Creative testing - 11 examples of

differentiated assessment
by Lucie Renard & Saskia Vandeputte — Oct 10, 2018

A test is one of the most classic ways to evaluate a student. And even with this
traditional evaluation method, you can differentiate.

For this blog post, Saskia Vandeputte from “Schoolmakers” gave me some great
tips. She’s a specialist when it comes to differentiated learning. She makes her
own (Dutch) e-courses for teachers that want to dig deeper in differentiated
learning.

Differentiated evaluation means that you perform student-oriented evaluation on

those aspects that are relevant. Differentiated testing comes in all shapes and
sizes.

But before we jump into this, there are a few important things Saskia would want
you to know.

5 must-knows about differentiating

1. What is “evaluation”?
Evaluating isn’t the same as giving grades. It’s more than just assessing:
evaluation can also be used to guide a student on the right path. A good
evaluation practice makes students learn and decide on their performance in
relation to certain goals, so they make better and more informed choices.

2. What does “differentiation” mean?

In this case, differentiated teaching is responding to the diversity among
students. Diversity is very broad: it concerns all those differences and similarities
between students that influence learning and teaching. Those who differentiate,
accept diversity among pupils as a starting point.

3. Don’t pamper
Teachers want their students to have high dedication, perform at their best, and
be challenged. At the same time, teachers argue for support to meet the
standard, for variation in evaluation methods, and for comparing performances
with previous performances. It’s very hard to meet all the expectations. Teachers
aim to put ‘the bar high’ in, combination with fair opportunities to show what
students can do. This means that differentiated learning doesn’t mean you have
to pamper students.

4. Goals, goals, goals

The internet is full of beautiful evaluation forms. But without targeting your
evaluation, these are empty boxes. What exactly is it that your students have to
(want to) achieve? First, set a goal. Then, choose an evaluation format targeting
that goal.

5. Feedback, feedback, feedback

In the examples below, you usually have to read between the lines: people only
come to learning thanks to specific information about their own learning process.
Meanwhile, books have been written about the power of feedback.

Keep these 5 tips in the back of your head when you want to differentiate your
evaluations. Then, I can show you 10 examples of differentiated evaluations,
according to Saskia.

11 examples of differentiated evaluation

1. Outdoor examinations

Give students the possibility to take the exam outside. Maybe the
green environment gives students some inspiration. One thing is sure: the
oxygen level outside is much higher than inside a dusty classroom.

2. Cheat sheet

A cheat sheet teaches students to learn in a certain way as well. When

students aren’t motivated to learn, a cheat sheet can help. When students are
making a sheet cheat, they are actually engaging with the content. This way,
studets will remember much better (and don’t even need a cheat sheet).

3. 5-minute talk

In this tip, students get the chance to talk with each other for 5 minutes
about the test they just got. That way, students are developing strategies to order
the knowledge that was evoked by this brief conversation. Students learn to
handle knowledge in a more functional way. Make sure to not just ask
reproductive questions, because these make evaluations less effective.

4. Various choice options

Create a test with a common part and an optional part A or part B. Use
bonus questions or two different choice questions that test the same learning
objective. These are both ways to give students a “choice”.

5. Not for everyone

Not every pupil must take the test. You’re probably wondering how that
would work? The concept is simple: students look at each other’s test and
provide feedback. It all starts when students come to the classroom for a test
they’ve all learned for. At that moment, you choose about five or six students who
do not have to make the test, but form the assessment committee. While the
others go to work, the commission makes a check model. In other words: they
have to come to an agreement with each other about the right answers, decide
whether or not to count something good, and whether alternative answers are
possible. In this way they prepare for the real check-up and at meta-level they
think about the lesson material.

With every incorrect answer there is an explanation of the committee, and the
students get the chance to check with the book if they agree with the judgement.
Subsequently, they can discuss matters with the assessment committee in a
classical manner, in which the teacher, as moderator, keeps as much as possible
in the background. During the year, everyone eventually takes part in the
assessment committee.

6. Collaboration on tests

A test that encourages collaboration? It’s possible! The two-stage test

is an easy way to integrate collaborative learning into an individual written test. In
a two-stage test, the student first makes the test individually (part 1), and then
makes the test in small groups of four students (part 2). During part 2, the
classroom is filled with inspiring and effective discussions in which students
actively participate. Through the involvement of students during the exam, the
discussions ensure that students learn a lot from each other. Moreover, two-
stage testing appears to have a positive effect on learning before, during and
after the test.

7. Language support

Roughly you can say that a small minority of learning objectives really
requires students to write. Within language courses, learning objectives of writing
skills are included. Besides that, the importance of written evaluation is kind of
relative. Measuring writing skills also quickly interferes with the measurement of
students' actual learning objectives. Especially for multilingual students. So,
make sure to provide language support (a bilingual dictionary, a glossary, a pre-
structured answer). To keep an eye on the actual learning objective, you could
also replace the written exam with an oral test.

8. Choose a test that counts

Lots of students get a large number of small test. Recognizable? Why

not let them choose which ‘small evaluations’ count or not? Each student makes
the test. But it’s up to the students to choose when their test actually counts as a
mark. Freedom of choice is motivating. Want to do this without your school
becoming a pony camp? Make sure to set some ground rules and give your
students guidelines that gives them certain criteria. They’ll have to discuss,
considering every criteria, which test count and which doesn’t.

9. Students choose test questions

This one in probably more common than the rest of the examples. Ask
students to think up test questions themselves. It is one of the ways in which
bright pupils do not simply have to do ‘more of the same’. It also keeps students
busy with the learning material.

10. Take-home exam

Want to give students the time to find solutions (together) for a (very)
difficult problem? With a take home exam, you stimulate students to integrate
different subject matter components and process them in a demand-oriented way
into a coherent whole.

In order to bring a take-home exam to a successful conclusion, a student must

be able to do more than merely reproduce the information. The complexity of the
assignment and the expected answer is relatively high in a take-home exam. The
student almost always has to look for additional information at home. In any
case, he must appeal to his insight into the course, his critical attitude, his ability
to analyze and synthesise to solve the assignment.

11. A flexible testing policy

Here, students will be responsible for organizing their tasks during the
semester. In this testing policy, students must become competent and self-
reliant.

Students have:

 to be able to direct studies: make a study choice.

  to be able to organize studies themselves: to develop plans and
independent study activities.
 study skills: to reproduce, to acquire, to control, to relate, to repeat, …
 test skills.
 to be aware of their own learning style with the strong and weak aspects.

So that’s it for this post. I hope you can use some of these differentiated
evaluation formats in your own classes!