Creative Assessment Tools
I know, when you hear the word assessment you automatically run in the opposite direction. How can an assessment be creative? Aren't assessments just tests that all students have to take? This post is dedicated to giving you four amazing outlets for assessment that go beyond the traditional test format. You will find your students wanting to partake in these rather than wanting to head for the hills...
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Assessment #1: Padlet
Padlet is a unique space for an author to create a personalized bulletin board for limitless themes. Inspirational quotes, questions about the reading, and "what I learned in this unit" boards are only the beginning of the possibilities. Padlet also offers authors the chance to share their work with others: for them to simply view or for them to help make the space a collaborative creation. Padlet allows the author of a board to choose a background as well as add text, images, documents, videos, songs, and many other features to their board to create a board with endless creativity. This tool allows educators to "assess" students on countless levels. If a teacher simply wants to create a space where students can post questions they had about an assignment as well as respond to others' questions, students can do that on a board designed by the teacher and shared with her students. If a teacher wants students to instead create a final project on a book they were reading, students can collect all of their project materials on a bulletin board to create a unique space that has everything in one place. Whatever the reason for assessment, with Padlet teachers are giving students a space to make their own and to proudly share what they've made with their classmates as well as on social media, if desired.
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Assessment #2: Plickers
Plickers is an interactive tool for teachers to perform quick checks for understanding for all students at one time. Teachers download the Plickers app and print out one picture card for each student. The card is the student's identifier--the app recognizes the symbol on the card and records data for that student's answers. Teachers simply need to create an online account on Plickers, download the Plickers app, and create a questionaire (mulitple choice and/or true false---as many questions as desired) before they are ready to use Plickers in the classroom. In the classroom itself, teachers can use their Plickers account to display the question, ask students to hold up their cards in the position of the answer they think is correct, and the teacher scans the room with the Plickers app to record the data. This app allows teachers to assess where each student is at while preserving the anonymity of each student's response. It also feels like a review game for the students, adding an element of fun to Plickers.
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Assessment #3: GoSoapBox
GoSoapBox is a flexible and versatile tool to use in the classroom to create an online learning community. After signing up, teachers create a learning space for their classroom called an event. Teachers then invite students to the event, and can at anytime choose if student names are displayed or, if for a particular assignment, students should remain anonymous. For any event, teachers can create polls, short answer and multiple choice quizzes, and discussion questions. Students then can interact with these creations and results are delivered instantaneously to the teacher. Students can also check in with how the class is going for them by indicating if they are confused or are getting it---again, these results are immediately sent to the teacher. Teachers also have controls over unique settings such as a profanity filter. GoSoapBox is an interactive space for both teachers and students alike!
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Assessment #4: Coggle
Coggle is a tool students can use to create engaging maps that show the connection among ideas. This tool has numerous applications including creating an outline for a paper, mapping out a timeline of key historical dates in an event, and designing a family tree. Coggle allows students to type the main idea in the center box and create branches off of that central idea to show the relationship among ideas as a whole. Coggle contains fun and creative features such as changing the color of each branch, sharing your coggle with friends, adding comments to the map, downloading a Coggle, and so many more! Teachers can use Coggle to check in with students on how they are understanding the relationship among key concepts through the engaging format that Coggle offers.
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