On+the+Spot+Assessments

Assessing student with quizzes is a tried and true method for end of term or sub unit but do not give you a developmental understanding of the group as an individual or whole. Two solutions I have found have proven to be worthwhile to promote content internalization in the student and allow you to judge student and class development.

Do-Nows are 5 minute questions to be provided to students at the beginning of the class. They are meant to be answered by 90% of the class to a completion rate of 90%. I provide these on occasion as a write up that I project off of my document camera for the students to write on a blank piece of paper with their answer. Having preprinted Do-Nows are also common but I have student at different stages so do this to tailor to their needs.

Exit Tickets are post questions answered using the content to the lesson taught. They are used to assess what student have just learned.

To keep Do-Nows and Exit Tickets of 300+ students manageable, I record on a spreadsheet information so I can summarize the scores each student achieved by number and class percentage.





Plickers is another way to assess students individually and as a group. Plickers is short for paper clickers. Each student is assigned a personal large square bar-code. On each side are tiny letters A, B, C, D. From a question bank that your create stored on Plickers.com, you can project these questions and have the students answer by holding their answer choice of A, B, C, or D by the side of the square bar-code that is up. The bar-code is read through an app on your smartphone camera and recorded to the students name on Plickers.com. Since each bar-code is different for each student and the letters are too small to be read by a neighbor, cheating is not possible. This is a free service. There are sets of Plickers for 40 to 63 students depending on the size of your classroom. I provide cards to each student to be stored in a pocket in their Science Journal for on the spot checks. I also have copies ready for student who lost theirs or need a replacement. Reports can be generated like the one below.