Aprendiendo a Distancia

As teachers today we are told that we must teach our students and help them construct "enduring understanding", providing them with the ability to transfer knowledge from one subject area to another subject area. We are also told that we should personalize education, requiring us to know the strengths and weaknesses and incorporate this into our lessons. And let's not forget that we must also assess our students. How can we make our assessments help students with content retention? This post focuses on this question, and provides five suggestions on ways to do this.

The first three suggestions are:

• Tests Where Notes or Textbooks are Permitted
• Take-Home Tests
• Student-Made Tests

These types of tests may take more time to create but they have the ability to be written so that students have to do more than memorize information. There is more information on this in the post.

The next suggestion is:

• Projects Pre-Approved by the Teacher

This requires that students demonstrate mastery of the subject. This will require the student to create (a 21st century goal) and additional information is in the post, including a discussion of what this might look like.

The final suggestion is:

• Revisions and Retests to Build Skillsets

This section discusses what we may do to help out student build their skillsets through feedback and opportunities to construct accurate information.

As you read this post you may begin to consider alternative ways to assess your students that help them with content retention.

Ideas to expand thinking on current assessments, particularly for those who do not test well. Thx Beth Dichter!

As teachers today we are told that we must teach our students and help them construct "enduring understanding", providing them with the ability to transfer knowledge from one subject area to another subject area. We are also told that we should personalize education, requiring us to know the strengths and weaknesses and incorporate this into our lessons. And let's not forget that we must also assess our students. How can we make our assessments help students with content retention? This post focuses on this question, and provides five suggestions on ways to do this.

The first three suggestions are:

These types of tests may take more time to create but they have the ability to be written so that students have to do more than memorize information. There is more information on this in the post.

The next suggestion is:

This requires that students demonstrate mastery of the subject. This will require the student to create (a 21st century goal) and additional information is in the post, including a discussion of what this might look like.

The final suggestion is:

This section discusses what we may do to help out student build their skillsets through feedback and opportunities to construct accurate information.

As you read this post you may begin to consider alternative ways to assess your students that help them with content retention.

Are you looking for some ideas on how to use technology to do formative assessment? This infographic may provide you with some ideas. Check it out to find 5 suggestions that do not use technology, a couple of ideas for w white board, and many more ideas for using online resources, smartphones and twitter.

Good ideas to make formative assessment part of the "instructional process".