Managing Active Assessements

In any subjects it is sometime necessary to assess using active assessments. These can range anywhere from drawing a picture, to class discussion. I think that these type of assessments will work nicely when trying to assess students knowledge on a particular subject. However, managing these assessment is something that should be worked out beforehand. When managing active assessments, I think that there are many ways that a I can keep from becoming overwhelmed. First, I could make a checklist to make sure I am covering all and only of what is needed. For example, if I am having my students draw sea and land breezes in a picture to show that they understanding the direction and temperature, I can have a checklist with the specific drawings that I am looking for. If the students have what is checked then I can tell their understanding. I also think that it is important to stat small. Science is a wodnerful subject for this type of assessment to be very helpful. In the Active Assessment for Active Science textbook, written by Hein and Price, they both write how a teacher should not throw away all the traditional text immediately, but start modifying or adding on to the original tests (53). I think that this is important to remember and I could modify my original test on land and sea breezes by first adding a drawing box on the back and have students not only write and fill out the test, but also provide a drawing on the back. I could eventually transform the entire evaluation to a drawing.

When I am pre-designing my assessments, I need to remember that it needs to identify the learning goals. Students need to know what this assessment is showing and you need to see. As a teacher I need to know what my students are going to learn and how they follow the Alabama and National Standards. I also need to make sure that my assessments are developmentally appropriate. I would not have first graders draw pictures of land and sea breezes and the directions they are going. This would be something for a higher 5th or 6th grade level.

Price and Hein, Active Assesments for Active Science, Heinmann. 1994