Assessment Adjustment

At the beginning of February, I had a cumulative January test, which covered all the grammar concepts we had discussed, types of irony, and major details in “The Interlopers.” And my students bombed it. A majority of my students scored below 69% (an F at good ole H.W. Byers Middle School). Even my top students barely earned Cs and Bs. When I finished grading tests that Sunday, I was furious. I was mad at my students for their lack of attention in the classroom and inability to retain information. But I was also frustrated with myself. Had I made the test too hard? Did I not simplify the concepts well enough? Did I give too few practice opportunities?

When I passed back graded work on Monday, I decided to make a few changes:

First, no more class time would be spent on test corrections. If students wanted to make test corrections – which I wholeheartedly supported – they would need to come to after school tutoring hours to do it. Class just got too unruly on test correction days. Some students would be finished 10 minutes into a 103-minute block. Others simply copied correct answers from nearby classmates. Very few corrected their mistakes and learned anything from it. I also wondered if my students knew they would get test correction opportunities with every test, what encouraged them to give 110% on preparing and taking the test the first time around.

Second, I needed to review grammar concepts more thoroughly. Instead of doing 20 minutes of sustained silent reading at the end of my block class, which my students fought me on for the full 20 minutes, I used that time to have them complete a short grammar worksheet. I gave pointers on how to approach and think about the assignment and worked through several examples with them. Then I released my students to work independently as I walked around the room answering questions and monitoring progress. I finished off the short review by having every student stand up. Those who answered one of the problems correctly would be allowed to sit back down. This ensured that all students were participating and sharing responses, as well as allowed me to informally assess their understanding. Then, the grammar concepts I reviewed in depth that week would appear on the Friday test.

Based on their responses, students would be work alone (1), in pairs (2), or with me in a small group (3).

Third, I built in more time for practice of new concepts covered that week. Based on the February 3^rd test scores, my students needed more time to interact with new material. Instead of just practicing new material on the same day the students took notes on it, I had practice assignments ready for when we finished text discussions early. I also tried to work in some self-evaluation and flexible grouping (based on student responses). However, I didn’t proceduralize flexible groups well, and my students who claimed to have the strongest understanding weren’t happy to be working alone and kept chatting with the students working in pairs (this part of informal assessment will need some tweaking). The new concepts we covered that week would also appear on the Friday test.

Fourth, I would move to weekly tests. Eighth graders are difficult to manage on Fridays, so I made this change mostly for the sake of my own sanity. However, this decision was also part of an effort to get students on a weekly, predictable schedule: Mondays they began a reciprocal reading assignment (due Thursday), Tuesdays they would cover a new literary skill and review an old grammar or literary skill, Wednesdays they would cover new vocabulary or a new grammar skill and review an old grammar skill, Thursdays we would discuss the Monday text and review for the test, and Friday we would take the test. If I could stick to a schedule, then students could know what to expect on a weekly basis and not be surprised by the Friday tests.

Finally, I decided to add a state-test style passage to each of my weekly tests. This would allow me to easily assess their reciprocal reading annotations as well as expose them to the texts and questions they would see on the state test. Although the initial exposure is good, I need to find a way to incorporate a discussion of those materials after the tests have been graded in order to fully develop student understanding. I’m not sure how to go about doing this last step yet.

By making these changes, I produced a test with less questions to grade that covered old material (for the sake of student retention), assessed understanding of new material, and was still rigorous. Another bonus was that students weren’t able to speed through the test in 20 minutes thanks to the reciprocal reading passage.

At the time I am writing this blog – February 12, 2017 – I have only completed one week with these changes. I still have one class’s test to grade, but overall, scores are showing significant improvement. Scores could be higher, as many of the grades are Ds; however, this is significantly better than the 30-50% averages I saw for the previous test. If I continue to be responsive to the results of my assessments, hopefully student understanding and achievement will increase as I address and remediate student weaknesses in the classroom.

My new testing format: