing as they鈥檙e working on something in class--whether it鈥檚 a five-minute or a 45-minute discovery activity. Just be sure when you do this to .
Another key to immediate, reliable assessment is effective questioning techniques. I鈥檝e written before about one such technique, , and here are a few more:
- Ask, Don鈥檛 Tell. Ask questions through which you can pull information from students rather than provide it to them. Examples: give students diagrams of insects and arachnids (or, better yet, have them create their own), and ask them to identify similarities and differences rather than doing so for them; draw a few figures with lines of symmetry inserted and ask students what they think a line of symmetry is rather than define it for them up front. Same goes for discussing readings or interpreting graphs, where you鈥檒l get a better sense for students鈥� understanding if you solicit their opinions and analysis before sharing yours.
- Avoid Yes-No Questions. Ask questions that require students to say or show what they do or don鈥檛 understand rather than if they understand. In other words, lots of what, why, and how questions rather than knee-jerk yes-no questions like 鈥淒oes everyone understand?鈥� or 鈥淚s everyone ready to move on?鈥� or 鈥淒oes this make sense?鈥� I鈥檝e noticed even when facilitating workshops that participants are more responsive when I ask, 鈥淲hat questions do you have?鈥� than when I ask, 鈥淎ny questions?鈥� Similarly, it鈥檚 better to ask, 鈥淲hat do you remember about...? " rather than 鈥淒o you remember...?鈥�
- Target Conceptual Understanding. Ask questions that assess and facilitate conceptual understanding before asking those aimed at procedural understanding. (Example: 鈥淲hat is perimeter?鈥� rather than 鈥淲hat is the formula for perimeter?鈥�)
In my experience, teachers who assess students鈥� understanding using these practices are rarely if ever surprised by their students鈥� performance on tests. And more important, they鈥檙e pleased with their students鈥� performance on tests, since formative assessment efficiency on the part of teachers is a key to summative assessment proficiency on the part of students.
What questions do you have?
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