Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATS)
What Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATS) do you use on a regular basis in your classroom? What CATS are you currently developing or have recently developed?
I ask about the processes covered in the past classes to reinforce the new processes
In the first class I give the students an anonymous 6-8 question survey to get a rough idea of their depth of knowledge about the particular subject (environmental science). I think it works ok although I should probably fine-tune my questions more to some of the specific concepts we cover.
I will often give my students a quick anonymous quiz at the beginning of class as a review of the previous class. It brings them back to subject and reminds them of the information that they need to build upon.
Hi James - Asking your studdents to apply what they have learned from your lecture is probably the purest form of assessment in career education. Best wishes! Susan
I don't do anything formal, but after a lecture and we go to do lab excercises I can do an assessment on how well they paid attention to the lecture on how well they perform in the lab. Too many questions or trial and errors, I can tell that they 1) did'nt take from the lecture what they should of and need more help. Or 2) they were not paying attention.
On the first day of my course I go around the room and ask the students a couple of questions that help me assess their background knowledge. I also give them an assessment quiz to see what level of student I am working with so that I can adjust how I present the course material.
During the course I assign progress reviews which are short quizzes. These reviews do not affect class grades. The purpose of these quizzes is for the students to grade themselves as I review these quizzes so that they can assess the areas they need to work on. I do go around and see how many questions they missed, this helps me asses if my students are learning the material being presented to them.
At the start of class I review some of the material from the previous day and ask one of the students to explain to me as if I had no previous knowledge of the subject that was covered so I would have an understanding of the topic. If there happens to be a training aid in the classroom that could be used to help illustrate his/her explanation of the concept I encourage them to use it.
On the days when we finish the presentation of a topic and before a test is given I’ll hand out a review sheet that the students fill out. I tell them to be prepared to answer any question if called upon them to do so or be prepared to help their fellow student if he/she is unable to.
Hi Joseph - Welcome to ED 103! you are doing a great job of preparing your students for assessments. After testing do you review the assessment with your students? Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career! Susan
In my class I have my student read out of their books and answer the ase style questions at the end of each chapter. I then start the curriculum and that way the students have at least seen most of the information already. After the chapter I have them answer some more study guide type questions.I go over the review questions.
The one i use that i like the best is the power point that we developed for the overhead on filling out the hand written ROs. It is better that what we had that we had to fill out by hand on the white board. That gets the students involved so they know what we expect when they do the real ROs for the gradebook. It is a template for how they are to fill them out correctly.
This is really not a fair question for our institution. We only have the students for 15 days.
In my class, 6 of those days are in lab so only 9 are in class, and during those 9 days we give out 8 chapter tests, an end of course test and a lab test.
During the 6 lab days they are being evaluated on 11 lab projects.
These are all already set and required and we barely have enough time to accomplish this.
The students also do an end of course evaluation on the 15th day.
There just isn't time for anything else.
Other than using the "Assessment Techniques" already set in stone, you have to work on the fly and try to interpret how things are going based on the interactions of each individual class.
Hi James - this is a really necessary assessment of vital skills that our students should be learning. I believe that it is essential that we put writing and speaking skill development embedded in our career college curricula. It just doesn't work if it is merely isolated in Composition or Public Speaking classes. Thanks for your insight!
Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
I give the students a task to write and then give a oral presention , at this time I assess their communication skills and try to determine who needs help .
On the first day, I try to ask the student’s prior knowledge of the material. At that point I try to get them all involved in the material and on the same point.
I generally cover several pages of the lesson then I ask questions that cover that portion of the lesson. I also assign groups to answer written questions about service manuals. I then have the students apply what they looked up to the unit operation.
Hi Daniel- You are wise to evaluate your students' performance in the lab and use it to look back at your lectures. Teaching is one of the most dynamic careers I know! Best wishes- Susan
Hi Milton - Welcome to ED 103! As your posting illustrates, a good instructor takes every opportunity to gain feedback. Great work! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career! Susan
At the end of each block of instruction i ask questions to see if they understood the material covered,i also have them make up questions or problems they would like answered, we then discuss the answers.At the begining of a block I sometime ask what you wount to learn or expect. some times the feed back showes the weak areas, that need adressing.
Steve,
Cats are very useful techniques. I have been implementing these for a while now. My favorite is Question and answer techniques. I try to do this during class discussions or during reviews. I might cover a portion of the lesson(usually 10-15 min), then I will also try to "pull" ideas from the students and write down the correlating answers on the board and have everyone write it down. Some students love this and some dont.
Another technique I use is a paper review. I will not hand out the test forms until everyone is done with the review and I have checked it off. If the lesson does not have time for lab in the schedule, I might borrow a lab if I have to and give a demonstration to 1 group and have each group show the next. This one everyone seems to like.
