As a teacher, I have created countless assessments that have evaluated my students' understanding of the learning objectives. Throughout the design, I developed tests reflecting the lessons, activities, and curriculum. Yet, some assessments could have been better after reflecting on students' scores and the test makeup.
So, what was my worst assessment?
After evaluating my assessments, the final exam I gave my students this semester for my United States History was my worst. My colleagues gave me this summative assessment to administer to my students. I looked over the test, and it fit the learning objective of the material I taught. For me, this was different because I had been working on updating the assessments, but as a team, time got the best of us toward the end of the school year. We used a past final exam written before I started working here.
Reflecting on this final exam, the questions' design and the assessment's difficulty are my concerns about this test. The layout is true and false when examining the design, followed by multiple-choice questions. This structure is a part of my reasoning for my issues with the lack of difficulty overall and the wording of the questions. It made the test easier because students had a 50/50 chance on the true and false questions but needed help challenging their thinking with a different structure. The multiple-choice questions could be answered correctly if students only memorized facts and did not require them to apply their knowledge.
So, what was my worst assessment?
After evaluating my assessments, the final exam I gave my students this semester for my United States History was my worst. My colleagues gave me this summative assessment to administer to my students. I looked over the test, and it fit the learning objective of the material I taught. For me, this was different because I had been working on updating the assessments, but as a team, time got the best of us toward the end of the school year. We used a past final exam written before I started working here.
Why was this my worst assessment?
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| A sample of my worst assessment |
Reflecting on this final exam, the questions' design and the assessment's difficulty are my concerns about this test. The layout is true and false when examining the design, followed by multiple-choice questions. This structure is a part of my reasoning for my issues with the lack of difficulty overall and the wording of the questions. It made the test easier because students had a 50/50 chance on the true and false questions but needed help challenging their thinking with a different structure. The multiple-choice questions could be answered correctly if students only memorized facts and did not require them to apply their knowledge.
For instance, the wording of the questions needed increased rigor to challenge my students like the other assessments they have been taking all semester. In other assessments, I included questions that focused on application rather than evaluation and synthesis, which hindered my progress with my students. The assessments I have been creating and using left students not using the higher-level Bloom's skills I have been teaching them all semester. It was too easy because they knew the basics, but they needed to demonstrate their deep understanding of the content.
How would I redesign this assessment?
When considering this exam, it has excellent potential to become a more robust digital assessment. Moving this test to a digital format would allow for the use of technology and aid in differentiating for all learners (Montenegro & Jankowski, 2017). This differentiation would look like adding map questions and chart analysis questions. I would also re-word questions to increase the difficulty. I would have liked to have more challenging questions that allowed students to investigate and think about the content critically, such as analyzing and evaluating the content. Students could problem-solve and consider the decisions made during each World War to explain how that impacted Europe politically, socially, and economically. From this point, I would also add an essay question where students could pick one of three questions to demonstrate their thinking of the learning objectives.
In the future, I would only give the exam if I completed a redesign to align with more of my teaching and philosophies. With these changes, I can take it from my worst test to help it become a better assessment.
Reference
How would I redesign this assessment?
When considering this exam, it has excellent potential to become a more robust digital assessment. Moving this test to a digital format would allow for the use of technology and aid in differentiating for all learners (Montenegro & Jankowski, 2017). This differentiation would look like adding map questions and chart analysis questions. I would also re-word questions to increase the difficulty. I would have liked to have more challenging questions that allowed students to investigate and think about the content critically, such as analyzing and evaluating the content. Students could problem-solve and consider the decisions made during each World War to explain how that impacted Europe politically, socially, and economically. From this point, I would also add an essay question where students could pick one of three questions to demonstrate their thinking of the learning objectives.
In the future, I would only give the exam if I completed a redesign to align with more of my teaching and philosophies. With these changes, I can take it from my worst test to help it become a better assessment.
Reference
Montenegro, E., & Jankowski, N. A. (2017). Equity and assessment: Moving towards culturally responsive assessment. (Occasional Paper No. 29). University of Illinois and Indiana University, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA).
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