Daily Assessments
I feel that daily assessments are too difficult to give, as it barely gives a student the opportunity to digest the lecture/discussion/activity that day. I tend to give quizzes on a unit, rather than daily or weekly, basis.
I agree. Daily assessments may be too much for some students to absorb depending upon their learning ability. Once a student is placed in a learning environment that is conducive to their greatest learning potential they are able to digest daily assessment techniques much better.
Hi Philip- I agree totally - the more frequent assessments we can do, the better! Susan
I teach a Mathematics Foundations class for those who have difficulty with math. With these students, I have seen it be more beneficial to give quizzes frequently - almost to the point where they know they will be getting either a quiz or an exam in that class period. My quizzes are short (max. of 5 questions), and since it covers less material than a full exam, there isn't as much material to concentrate on at one time. Before each quiz, I go over the homework/assignment I gave them the last class, so they have an opportunity to ask questions about what they did not understand before they take the quiz ... or, as I comically call them ... "Fun Activities." For classes like this, I believe that an assessment in each class is very important.
Hi Michael - Thanks for your post to the forum. You are doing a great job of informally assessing the understanding/competence of your students and using that information to plan your lessons and assessments. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
I use a different approach with my pharmacy students. I have in-class exercises that I use and have the students work on them in small groups. I treat them as learning exercises and basically do not "grade" them but discuss them in class as well. They usually are on material discussed previously or, in one of my classes, concentrate on the math used for dosage calculation.
In my chemistry class, I actually use daily quizzes, graded, that cover the material from the previous class. I give the quiz after going over any questions from the homework.
The purpose of each of these is to be clear about just what I have presented well and appropriately to the students and what needs to be clarified and covered again in perhaps a different way. These then help me to contruct my midterm and final summative assessments to more accurately reflect what I have actually taught.
A daily assessment is to much on the students a weekly test works better
