Assessments that are so much more

When I was in high school, opportunities to demonstrate my understanding sometimes looked like this:

rarely looked like this:

and usually looked like this:

BOOORING. Not to mention frustrating and exhausting. When, besides taking future tests, will filling in bubbles benefit my life? Since when has understanding been gauged by listing what you know? So much of my high school experience resembled a fill-in-the-dot assembly line, it doesn't bear remembering.

In my biology class, we never applied our knowledge to respond creatively to writing prompts of any kind. By doing labs, I learned how to keep a lab notebook organized and succinct. Occasionally we wrote summative lab reports, and once we had the option of an extra-credit research paper about a genetic disorder (I chose Crohn's disease).

It's a shame, really, because I loved the applications of biology - especially labs - and would have enjoyed writing creatively about them or applying my knowledge about them to respond to a prompt. I never felt limited in biology class, but I know that varied assessments would have been liberating.
I loved writing in my English class, and building set in Production Practicum, acting in Theater, and the oral tests in Spanish - but I never did any of these things in the discipline I loved the most.

Ever since declaring my Theater Education minor, I have vowed not to follow in my biology teacher's footsteps (sorry Mr. B). Teachers can assess their students in so many ways - and in ways that connect to students' strengths!

Our students could

• Create models!
• Complete labs and write reports!
• Write and perform a reader's theatre!
• Design, test, and reflect on their own model-based inquiry project (it's like doing a lab, but the outcome isn't written in a teacher's manual somewhere)!
• Write a rap!
• Write (letters, reports, summaries, pamphlets, websites, newsletters, observations, reflections, journal entries) as (doctors, scientists, reporters, farmers, explorers, aliens, concerned denizens, indigenous peoples, waterfowl experts, zoologists) about (environmental problems, common misconceptions, interesting phenomena, unique insights, personal experiences, events of local or historical significance, family concerns, current issues, best practices, ethical concerns, important questions)!
• Create presentations!
• Argue a point of view using science-based evidence!
• Teach material to each other!
• Identify, brainstorm, and implement solutions for a local environmental problem!
• Film an informational video!
• Debate other students, in-role, using role-appropriate costume, vocabulary, diction, and arguments!
• Build something!

The possibilities are endless! (I intend to use all of these. Just watch me)

Best of all, most of these ideas are examples of Performance-Based Assessment - assessments which tie to students real-lives, and engage them in applying their understanding to unique venues using skills they will use as adults. Students not only enjoy PBA more, they can easily see the relevance of what they are learning. I hope that by engaging in these assessments, I'll promote rich understanding of the material among my students.

Of course, PBA takes time, energy, trial-and-error, and (heaven for-fend!) carefully constructed rubrics, but I find that the level of rigor they push myself and my students towards is worth it. When students are in role - either as zoologists writing observations about snails or as students building a bridge - they elevate themselves to the occasion, and the assessment is suddenly more than just a "test" - it's a learning adventure in its own right.