Create Assessments
Unfortunately, the state of education today seems to be all about testing. Whether it be at the school, district, or national level, testing is a dirty word to most teachers. The tragedy in this is that the real reason for assessment has been over shadowed by politics and short-sited systems seeking to penalize schools rather than encourage growth. The loser in this battle is the student. In truth, teachers and students need assessments; however, those assessments need to be created by classroom practitioners with specific outcomes in mind. Assessments need to measure student achievement on standards, and provide data to guide instruction. When used appropriately, assessments can challenge students as well as assess deeper concepts and critical thinking. The key to a challenging assessment is to use a combination of open-ended responses and carefully designed multiple choice questions (Goodwin & Hubbell, 2013).
While many teachers understand how to create challenging open-ended questions, often it is the multiple choice question which eludes many. Some resources for crafting challenging multiple choice questions can be found on the following websites:
While many teachers understand how to create challenging open-ended questions, often it is the multiple choice question which eludes many. Some resources for crafting challenging multiple choice questions can be found on the following websites:
- The Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at Penn State University provides guidelines for designing multiple-choice questions to assess higher-order thinking skills (www.schreyerinstitute.psu.edu/MultipleChoiceItems)
- The Teaching Effectiveness Program at the University of Oregon provides techniques for writing multiple-choice questions that require students to demonstrate critical-thinking skills (http://tep.uoregon.edu/resources/assessment/multiplechoicequestions/sometechniques.html)