By Mary Bigelow
Posted on 2013-03-29
When I return tests, the students look at their grades, complain the test was unfair, and don’t pay much attention when we go over it. How can I deal with this? I teach ninth grade earth science.
—Ava, Lexington, Kentucky
Unit assessments can provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate what they’ve learned by asking them to synthesize concepts or apply them to new situations. But students may believe (perhaps based on previous experiences) that tests consist of trick questions, the questions are unrelated to the class activities, or the main purpose of a test is to provide points for a grade.
It might be helpful for you to look over and fine-tune a test before you give it to the students. Do the test items correlate to the learning goals? Do the items use different terminology than what was used in class? Are the test directions clear? Are students familiar with your expectations and rubrics for essay questions? But even with a well-designed assessment, students may feel it’s unrelated to what they do in class.
Sometimes students see a class as a series of unrelated events and don’t make connections from one activity to the next. At the beginning of each unit, share with them the focus on the unit and its learning goals (or whatever terminology you use: “big ideas,” essential questions, themes, or learning objectives). Many teachers post these goals in the classroom or have the students add them to their science notebooks. Refer to them often throughout the unit, showing how new concepts and activities relate to the goals and can contribute to the students’ understanding.
Help the students assess their own understanding prior to the test with frequent formative assessments. A checklist of the learning goals can help students chart their progress. Give students opportunities to synthesize and apply what they’re learning during the unit so when they see this type of question on the test they won’t panic.
After a test, when I asked my students about their “unfair” complaint, they often couldn’t put their fingers on specific questions. I tried several strategies to provide opportunities during the test for them to express any confusion, frustrations, or questions:
The first few times I used these, some students resisted—I was asking them to take some responsibility. But gradually, most of them learned I was serious about making assessments an integral part of the learning experience.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/judybaxter/3310525306/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA).