When you are teaching, regardless of the topic, you may find yourself needing to evaluate the student’s skills and creating your own test to do so. This post will help you think that through. If you want to learn more about common test formats, watch this video.
Perhaps obviously, you should first spend a moment checking that a test hasn’t already been made. Assessments abound in the programs you likely are using and online for free. You likely have plenty on your plate, and these can be real time-savers. It would be wise to contact your local agency or reach out on the tutor network Facebook page.
If you need to give this assessment for data collection for your local agency, you need to check with them. They usually have a required list of assessments for grantors or data tracking. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give your assessment, but be aware that it still may be necessary for the required assessment to be given. Make sure you think about how that will impact your student.
If you decide to create an assessment for your student, you also need to spend some time determining what skills you are assessing. Then, create a test your student can complete within the time frame you have available. To be sure you get an accurate picture rather than a lucky guess, you will need 3-5 questions per skill. If this ends up requiring many questions, you may need to break it apart.
This is also an opportunity for you to do a bit of self-evaluation. As you create questions, reflect on your lessons and activities around those skills, if you are writing questions that are reasonably rigorous, and if this assessment will be discouraging or unnecessarily frustrating. Further, we all have biases. You will need to be aware of those biases and do everything possible to ensure they do not affect your assessment.
Whenever possible, use multiple methods to assess the skills. Using just one question form such as only multiple choice, may not give you the whole picture. Assessing in more than one way may reveal underlying gaps or misunderstandings in the student’s understanding.
While part of the purpose of an assessment is to let the teacher know if the student hasn’t mastered the material, it also needs to be useful in giving feedback to students. To learn more about feedback check out this blog post. The assessment gives you feedback on your teaching, and an opportunity to give feedback to the student. Be sure you are going to be able use the assessment as such.
