Engaging Students in Assessment
Engaging students in assessment demonstrates how invested I am in my students' success and encourages students to invest more in their performance. I engage students in assessment through test corrections, celebrating successes, and reflection. These strategies help students see the importance of assessment, support them to meet their goals, and increase class buy-in.
Test Corrections
Test corrections are an important opportunity for students to learn from their mistakes and to raise their grades. Students can view their test scores online through Powerschool. All students are encouraged to come to test corrections. Test corrections occur before school, lunch, or after school every day for one week after the assessment. After one week students are asked to schedule a time with me for test corrections. Students are given a form that they need to complete for test corrections. The form requires students to include the question number, their original answer, their new answer, and explanation of why they selected their new answer. This typically looks like citing a page number, a section in their notes, vocabulary word, or a worksheet. For each question that the student correctly changes they earn 50% back towards their grade. Test corrections allow students to engage with their assessments and track their progress. Students who are the most successful come after every assessment to review their score and correct their mistakes. I store all quizzes, assessments, and test corrections forms giving students the opportunity to see the growth and progress they have made throughout the year.
This is a test correction form completed by a seventh grade science student following our chapter 2 assessment. She corrected both questions and earned 10% back on her assessment
This is a test correction form completed by a sixth-grade science student following our chapter 3 assessment. She was able to correct two multiple-choice questions and one free-response question earning back 15% on her chapter 3 assessment.
Celebrating Successes
Celebrating successes makes my classroom a much more positive place, increases student motivation, and shows my students how invested I am in their performance and progress. Following each quiz and chapter assessment, I write the names of students’ who earned an A or higher on their assessment and their classes average on my whiteboard. At the start of class, I ask all students who earned an A to stand up and the class acknowledges their accomplishment. At the end of the school day all the students who earned an A or higher on their assessment return to my classroom and receive a cookie for their accomplishment.
This is a picture of how I celebrate student successes in my classroom. The students who earned an A on the chapter assessment have their name written on the board and a cookie waiting for them after school. Celebrating success makes assessment less scary for students and incentives performance. Please note their names have been blurred out to protect privacy.
Kahoot
Kahoot is an interactive competitive quiz game that my students love. Kahoot allows teachers to build their own quiz and students interact with assessment in a new and engaging way. Kahoot awards points to students based on two factors: selecting the correct answer and speed of selecting the correct answer. I use Kahoot to review before every test and I give the students who win first place 10% extra credit, second place 5% extra credit, and third place 3% extra credit on their chapter assessment. Both my high school students and middle school students have expressed joy and excitement for Kahoot. However, my sixth-grade students particularly love the competitiveness of Kahoot, watch the video to see how my sixth-grade students interact with Kahoot. Kahoot provides students with immediate feedback after each question, students see the correct answer and a graph showing how many students selected each answer option. Immediate feedback allows students to easily track and monitor their progress. As students play I remind them that these questions are similar to the ones on their test and to jot down tricky questions so they have a targeted study plan. Student performance on Kahoot typically mirrors performance on the following chapter assessment. Kahoot makes assessment fun and engaging, gives students additional practice with class content, and allows them track and monitor their progress through immediate feedback.
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Please click this link to watch my 6th-grade science students engaging with Kahoot note the excitement and engagement as they answer the question "which organelle is found only in plant cells?'
Reflection
Reflections are an opportunity for students to take a moment to think and process their own progress and performance on their most recent assessment. I have a few reflection activities that I use throughout the year. I have a written reflection worksheet for students who finish their chapter assessment early, community circles to discuss class performance, and reflection questions in the Do Now. Reflection encourages students to track and monitor their own progress.
This is an example of a Do Now reflection that was completed by seventh grade science students following the chapter 2 assessment. The questions asks students to reflect on their study habits and performance on the assessment.