Today is the last day of the marking period. On Monday I will be greeting a whole new batch of students. It will be like the first day of school all over again. 

Before I move onto another semester, I want to reflect on something unexpected from this one. 

Last year, giving a test was unusual in my class because everything is so project-based. The whole pre-test/post-test thing was something I struggled with at first. I started by using Moodle to create the tests (this allowed me to access instant data and keep track of student scores) and tweaked them as I became more confident with the format. 

I learned a lot from the experience that I feel has made me a better teacher. I learned how to use technology to document learning and how to formulate questions that demonstrated both retention and application. I also learned from that process how much wording matters when you are creating questions for a test. I finally feel like now I have a test that covers the material taught and will show whether students retained and can apply information learned throughout their time with me in class. 

I am happy to report that students did grow. I am proud of the difference in scores from the start of the year to now. What I didn't expect was how much students would care about it, too. 

When I gave my pre-test, I kept the scores hidden from students because I didn't want them to freak out about the scores. When they finished up their finals, however, I did give students the option to get their pre-test score so they could compare. Now, if it was me, I am not sure I would have cared much about it. But that is not how my students reacted. 

Soon after I offered, there was a line at my desk with roughly half of the class wanting to know with one student simply saying, "I want to see how much I have grown." 

It is a moment of teaching gold that I hope to keep with me as we finish out the rest of the year. Kids care about how they do. They want to grow and learn and I sometimes forget how exciting it is that I get to be the one to help them do that. 

How do you handle pre and post testing results in your classroom? Do students show interest in finding out their progress? 

 One of the hardest things about my job is assessing student work. Everything else I consider to be fun - I love teaching my students new art skills, materials, artists, and connections between art and other subjects/life.  Nothing beats the moment a student says "This is the best thing I have ever made," or when they receive recognition at a local or national competition - it is seriously why I come back every year to try and outdo the previous, and it is why grading student work can be such a difficult task.

For the past couple of years I have done something different with assessment in my classroom. Instead of giving students a rubric before I get started on a project, I ask them what they think they should be graded and we create the rubric together. I was nervous the first couple of times I did this, and there was even resistance from students (I had one tell me in a exit interview that they like it better if I just tell them so they didn't have to think about it), but I really cannot see myself going back.

One reason is that this allows for both formative and summative assessment to take place. The formative component occurs when students are describing the qualities they think they should be graded on in their work. It allows for me to see if the main concepts from the lesson were learned by students. If we are studying abstract art and students are about to make an abstraction of something, but then tell me they think they should be graded on their ability to draw in a realistic manner it lets me know that I did not get across the meaning of abstraction and need to reteach the concept. The summative assessment comes from the project itself and whether or not they were able to follow to the rubric that we created as a class.

Another reason I will continue to use this method in my class is because it gives students the opportunity to have a say in how they are being graded. Anytime students are given an opportunity to have a hand in their own learning is a good thing. It is always interesting to see what students say they should be graded on when we do this, and although you might think each class would come up with completely different things, they don't.

Instead, students from different classes use similar language. Two criteria (also known as focus correction areas adapted from Collins Writing) seem to be consistent - RBE (reasonable best effort) and Craftsmanship. The other criteria are more specific to the project at hand. For example, if we are doing color wheel mandalas, students usually say that the other criteria should be creativity, the symmetry of the design, and the use of color. I try to keep the criteria to four or five things that can be specifically measured when we create the rubrics as a class. When we write down their criteria, we then go into what each should look like in their work. This helps students focus on the main ideas of what they need to execute and it also helps me focus on what to assess. It takes the guessing and ambiguity out of grading for both of us and makes it a little more pleasant.

Do you have a trick to assessment that seems to be working for you? Please share your thoughts below and let me know what you think of this idea and if you have done something similar in your own classroom.