Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Alternative Assessments

As many of you who read my blog frequently know I started checking out Whole Brain Teaching several months ago.  Part of their program is simple assessments that you can do with your students that doesn't require paper and pencil and you still can find out who understands the skill and who is still lost.


For example if learning nouns you could say A noun is something you do?  The students would say "yes way or no way."  Then you might say A noun is a person, place, or thing?  They would say yes way or no way.  A lake is a noun? A dog is a noun?  Grandma is a noun?  Swim is a noun?  Etc.

Then if you notice the majority seem to have an understanding of it have all your students put their head down with their eyes closed.  Give your students the same type of questions and they put their thumbs up if they think it is true and thumbs down if not true. Whole Brain Teaching calls this alternative assessment QT.

Click on the hyperlink on Whole Brain Teaching to check out some great ideas to keep your students engaged in learning!


2 comments:

  1. I love the Whole Brain strategies! I tried them out in my class, but I discovered it's a huge struggle in a multi-age class with more than one lesson happening at a time. I've had to do some tweaking along the way. My favorite strategy is acting out the directions with the kids. Like using a BIG VOICE to talk about big numbers, and a tiny voice to talk about small numbers.

    Lisa
    The Lower Elementary Cottage

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    Replies
    1. I can imagine that would be tough with different grade levels. That's a good idea of using your voice for numbers like that. Their attention getter Class/Yes and the Scoreboard would work great even with different ages of kids. Also, try the improvement wall if you haven't. If you don't know about it check out their video. It is an awesome idea to reward improvement instead of just A style work! I am so eager to try some of it when I get a job! I'm glad you love it like I do!

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