Teach, test, grade, repeat! Are learning opportunities diminished by the amount of time devoted to testing?

My classroom is my happy place! It’s a smile zone! It’s a place where learning is fun!  

Testing day radiates a different vibe. The classroom is too quiet (oh, the irony of appreciating noise when it’s too quiet)! 

Student: (long face, boredom in eyes) Another test?

Teacher: (exhausted) Another test to grade!

How much time do students spend testing compared to learning experiences?

The “system” is robbing kids of their most admirable human characteristic- CREATIVITY!

 

 

SIX Not–So–Black–and–White Test Grade Options

1.) Assessment Stations for a Grade

Using assessment stations to assess knowledge is very similar to using learning stations to teach.

• First, set up a variety of stations with a task or a question at each station.
• Students rotate around the room to visit each station and complete the task.
• Provide an answer document on a clipboard for each student to record his or her answers.
• Grade the answer document.
• Try using these materials in assessment stations: task cards for any subject or skill, social studies and science sources (timelines, maps, primary resources, diagrams, experiments etc.), vocabulary words, or word parts.

2.) Table Twitter Test Grade

• Combine interaction with assessment.
• For basic Table Twitter, all you need is a large sheet of bulletin board paper with a question or task posted in the middle.
• Students rotate to each station and record answers on the bulletin paper.
• Need a grade? Add a data sheet for students to record information. Before tweeting, students record information/facts/details on the data sheet.
• Reflect on this knowledge by tweeting.  After rotating to each Twitter board, students can respond to each other.  This is a great way to practice for a writing assignment.  Tweets and responses include extended answer, while the data sheet contains the facts.   

 

3.) American Idol for the Classroom

Tune up your lesson and groove to some funky facts. This is one of the most fun testing alternatives. It is a great way for students to remember facts for the rest of their lives.

• Tips:
  • Choose a topic.  Any topic works!
    • Social Studies Teachers will love Revolutionary American Idol and Native American Idol.
  • Create guiding questions for research, or present the information whole group. 
  • Students record information on a data sheet.
  • Brainstorm popular songs.
  • Evaluate the song based on appropriateness, length, chorus and lyrics, beat and speed.
  • Make a list or rubric with the amount of required information to include.
  • Print the song lyrics and locate a karaoke version of the song.  Students can begin replacing original song lyrics with facts from their research.
  • Students perform their American Idol song for the class and vote on the best song.  The winner becomes your next Student American Idol.

For a more detailed guide to implement American Idol, click HERE.

Native American Idol– a step-by-step guide to turning research into a song.

4.) Walking Tours Grade

Walking Tours are learning stations set up around the classroom where students research specific information on one topic.  Students become tourist as they travel to each station, analyze sources, and answer guiding questions.  This is the perfect activity for any history lesson.

If you are a social studies teacher and you teach Jamestown Colony, you can find everything you need to set up your own walking tour HERE.

No TIME to create? Check out the Complete Walking Tours below.

5.) Presentations for a Grade

• Students can choose from a variety of ways to present information on any topic:
  • PowerPoint, Prezi, storybook, collage, Sway, brochure, Canva creation, poster…the options are endless.

    

6.) Act It Out/Reader’s Theater

Make history come alive in your classroom with reader’s theater.   Students will find their voice in history as they read or act out information or facts on any topic.

Colonial Conquest is my most favorite Reader’s Theater.

• My students audition for their parts and act it out in front of the class. This year I will require students to memorize their lines.  

No more wasting time at the copy machine! No more grading boring tests every single week! Students are tired of multiple choice! Give your teaching style the makeover it deserves by implementing one of these fun performance assessments.