Fun Assessments?

Quora Question: As a teacher, how do you make assessments fun for your students?

There are multiple ways to do this. Here are some of my favorite:

1. Performance Assessments-These are hands-on activities where the students demonstrate their learning through the activity.

   
   

   1. Science Example: After studying and experimenting with air pressure students were tasked with getting a balloon to go inside a flask without touching the balloon. (They could touch it to put the balloon around the opening of the flask but then, “hands off.”) Credit is given for the task but also for their conclusion. If the task was unsuccessful the students could still get a high grade if, in their conclusion, they explained why they thought it didn’t work and what they would do differently the next time.

   2. English Example: Role play with a team a part of a book or excerpt that was previously read and analyzed.

   3. Math Example: Use basic geometry studied to build a tower in a set time limit using required angles.

   4. Social Science: Set up an example of a point in history just studied either in a labeled diagram or in a role play.

      
      

2. Online Assessment: My students thanked me for some of my Google Forms tests because I included a picture with each question, applied the question to a real-life situation and they got instant feedback from the online format.

   
   

3. Online Games-Using games like KaHoot as a pre-assessment helps students learn that studying for a test can be fun and rewarding. You may make the final assessment in a different way but the test prep can be enjoyable.

   
   

4. Short Term Projects where student’s do a “walk about” learning from other student’s work and using a scoring guide to assess while the instructor does the same. Students enjoy this because they are actively participating and learning from other student’s work at the same time.

   
   

5. Gallery walks-Students post their work around the classroom and all students do a gallery walk. I LOVE small whiteboards for this. They put post it notes on other students work with questions or comments. Each student has copies of 2–3 scoring guides and they are required to score at least 2 students’ work. No unkind or unhelpful comments are allowed. I make this very clear from the beginning. Students must include their name on their evaluation and part of their credit comes from using the scoring guides.

   
   

Final Thought: It is fine to use a standard multiple choice test part of the time but having a variety of assessment types overall will keep students engaged and help them learn that assessments can be fun!