I usually give a 5 minute, ungraded quiz at the beginning of the class and have them turn it in. While this creates extra work for me, it gives me an idea of how well the students are grasping the material. If I see that most of the students are not grasping the material, then I will go over the material again, but try to correlate it to real world scenarios.
Wow- I'm so glad that this will be useful to you. I know that preping students for the GED is tough!
I help tutor students to prepare them for the G.E.D. test and let me tell you... this is a Great!! By using the CATs, I know now how to better monitor their accomplishments. I plan to use minute papers alot. I think that if I do that, I can make sure that my tutoring is paying off.
yeah, is the only way we can know if they are catching on or not
Yes, Each student must be tested on what they know. The tested a done on the first day of very term. Then we can better know what to teach in the different classes that term. The test will tell us the skill level of the students as well.
Do you have a set of skill competencies for each class?
We have what's called a skill test, where we test them actually doing what we thought them.
After my students have completed a photo assignment, we have an open critique of all students' work. They all give feedback on how well they met the objective, the quality of the work, the creativity of each shot & the overall message of the image.
The most important thing to take away from these is to see your weakest area.
CATs can really be useful for assessing in a manner that is non-threatening. For example,asking students to anonymously list 2 things about this week's work that they still don't quite understand. Or, on a more positive note - list three things they have learned that week and how they think they will use that knowledge/skill in the future. Here's some more useful info on CATs:
http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/assess.htm
CAT's just scare me. I have yet to find the proper way of delivering the questions. Maybe that has to do with the individual class setting.
We like to encourage our students to think in terms of "our school," rather than "their school." Part of this is accomplished through CATs. It allows the student to feel like they have a say in how the course is going to be taught and how the future students of the course will learn. In addition, we utilize the questioning techniques I identified in Forum 2, which lays the foundation for the course.
Do you review quiz answers with your students? It helps them to see where they have misunderstood concepts and gives them (and us!) guidance as to where we need to do more work.
Most students like making good grades.To get the kind of feedback that i need to identify with the students,I give them a daily quize.This helps them to pay attention in class,and retain
the information.Everyone gets to participate.
I recall doing a mock interview with a student who clearly was shy but who did a good job in the interview. When we were finished I congraulated her on her imminent graduation and asked her what she planned to do after graduation. She said " The first thing I will do is go to my high school and find my guidance counselor and show her my diploma, because she told me I would never be able to succeed in college." I still get goosebumps when I recall that conversation!
I feel that at our college, we use this format to get a base of where the student is at before the course begins. I have seen this work especially well when we have students who might show signs of needing extra help. I use the example of learning how to crawl before they walk. Experience has shown me that if a student does not have the foundation for upper level courses, they will struggle. I feel understanding where a student is at, and get them up to speed is the best way to approach high levels of competent education.
I have seen time and time again where a student will say, "I am not good in math, english, reading". Comes to find out a teacher or parent made the comment that they were no good, and this set the mindset that for the rest of their lives, they are not good. Changing the mindset will actually set the student free.
You're quite right Faye. It's the periodic assessment that is important as it's not only a chance to assess but also an opportunity to give feedbback.
I want to incorporate a "Response Time" into my teaching. At the end of a course or specific content, I want to use an appropriate CAT to gauge where my students feel they are and how my method of teaching contributed to that. I believe this will offer periodic evaluation as to my instruction and thus aid the student as I "adapt" my approach to better serve the response of the student.
Bells and buzzers do seem to get the adrenaline flowing - I guess it's our love of gameshows.
I find that some of the students like to have a question and answer period. If one of the students is unable to answer any question I sound a bell and all the other students want to give the correct answer. This gets them involved in the material we are presenting. This makes the class fun and interesting
