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This website has multiple ideas for performance tasks and summative assessments. I want my students to have choices for what they can create for their projects, and this website has tons that I can choose from for future summative assignments.

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Sometimes the best way to check for understanding is with a good old-fashioned paper-and-pencil test. But more often than not, there are assessments that are more fun and interesting, and just as effective, to give your students the opportunity to show what they know. Here are 25 alternative assessment ideas that will tap into students' different learning styles and get you the information you need to make sure they're learning.

1. Plot a family tree.

Highlight the relationships and connections between individuals by filling in a family tree. For example, have students plot out the relationships between characters in a story, the important players in a historical event, or the family lines of greek mythology.

2. Conduct an interview.

Instead of answering multiple-choice questions about a topic, why not tell the story through an eyewitness account? For example, if you are studying the Montgomery Bus Boycott, have students write an interview with Rosa Parks about what happened. Or better yet, have two students collaborate and then perform the interview together.

3. Create an infographic.

Explaining a concept through a visual representation definitely demonstrates that students have a clear understanding. Infographics take the most important information and present it in a clear, memorable way. Click here to check out examples from WeAreTeachers.

4. Write a how-to manual.

They say that teaching someone else about a concept requires a greater degree of understanding. With this in mind, have students write a short manual explaining a process or concept, step by step. For example, how to annotate a short story, how to conduct an experiment, or how to solve a math problem.

5. Take a virtual shopping trip.

Test your students' proficiency of adding and subtracting money with a practical application. For example, give each student an imaginary budget of $100 to spend on back-to-school supplies. Provide them with sales flyers and have them write up what they will fill their cart with. Make sure to tell them they must spend as much as possible and give them a range of items to buy, for example 15-25 items.

Let younger students explain a concept in two ways-with words and a picture. Have students fold a piece of paper in half and draw a picture on top and explain the concept in words on the bottom of the page. For example, have them explain and illustrate the life cycle of a butterfly.

7. Make an ABC book.

This is a fun way for students to show what they know in a creative way. Have students create a mini book with an illustrated cover and write one letter of the alphabet on each page. They will record one fact on the topic per letter/page. A few potential ideas: animal study, biography study, math vocabulary words.

8. Fashion a mobile.

Instead of writing a boring essay, have students showcase their knowledge in a three-dimensional way. Different facts about the topic are written on separate cards, attached to yarn, and hung from a plastic hanger. For example, a story map (setting, characters, conflict); parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives); science concepts (the phases of the moon); math concepts (shapes and angles).

9. Create a pamphlet.

Students demonstrate everything they know about a topic with a colorful pamphlet that includes facts and illustrations. Possible topics: an animal study, branches of government, or an author study.

10. Present opposite points of view.

Have students demonstrate that they fully understand the main arguments for and against a modern issue, such as what restrictions, if any, should be placed on stem cell research or whether athletes should be allowed to use performance-enhancing drugs. Ask them to present facts and statistics that support both sides.

11. Work on a STEM challenge.

Consider assigning projects that challenge students to use every step of the engineering process, such as the egg dropchallenge or cardboard boat racing. (Note: mini versions of cardboard boats can be raced in plastic pools.)

12. Write a persuasive letter.

Students have to fully understand the merits of a position before they can persuade someone to adopt that same point of view. One way to demonstrate this is by writing a persuasive letter. For example, write a letter to the school board explaining why mandatory recycling and composting in every school would help the environment.

13. Create a concept map.

A concept map visually represents relationships between concepts and ideas. Test students' understanding by having them fill in a prepared concept map or create one from scratch. Simple versions created by hand can do the trick, or go high tech with Lucidchart, an add-on for Google Docs.

Have students demonstrate their proficiency with percentages by drawing up an imaginary budget. For example, let them choose their starting income and provide them with a list of expenses they must account for. Once they balance their budget, challenge them to figure out what percentage each category takes up.

15. Put out a WANTED poster.

Create an old-fashioned wanted poster for a character from a story or a historical figure. Have students describe the character using facts, figures, and a description.

16. Produce a multimedia, interactive poster.

The fun, low-cost, high-tech tool allows students to combine images, graphics, audio, video, and text on one digital canvas in order to demonstrate their understanding of concepts and ideas.

17. Create an artifact.

Turn your classroom into a museum and have your students create artifacts that demonstrate their knowledge. For example, types of indigenous dwellings, devices that use a spring, or models of a part of the body.

18. Coordinate a living history museum.

Make characters from history come alive. Students can dress like heroes, inventors, authors, etc. and prepare mini biographies. Invite guests to come in and learn from students.

19. Design a travel brochure.

Great for a geography study. For example, a state brochure could include maps, the state flower, flag, motto, and more.

20. Draw a comic strip.

Allow students to tap into their inner cartoonist and test their knowledge with comic strips. Set clear expectations for length and content beforehand. Possible uses: book reports, retelling of a historical event, or science concepts, like the water cycle.

21. Create a collage.

Using old magazines, let students create a collage of images that demonstrates their understanding of a concept. For example, math concepts, like equalities, balanced equations, and volume; science concepts, like weather, life cycles, and chemical reactions; and English concepts, like word roots, conjugations, and punctuation.

22. Dramatize.

Have students write a play or monologue that was inspired by a moment in history, summarizes a story, or explains a concept.

23. Write a pitch.

Have students write a pitch for a Netflix series starring characters from an important moment or period of time (the American Revolution, the Civil Rights era) or follows the theme of a book. Encourage students to be inspired by subplots or to tell the story from a different character's point of view.

24. Gather real-world examples.

Ask students to demonstrate their understanding by gathering evidence of concepts in everyday life. For example, geometry (angles, shapes), grammar (sentence structure, use of punctuation), science (condensation, refraction), or social studies (maps, current events).

25. Dream up a board game.

At the end of a unit, allow students to team up and create a board game as a culminating project. For example, at the end of an economics unit, have them create a game about supply and demand or a game about wants and needs.
Do you have more alternative assessment ideas that you use in your classroom? Come and share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook. Also, check out 5 Unconventional Final Exams to Give Your Students.

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Sometimes the best way to check for understanding is with a good old-fashioned paper-and-pencil test. But more often than not, there are assessments that are more fun and interesting, and just as effective, to give your students the opportunity to show what they know.

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The Alberta Assessment Consortium has a plethora of resources for assessment. I feel that this is the most important tool in my toolkit since there are so many ideas to explore! user-mtroyal password- assessment

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There is still time to register for our upcoming session.
https://events.aac.ab.ca/register/?id=1

@CAschenmeier, @learningongoing, @rmarynow, @Mrs_Laf, @LiMeEv, @LearningIsMyJam, @LeanneoWatson, @GTKnox, @PLore957

#assessmentpractices #assessmentforlearning #AAC #VirtualPD #albertaassessment

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What's New at AAC? AAC Events are now open for registration! Click here to register for events! × Dismiss alert We have an awesome Fall schedule planned and a brand new registration platform! Follow the link below for session details and registration. Suggest a topic: info@aac.ab.ca SESSION LIST After-school sessions A comprehensive exploration of current ...

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Jamboard was a website I never thought I would like as much as I do now. It is super quick to create, and students can have a lot of fun with this, so I think this is a great learning strategy and formative assessment tool.

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This document breaks down how to create a rubric and what the proper wording should be for each category, which will be beneficial in the future when I create my own rubrics.

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This is a great tool for making rubrics since you can delineate between words that are similar so that the rubric is not splitting hairs in different categories.

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Since I am in my PE course right now, I thought I would add some formative strategies for this since PE is an area that I have the least experience in, and could one day teach. This website will be great to look back to in case I need some ideas for assessment in my gym class.

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For this episode of The #PhysEd Show Podcast, I invited the one and only Terri Drain onto the show so that we could discuss assessment for learning in physical education.

If you don't know who Terri is, she's an amazing physical educator who teaches at Vintage Hills Elementary School in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2007, Terri was named the California Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Elementary Teacher of the Year and was named the SHAPE America Southwest District Teacher of the Year for the following year. In addition to her physical education-specific accolades, Terri was named the Pleasanton Unified School District Teacher of the Year in 2016. She is a National Board Certified Teacher, a member of the SHAPE America Board of Directors, a fellow Canadian, and probably the most cited person on this blog. Terri is one of the best presenters I have ever had a chance to see in action (you can find most of her session handouts on her blog), I've learned so much from her over the past few years, and I'm so excited to have her on The #PhysEd Show to talk about assessment!

Subscribe To The #PhysEd Show

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The Podcast: Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher

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Connect With Terri

Website: BeyondKickball.com

Terri's U pcoming Conferences: 2018 CAHPERD Conference, #SHAPENashville, 2018 EPEW

Show Notes

As I've done with past episodes of The #PhysEd Show, I decided to put together some pretty thorough show notes that elaborate on some of the ideas we explored in the podcast to help you dive deeper into the topic of assessment for learning (AFL). Sound good? Here we go:

What is assessment?

Let's start off by defining our terms here. According to the Great School Partnership, assessment "refers to the wide variety of methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill acquisition, or educational needs of students." That said, I always liked this definition that Katie White, educational consultant/author of " Softening The Edges ", shared on Twitter:

To change our view of assessment, we could open our definition: any time we measure efforts against a goal, we're assessing #ATAssess

- Katie White (@KatieWhite426) January 26, 2017

What's the different between assessment for learning and assessment of learning?

Whereas assessment of learning usually appears as summative tasks in which students demonstrate their learning and have a grade/result associated to their level of achievement, assessment for learning involves formative tasks which inform both the student and the teacher about where the student is at in their learning, remind them of where they are aiming to go, and help them better understand what they can do in order to get there.

Still not sure what the difference is between the two ( for and of)? Here's a video in which author/educational consultant Rick Wormeli provides a detailed explanation:

What are the benefits of assessment for learning?

In his book " Classroom Assessment For Student Learning: Doing It Right - Using It Well ", Rick Stiggins highlights for benefits of assessment for learning:

Stiggins goes on further to state that " the effect of assessment for learning on student achievement is some four to five times greater than the effect of reduced class size ".

That being said, it's pretty clear that assessment for learning is something that we, as physical educators, should be taking seriously. Let's dig deeper into what AFL can actually look like in physical education:

What does assessment for learning look like in PE?

Stiggins identifies seven strategies of assessment for learning. Here they are along with some examples of what they could look like in physical education:

Strategy One: Provide a Clear and Understandable Vision of the Learning Target
What is it?
Share the learning objectives prior to the start of your lesson or before any classroom activity. You'll want to make sure that you are using language that the students understand and ensure that you take the time to check for that understanding. You can also provide your students with the grading rubric to help them fully understand what achievement can look like.
What could it look like in physical education?
As Terri mentions in the podcast, this is a perfect time to introduce the "What", "Why", and "How" of your lesson.

I like doing this by sharing the "What" and "How" portions, but then having my students come up with the "Why" either through a class discussion or a Walk & Talk session.

As for the rubrics, I like to create Learning Roadmaps for my units in physical education.

Although I really do believe in the power of these qualitative rubrics, I'm always looking to improve them. Here are two things I'm working on right now:

1. Using Student-Friendly Language. As Stiggins states, the rubric should be written in language that the students understand and are comfortable with. This is something I want to continue working on as my Learning Roadmaps can sometimes be a little too wordy and contain too much teacher-speak.

2. Offer Different Paths Towards Mastery. This is an idea that was shared with me by Dr. Justen O'Connor in a blog post he wrote that explored how the Learning Roadmaps could be improved. The idea is to provide different levels of achievement within each level of mastery on the roadmap so that students can follow a path that is unique to their skill/knowledge/understanding level. I'll be tinkering with this in the new year.

Strategy Two: Use Examples and Models of Strong and Weak Work
What is it?
Share examples of real work and have students reflect on those examples so that they can identify strengths and weaknesses in the work provided. This can help students gain a more thorough understanding of the task at hand and help them build a deeper understanding of what mastery can look like. This process can also help students develop strategies that they can use to master the content they are exploring in class.
What could it look like in physical education?
As I've blogged about before, I maintain pretty extensive, digital student portfolios in my physical education classes. This means that, over the years, I've collected a lot of videos of students performing different skills (and completing different assessment pieces) at different levels of mastery.

I'm currently working on putting together Anchor Portfolios for the different outcomes that we focus on in class. An Anchor Portfolio is an idea that was introduced to me by my wife (who is a classroom teacher and is, also, very lovely). Basically, it is a portfolio that contains pieces of student work for each level of mastery.

These pieces can serve as examples for my current students who can analyze them to better understand why the work corresponds to a specific level of mastery and compare the work to their own performance.

Another example of an effort I've made in regards to this strategy is that I've created visuals (graphics and videos) that illustrate what mature patterns look like for various skills.

I've done this for fundamental movement skills...

... and different sport skills

Although these posters take a ton of time to produce, my goal is to have one for every skill that I teach in my program so that students can always have the clearest idea of what a "strong" performance looks like in regards to these different motor skills.

Strategy Three: Offer Regular Descriptive Feedback
What is it?
Instead of providing students with a grade on a formative assessment piece, provide them with descriptive feedback. Feedback works best when it is specific, focuses on the student's strengths and weaknesses in regards to the learning objective, let's the student know what they are doing right and what they need to do in order to keep making progress.

Stiggins recommends a "Stars & Stairs" approach: focus on what the learner accomplished and what are the next steps.

Finally, don't overwhelm students by providing them with too much information. Although some students can digest and act on a lot of feedback at once, not all students can. Get to know your students so that you have a better understanding of the kind of feedback that has the greatest impact on their learning and how much feedback they can take at once.
What could it look like in physical education?
In terms of skill development, skills are pretty easy to break down into critical elements which allows you to get super specific with your feedback.

The bigger issue is finding the time to provide each learner with descriptive feedback in your super short, overly crowded, chaotic-by-nature physical education lessons. This is why it is so important to come up with descriptive feedback systems in your teaching that will allow you to increase the amount of feedback loops for each student. Here are a few examples of these types of systems:
Marked Up Learning Roadmaps
This is another idea that falls under the "still in beta" category, but I've been experimenting with marking up my Learning Roadmaps so as to provide my students with potential next steps to help guide them along their learning journey.

The idea here is that, by adding comments to the Learning Roadmap, once students have identified what level they are currently at (via teacher feedback, peer-assessment, or self-assessment), a student can look at the comments on the roadmap to better understand what they can be focusing on in order to move their learning forward. I'm still working on these in class, but the early results have been pretty great!
Environmental Feedback Loops
Now this is an idea I've been wanting to try but haven't even tested out yet! A few years back, I got to see Dr. Stevie Chepko speak at the 2013 National PE Institute (you can watch her 2012 National PE Institute keynote). In her presentation on motor learning, Stevie was sharing thoughts on the importance of feedback loops in regards to mastery of the fundamental movement skills. One of the ideas she brought up was an environmental prompt that provided students with feedback based on the result of their performance. Here's an example of what that means:

So imagine you have a large version of the graphic above printed out and pasted on your gym wall. Using an underhand throw that includes a release between the knee and waist level, students can attempt to throw a ball or beanbag so that it hits the blue "Just Right" area. If it hits the orange area, then they know that they released the ball/beanbag too high which is why they missed their target. They therefore have to release the ball lower in order to hit the blue area (as indicated in the orange area text). If they hit the purple area, then they know that they released the ball/beanbag too low which is why they missed their target. They therefore have to release the ball higher in order to hit the blue area (as indicated in the purple area text).

This type of environmental tool can help students get important, descriptive feedback without needing the teacher to intervene. By having several of these kinds of setups in your gym, you can increase the amount of feedback loops that each student experiences in any given lesson.

I teach my younger grades (i.e. grades 1-2) as a full group (about 26 students). Although that is small compared to some of the groups that my fellow physical educators teach, I still find it hard to provide descriptive feedback to each student. A solution I have used to counteract this is by using purposeful stations in my lessons from time to time.

What I call purposeful stations are stations that all have a common theme and that have students using a simple "Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down" mini-coaching system at each one. For example, I will set up six stations in my gym with each station's focus being one of the critical elements of overhand throwing (I use my Critical Element Key Focus Cards that are part of my premium FMS Manipulative Posters downloads to help with this.) The sixth station is where I am at, working with one group at a time throughout the lesson to ensure that each student has received individualized descriptive feedback by the end of the lesson (I usually watch their performance once or twice and then provide them with their "Stars" and "Stairs").

Strategy Four: Teach Students To Self-Assess and Set Goals
What is it?
According to Stiggins, self-assessment is an essential part of learning as it helps students better understand where they are at in their learning which, in turn, helps them set goals for their learning.

Effective self-assessment should include the following:

1. Identify strengths and areas for improvement.

2. Complete exit cards in which they record what they have learned and what questions they may still have.

3. Select work samples that prove their level of mastery of the content (and explain why the piece does so).

4. Offer descriptive feedback to classmates.

5. Use feedback in order to set goals for the future.

What could it look like in physical education?
Reflection and self-assessment play a large role in my teaching. Here are a some of the different ways that my students go about self-assessment in my lessons:

I have been using magnets as assessment tools in my teaching for a couple years now. Magnets provide my students with a simple tool that allows them to reflect on where they are at in their learning, mark that location/level of mastery, set a goal, and then physically move their magnet forward as their learning progresses.

Last year, I upgraded my magnet system to Plickers Assessment Magnets. Based off of Mike Ginicola 's awesome idea, I create my own template that would allow me to quickly collect the self-assessment data from the magnets in class.

Mini-Coaching is what I call the peer-assessment system I use in my teaching, which I've blogged about before. In a nutshell mini-coaching is a peer assessment system in which one student plays the role of the coach (i.e. the one doing the assessment) and the other student plays the role of the athlete (i.e. the one being assessed). In classroom activities in which I am using mini-coaching, I'll divide my class into three teams. As two teams participate in the activity, the third team is on the sideline playing the role of coaches to athletes they are assigned.

In older grades (e.g. grades 3-6), coaches will fill out their athlete's mini-coaching sheets by writing down their observations. These sheets are living documents, meaning that they get filled out several times throughout the unit so that the athlete can view the progress of their learning:

With my younger grades (e.g. K-2), mini-coaching involves a coach looking for a single success criteria (i.e. "moves arms opposite to legs when running) and provides their athlete with a simple "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" at the end of the round to indicate whether or not they saw that success criteria being demonstrated.

Either way, at the end of each round the coaches and athletes come together to discuss the performance. Something I really want to develop as a procedure within mini-coaching is having the athlete ask their coach what their "stars" and "stairs" are in regards to their performance. I want my student to seek out feedback so that they understand the value of it and, therefore, take their mini-coaching roles as seriously as they can.
Psst: I've also combined my Mini-Coach system along with my Assessment Magnets in a few different lessons. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:
Strategy Five: Design Lessons to Focus on One Aspect of Quality at a Time
What is it?
Basically, what this means is that you want to break larger tasks down into smaller ones and then teach each smaller task one at a time making sure that students understand how all of the parts come together. This creates smaller chunks in learning which allows more students to experience success, build their confidence, and restore/maintain their desire to learn.
What could it look like in physical education?
The idea of breaking skills down into smaller pieces isn't necessarily a new one for physical educators, but we teach a lot more than just skills. This is where the unpacking step of the standards-based instructional design (SBID) method becomes so important as it allows you to look at content and reflect on what would be the absolute smallest learning pieces that students would need to learn in order to continue to make progress.

If you're unfamiliar with SBID, you can learn more about it in this episode of the Global #PhysEd Voxcast that Terri and I recorded with host Jorge Rodriguez:

Need a visual example of what the unpacking process looks like? Here the Unpacking Tree from my International Dance Showcase Teacher Pack:

Strategy Six: Teach Students Focused Revision
What is it?
By teaching students how to revise samples of work, we can help them develop a critical eye in terms of the content being taught. You'll want to scaffold this exercise by having students start with a very simple revision (e.g. only one aspect of the work needs revision) and then provide them with more and more complex revisions as their skill level grows.
What could it look like in physical education?
There are a few different ways that I go about this in my teaching:

Using my Plickers Question Template, I'll create questions in which students get to observe a skill being performed with a non-mature pattern and then select the missing critical element from the multiple choice questions provided.
Coach's Eye
In my older grades (mostly in grade 6), I'll have my students observe a video of a skill being performed and then create an annotated screencast revision of the performance all within the Coach's Eye app. This gives me some insight as to what they are looking for in a skill's performance.

Strategy Seven: Engage Students in Self-Reflection, and Let Them Keep Track of and Share Their Learning
What is it?
According to Stiggins, "any activity that requires students to reflect on what they are learning and to share their progress both reinforces the learnings and helps them develop insights into themselves as learners". This reflection really helps reinforce the learning and deepen their understanding of the content that was taught.
What could it look like in physical education?
Again, this is where student portfolios are so powerful. Being able to pull up samples of a student's work (or even samples of their work in prior years) really helps students recognize just how far they have come in their learning.

Another tactic that I use in my teaching is to create assessment pieces that act as living documents throughout the unit and/or year. What this means is that, instead of using multiple sheets/forms as assessment tools, I create one assessment piece that can be filled out multiple times so that students see their prior work as they self-assess and can see in a very visual way just how far they have come in their learning. Here are some examples of these "living" assessment pieces I've used in my teaching:

Learn More About Assessment For Learning

Want to keep learning more about assessment for learning? Here are some awesome, people, books, blog posts, and videos to help keep you digging deeper into this topic!

People

Books

"Classroom Assessment FOR Student Learning: Doing It Right - Using It Well" by Rick Stiggins, Judith Arter, Jan Chappuis, and Stephen Chappuis

"Embedding Formative Assessment: Practical Techniques for K-12 Classrooms" by Dylan Wiliam

"How to Grade for Learning" by Ken O'Connor

"Softening The Edges" by Katie White

"Unlocking Formative Assessment" by Shirley Clarke

Blog Posts

"Dylan Wiliam & The 5 Formative Assessment Strategies to Improve Student Learning"

"Thinking Inside the Box for Assessment Roadmaps in #Physed"

"Why Is Assessment Important"

Videos
A New Vision of Excellence in Assessment Unpacking Formative Assessment
Thanks for reading and happy teaching!

Joey Feith is the founder of ThePhysicalEducator.com. He currently teaches elementary physical education at St. George's School of Montreal in Quebec, Canada.

February 6, 2020

January 25, 2020

January 21, 2020

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Assessment For Learning In Physical Education

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For this episode of The #PhysEd Show Podcast, I invited the one and only Terri Drain onto the show so that we could discuss assessment for learning in physical education. If you don't know who Terri is, she's an amazing physical educator who teaches at Vintage Hills Elementary School in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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This article outlines multiple ways to differentiate in the classroom, such as targeting the senses, collaboration, and learning needs. They are quick and easy to implement in the classroom.

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20 Differentiated Instruction Strategies and Examples [+ Downloadable List]

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As students with diverse learning styles fill the classroom, many teachers don't always have the time, or spend additional hours to plan lessons that use differentiated instruction (DI) to suit students' unique aptitudes.

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I have always struggled with ideas for PE, but this document outlines multiple ways of conducting assessments in PE, as well as how to create rubrics for PE.

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I found this handbook on differentiation which also includes multiple strategies to differentiate for students, in terms of assessment and overall classroom needs.

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This PDF outlines a ton of ideas for differentiating in the classroom. I love this document since it targets almost anything you would need to differentiate for students, and also gives some ideas on how to go about differentiate assessments.

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Digital student portfolios were introduced to me in PLC, and I really liked how this website was formatted. I added this in as a tool to hopefully come back to if I teach lower elementary.

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Seesaw | Elementary Learning Experience Platform

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Seesaw | Elementary Learning Experience Platform

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Elementary Learning Experience Platform | Seesaw

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Seesaw is a Learning Experience Platform with 25M+ users, enhancing elementary education, engagement, and school culture while improving academic success.

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I added this article in since I found it super informative and helpful since one day I will have to mark many quizzes/tests. This article gives great tips on how to mark them efficiently while also compiling data at the same time.

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When you give a test or quiz, do you basically just grade it, give it back to students, go over the answers, then move on? If you don't do anything else with the information, if you don't look carefully at how students answer your test questions, you're missing a BIG opportunity.

Assessments should give us loads of information about what our students understand, what they don't understand, and how well we've taught them. It took me years of teaching before I realized I was using my tests and quizzes to sort out, reward and punish my students, rather than measure and inform my teaching. I needed to make my assessments work harder for me.

So one year, I added an extra step while grading tests: I kept track of all the wrong answers on one page, tallying exactly which items were being chosen instead. Once I started doing this, I found myself far better equipped to respond to wrong answers: I could reteach specific concepts only to students who needed reteaching, rather than wasting everyone's time with unnecessary review. I could identify specific misconceptions students had about the material and get better at addressing those the next time around. I also became a much better test maker.

The best part about this system is you only need a pencil, an answer key, and a few extra minutes.

Here it is:

If you're already doing something like this, I would love to hear about it in the comments. If you have some kind of electronic reporting system that can crunch all these numbers for you and give you the information you need to move forward, awesome. If not, adding this extra step to your assessment routine will make a difference. ♦

Keep in touch.
Join my mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration - in quick, bite-sized packages - all geared toward making your teaching more effective and fun. To thank you, I'll send you a free copy of my e-booklet, 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half. I look forward to getting to know you better!

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When you give a test or quiz, do you basically just grade it, give it back to students, go over the answers, then move on? If you don't do anything else with the information, if you don't look carefully at how students answer your test questions, you're missing a BIG opportunity.

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In my practicum, I did a lot of formative assessments and I really liked this document since it has multiple ideas for formative assessment that can be implemented into any lesson at any time.

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Dylan Wiliam - Formative Assessment list.docx (1)

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This website from Alberta Ed is helpful as it gives multiple guides to student learning assessment and how to compile results.

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Overview

Student Learning Assessments (SLAs) are digital tests administered at the beginning of the school year in Grade 3. They assess outcomes related to literacy and numeracy in language arts and mathematics in Alberta's previous Grade 2 provincial programs of study. Since Grade 3 students in 2022-2023 would have received programming based on previous Grade 2 programs of study in 2021-2022, it is still appropriate and useful to use the SLAs in 2022-2023 to inform teaching and learning.

SLAs contain 4 components:

Literacy - Digital questions

Literacy - Performance task

Numeracy - Digital questions

Numeracy - Performance task

The purposes of the SLAs are to:

improve student learning

help parents and teachers identify student strengths and areas for growth

School authorities have flexibility to administer SLAs. School authorities can also choose if all or some of their schools or classes within a school will participate, and to what degree participation takes place. School authorities are strongly encouraged to administer SLAs to Grade 3 students. If necessary, SLAs can be digitally administered within student residences. SLAs results will not be publicized nor be part of the Alberta Education Business Plan.

Important dates

School authorities that wish to participate in 2022-2023 can preview and administer the SLAs from mid-August to the end of October, in their language of instruction.

Grade 3 Francophone and French Immersion students only take the assessment written in French. These students may take the English Literacy Assessment any time after the administration of the French assessments.

All SLA digital questions and performance tasks will also be available for re-administration during the entire school year.

Resources

General Information Bulletin (PDF, 1.6 MB)

Literacy and Numeracy Information Bulletin (PDF, 1.5 MB)

SLA User Guide (PDF, 1.4 MB)

SLA Technical Requirements (PDF, 184 KB)

Quick facts - For teachers (PDF, 183 KB)

Quick facts - For school trustees (PDF, 791 KB)

Quick facts - For superintendents (PDF, 790 KB)

Quick facts - For parents (PDF, 211 KB)

SLA Evaluation - Executive Summary (PDF, 353 KB)

Provincial Assessment Directive (PDF, 600 KB)

Instructional videos

The images of the technical requirements and the Help Desk have not been recently updated. Updated information for both of these can be found on the web page.

How to access the teacher dashboard

Teachers learn how to set up an account and access the teacher dashboard for the Grade 3 SLA.

How to use the teacher dashboard

Teachers learn how to set up their class list, start the SLA, monitor for technical issues, and access performance task materials.

Promising practices

Teachers learn about simple solutions to common issues, including student access, devices and much more.

SLA application

Teachers and administrators can use the SLA Application to:

access the teacher dashboard

administer the SLA

find practice questions, released digital questions and performance tasks

Technical and administrative support

Contact the SLA Workforce Development Help Desk for technical assistance with the SLA application or with questions about how to administer SLAs.

How to find SLA results

Student results for digital questions are available within 24 hours of a teacher submitting them for marking.

Schools do not report performance task results to the government. Educators use the results to help make decisions to benefit student learning.

Educators

Educators can use the teacher dashboard in the SLA Application to find and print reports.

Sample reports (PDF, 3.5 MB) provide an overview of the print version of the individual student report, class report and superintendent report. The online interactive reports on the Teacher Dashboard provide the ability to filter information.

Superintendents

Superintendents can use the SLA Application's teacher dashboard to access an additional report that gives an overview of school performance in their school authority.

Parents

School authorities are expected to share student results directly with parents.

We encourage parents and guardians to speak with teachers to understand their child's result reports.

Provincial assessment programs, including SLAs, are meant to complement, not replace, day-to-day teacher observations and classroom assessment. They are sources of information that must be interpreted, used and communicated within the context of regular and continuous assessment by classroom teachers.

Connect with the SLA Workforce Development Help Desk:

Phone: 780-427-5318
Toll free: 310-0000 before the phone number (in Alberta)
Email:[email protected]

Connect with Student Learning Assessments and Provincial Achievement Testing:

Kelly Rota, Director, Student Learning Assessments (SLAs) and Provincial Achievement Testing (PATs), Alberta Education
Phone: 780-427-6204
Toll free: 310-0000 before the phone number (in Alberta)
Email:[email protected]

Nicole Lamarre, Director, French Assessment, Alberta Education
Phone: 780-422-3535
Toll free: 310-0000 before the phone number (in Alberta)
Email:[email protected]

Hours: 8:15 am to 4:30 pm (open Monday to Friday, closed statutory holidays)

Address:
Student Learning Assessments and Provincial Achievement Testing
Alberta Education
6th Floor, 44 Capital Boulevard
10044 108 Street
Edmonton, Alberta T5J 5E6

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Student Learning Assessments (SLAs) are digital tests administered at the beginning of the school year in Grade 3. They assess outcomes related to literacy and numeracy in language arts and mathematics in Alberta's previous Grade 2 provincial programs of study.

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I am always looking for quick guides for Bloom's verbs when lesson planning and this document is great since it breaks it down into the different categories, going from lower-level Blooms to higher-level Blooms, and it is also easy to read and scan through for words!

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Taken from our Differentiation Module in Special Topics, this is a page out of Carol Tomlinson's Guide to Differentiation which includes multiple ideas for performance tasks. I feel that this resource would be super helpful since it is easy to view and has unique ideas that would also hit higher level Blooms.

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I really like the idea of creating portfolios for students as a way to access their work and assessments. I feel that it is easier to keep track of, as well as share with parents their child's progress over the course of a year.

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Portfolios are a good way for high school students to see and share their learning growth over time, and digital tools make it easy to set them up.

Bob Daemmrich / Alamy Stock Photo

In assessing student work, one of the challenges that teachers face comes when students have created a product for a project. Ideally they've had a chance to share their work with each other because that has numerous benefits: It allows them to see how their peers interpreted the project content or questions differently, and to reflect on their own learning and their learning process, which can help them improve future projects and processes.

Sharing students' work more widely, with their families or with outside experts, for example, has benefits as well.

So how do we get student work in front of as many eyes as possible to increase the impact of their ideas? One of the best ways is to have students create digital portfolios, which can help students track their personal growth and share their work with classmates, the community, and the world.

Considering Student Privacy

Before creating digital portfolios with our students, we should consider student privacy and be aware of our district and school policies around sharing student work with third parties.

Sharing student work is powerful, but it's also vital that students and their families consent to that sharing, which includes posting student work to third-party platforms-platforms that students must log into outside of the school's internal systems. Before using such platforms, review the Student Privacy Pledge. Signatories of the pledge-which include all of the tools listed below-have taken the time to consider student privacy and data on their platforms.

You can also check with your school and district to see if the app or website you want to use is approved by your district.

Digital Portfolio Tools

Portfolios can serve different purposes, which dictate what goes in them and how they're shared. For more public-facing portfolios, students generally create fine-tuned products. These are portfolios that students may use to showcase their work for awards, internships, jobs, and college applications. Work shared here may connect students with experts and add their voice to larger conversations around issues they care deeply about, while also validating their agency as members of a global community. These portfolios may also be a place for them to celebrate their work with their family, friends, classmates, and school or district. No matter how they're used, these portfolios can help build confidence and excitement around student learning.

Sometimes, however, portfolios are shared less widely, with just the teacher and the student's family. In these portfolios, rough copies of student work may be included to show growth. If students are able to create a portfolio that spans multiple years, they can see growth over a longer time. These portfolios are a great window into what students are learning, showing what they understand and what they're struggling with so the teacher can plan accordingly. Families can see their child's progress in real time and celebrate successes or provide support at home for areas of struggle. Portfolios also help students reflect on their progress and make connections to their own learning process. There may be pieces that move from this internal portfolio to be shared more widely in a public-facing portfolio.

Once you're ready to provide students with an opportunity to reflect on and share their work with an authentic audience, there are several tools you can use.

For sharing inside the classroom: Students can use Google Slides to create a digital portfolio that showcases their progress on a project, posting their work as well as their reflections on the work. You can have them start from scratch or create a template for them to use. You can have students share this portfolio with you alone or embed it in a blog post or post it to a Google Drive folder shared with the class.

You could instead use Google Classroom to create the portfolios: A student can add documents to their portfolio that can be viewed by both you and the student over the course of the year.

For sharing with the outside world: Students can post their Google Slides to a public-facing class blog or use a tool like Flipgrid to post video journal entries about their learning. These videos can be summative, or they can act like checkpoints as students work through the project. Flipgrid is free, and the company provides a sample consent letter to send home. Videos can be shared publicly, with only the class, or with only the teacher.

Another tool, Book Creator, allows students to create digital portfolios that can include text, images, audio recordings, and videos. The books are contained in a class library, and students can browse each other's books. Students can review their books to reflect on their growth in critical skills, and their books and the class library can be shared publicly. BookCreator can be used for free, but if you want to create more than 40 books you'll need to pay for access.

The tool Seesaw allows teachers to create activities that students can work on and share to a class portfolio. These activities can be designed by the teacher, or they can be imported from an activity library curated by Seesaw. An activity might ask students to explain their reasoning while solving a math problem, reading and reflecting on an article, or reflecting on their progress on a recent project. Seesaw allows teachers to provide family access to student portfolios so parents have a window into what students are learning.

Benefits of Digital Portfolios

Digital portfolios-as repositories of evidence of learning and growth-can be used in multiple ways. They're helpful to the teacher for planning instruction and gauging student understanding, and for communicating student progress with families and sparking conversations at home.

They can also be helpful in creating a culture of learning in the classroom, where students look to each other for knowledge and understanding. And they're a useful tool for students to reflect on their own personal growth over the course of the year.

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Tools for Creating Digital Student Portfolios

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Portfolios are a good way for high school students to see and share their learning growth over time, and digital tools make it easy to set them up.

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Kami is a website that I stumbled upon back in my first year and I found that it is great for keeping track of assessments, while also being interactive for students and the teacher.

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Your classroom PDF annotator. Students stay engaged with accessible annotation tools. Teachers save time with streamlined instruction and assessment.