Assessment Design Checklist 2.0

If you’re like me, my mind gets swamped amid all the things I want and need to recall and apply in my classroom each day. Assessments (aka, everything done in the classroom on a daily bases) can be overwhelming.

I am writing an assessment checklist to go over each time I plan learning activities for my students. In an early draft, I emphasized critical thinking and creativity as crucial components for my learning environment. For this iteration, I have focused on effective feedback on assessment tasks and the student process of accomplishing that task. I have also focused on self-regulated learning.

For the former, I focus on the quality and timeliness of feedback. Too often, I have provided students with poor (read: useless…shutter) feedback— things like “great job” or a “√” in the margin paper. I’m not a monster. I have given plenty of quality feedback as well, but never in a designed manner and certainly not consistently.

Concerning the latter, building students into independent learners who are self-regulated and can evaluate their performance and understanding is vital. Providing opportunities for students to reflect on their performance will help achieve deeper understanding.