ASSESSMENT DOWNLOADS – TRAILS Archive for Grades 3, 6, 9, 12 Below are links to the TRAILS assessments in ready-to-print PDF format, with answer keys included for easy grading. For each grade, two general assessments are provided that draw upon items from each of the five TRAILS categories. Additionally, each grade has a ten-item assessment specific to each of the categories as well. (TRAILS Category definitions here) If you prefer to create your own assessments, use the individual item search feature on the Item Bank page. All Grade 3 Assessments General Assessments (15 items each): Category Assessments (10 items each): Develop, Use, and Revise Search Strategies Use Information Responsibly, Ethically and Legally All Grade 6 Assessments General Assessments (20 items each): General Assessment 1 General Assessments (25 items each): General Assessments (30 items each): Develop Topic The typeface used for assessment answer bubbles is 123 Testing, created by Just Us Teachers.
Fantastic Comprehensive List of Assessment Tools for Teachers About ETR Community EdTechReview (ETR) is a community of and for everyone involved in education technology to connect and collaborate both online and offline to discover, learn, utilize and share about the best ways technology can improve learning, teaching, and leading in the 21st century. EdTechReview spreads awareness on education technology and its role in 21st century education through best research and practices of using technology in education, and by facilitating events, training, professional development, and consultation in its adoption and implementation.
15 Good Tools for Quickly Gathering Feedback from Students Polls, chat tools, and interactive quizzes provide good ways to hear from all of the students in a classroom. These kind of tools allow shy students to ask questions and share comments. For your more outspoken students who want to comment on everything, a feedback mechanism provides a good outlet for them too. Here's a run-down of some of the best tools for gathering feedback from students in real-time. Newer tools:Tozzl is a chat platform that allows you to quickly create private, password-protected message boards as well as public boards. To get started visit Tozzl and select "create a new Tozzl." Tozzl, Tozzl, Tozzl!!! Dotstorming is a neat tool that combines a bit of Padlet with a polling tool. Twitter isn't new, but its native polling tool is new this year. Quizalize is a free quiz game platform. Old reliables:81 Dash is a nice backchannel platform that provides a place for teachers to create chat rooms to use with students to host conversations and share files.
27 Simple Ways To Check For Understanding 27 Simple Ways To Check For Understanding Checking for understanding is the foundation of teaching. Whether you’re using formative assessment for data to personalize learning within a unit, or more summative data to refine a curriculum map, the ability to quickly and easily check for understanding is a critical part of what you do. (Which was the idea behind our post last March, “10 Assessments You Can Perform In 90 Seconds Or Less.”) The following infographic Mia MacMeekin offers up 27 additional ways to check for understanding. Good stuff. Image attribution flickr user deepcwind and miamacmeekin; 27 Simple Ways To Check For Understanding 10 Quick Assessments You Can Perform In 90 Seconds 10 Assessments You Can Perform In 90 Seconds by TeachThought Staff Good assessment is frequent assessment. Any assessment is designed to provide a snapshot of student understand—the more snapshots, the more complete the full picture of knowledge. On its best day, an assessment will be 100% effective, telling you exactly what a student understands. More commonly, the return will be significantly lower as the wording of questions, the student’s sense of self-efficacy, or other factors diminish their assessment performance. This makes a strong argument for frequent assessment, as it can be too easy to over-react and “remediate” students who may be banging against the limits of the assessment’s design rather than their own understanding. It is a huge burden (for both teachers and students) to design, write, complete, grade, and absorb the data into an instructional design sequence on a consistent basis. Simple Assessments The word ‘simple’ here is misleading. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Library Girl's Picks: The Best Digital Tools for Formative Assessment On Monday, I had the opportunity to participate in another fab edition of the TL Virtual Cafe webinar series. This month's PD offering was an "Edutech Smackdown" featuring the Queen of All Things Library: Joyce Valenza. I love these smackdown sessions because they are the ultimate crowdsourced PD. Everybody grabs a slide (or two or ten) and when their time comes, takes the mic to share something they love. That said, for my few minutes with the mic, I decided to focus my attention on formative assessment. Which brings me back to formative assessment. When incorporated into a lesson, formative assessment provides the teacher librarian with a snapshot of the teaching and learning while it is still happening. Obviously, this is not rocket science. Admit/Exit Tickets are a beloved formative assessment strategy. Graphic organizers are another great formative assessment tool. I can still remember the first time I was able to put an individual whiteboard into each of my student's hands.
Examples of Formative Assessment When incorporated into classroom practice, the formative assessment process provides information needed to adjust teaching and learning while they are still happening. The process serves as practice for the student and a check for understanding during the learning process. The formative assessment process guides teachers in making decisions about future instruction. Here are a few examples that may be used in the classroom during the formative assessment process to collect evidence of student learning. Observations Questioning Discussion Exit/Admit Slips Learning/Response Logs Graphic Organizers Peer/Self Assessments Practice Presentations Visual Representations Kinesthetic Assessments Individual Whiteboards Laundry Day Four Corners Constructive Quizzes Think Pair Share Appointment Clock eHow: Types of Formative Assessment
What is Authentic Assessment? What is Authentic Assessment? Definitions What Does Authentic Assessment Look Like? How is Authentic Assessment Similar to/Different from Traditional Assessment? Alternative Names for Authentic Assessment A form of assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills -- Jon Mueller "...Engaging and worthy problems or questions of importance, in which students must use knowledge to fashion performances effectively and creatively. An authentic assessment usually includes a task for students to perform and a rubric by which their performance on the task will be evaluated. Examples from teachers in my Authentic Assessment course The following comparison is somewhat simplistic, but I hope it illuminates the different assumptions of the two approaches to assessment. Behind traditional and authentic assessments is a belief that the primary mission of schools is to help develop productive citizens. 1. 1.
The Qualitative Formative Assessment Toolkit: Document Learning with Mobile Technology What is qualitative formative assessment? Some call it anecdotal or informal assessment. However, such designations imply passivity -- as if certain things were captured accidentally. For my purposes, qualitative formative assessment is the ongoing awareness, understanding, and support of learning that is difficult or impossible to quantify. Carly Schuler stated that the learner needs to be mobile, not the technology. These approaches form the Qualitative Formative Assessment Toolkit (QFAT). 1. Cameras are powerful tools for capturing moments and documenting learning. 2. Learners spend time using technology as part of their learning, but not all software or applications have a "save" button, especially in moments that may be more interesting than a final export. Here is how to make one on various operating systems: iOS (Home + Sleep)Mac (Command + Shift + 3)Chromebook (Control + Window Switcher)Android (Volume Down + Power for 2 seconds)Windows (PrntScren and then Ctrl + V) 3. 4. A book.