7 Mindful Assessment Tools

Lee Watanabe-Crockett

1. Quick Summaries: Students can be asked to summarize important

lessons or concepts. You can even add a summary challenge using social
media. For example, have them Tweet their summaries; the challenge there is
that the limit is 140 characters. Students must be concise and brief with their
entries.
2. Open-Ended Questions: These are content questions that really get
students thinking about what they’ve learned. They can chat about or write
their responses. You should try to avoid closed questions like, “Did this make
sense to you?” Instead, give students a chance to really think about the
learning that took place.
3. Student Interviews: This is similar to Think-Pair-Share and happens at the
end of the class. Groups of 2 or 3 students take a few minutes at the end of
class to discuss what they’ve learned. Next, each student takes a turn
interviewing the other. You can give them guiding questions like:
 What was the most useful thing you learned?
 What did you struggle most with?
 What will you ask for help with next class?
 What can you do to help somebody else learn better?
 What’s your learning goal for next class?
4. Daily Learning Journals: This is a daily brief reflection exercise that lets
students privatize their experiences in their own words on a personal level. As
far as assessment tools go, this is one that some students may resist since
some may not enjoy writing daily reflections. If so, offer up some alternatives.
For instance, they could do it using screencasting or simple audio recording if
they wish. Younger students can create vision boards or collages, relating
imagery to what they’ve learned. They may also choose to share their
excerpts on a class blog or web page. This is a great classroom community-
building exercise.
5. Peer Teaching: Assessment tools used by other students are a great way
to check for understanding. You know students have truly learned a concept
when they can teach it to other students. This can be done in groups of 2 or 3,
but that’s a recommended limit. Bigger groups require the kind of attention-
wrangling skills students don’t yet possess.
6. Quick-Draw Showdown: This one is a fun competitive exercise. Square
two students off against each other, and have them quickly write down a
sentence or draw a quick sketch of a learning concept. It works better if they
are both using the same thing. When you say “Go!” the fun begins. The first
one to finish wins the quick draw.
7. Self-Grading: Students can use this one to grade their own progress. Have
them give themselves a grade on the material covered. Afterward, they must
explain why they feel they’ve earned that grade.

7 Best Assessment Practices

1. Transform the Test: The most common feedback we give students is
usually a number. Unfortunately this is a summative practice that does not
identify strengths and weaknesses or provide feedback for learning and
development. An example of how to change this is to shift our approach to
quizzing and make it a rich and collaborative learning opportunity:
 The students mark the quizzes themselves and then individually
undertake the learning activity that reinforces the identified area of
weakness.
 The students mark the quizzes and identify which activities are needed,
and then form learning groups to complete the activities identified.
 Instead of a quiz, the teacher presents the questions one at a time, and
the students attempt the answer. The students then break into groups and
work collaboratively on the activity to reduce the gap, supported by their
peers.
2. Consider Where You’re Starting: There are several pieces of information
that are critical when starting a journey, the most obvious being our
destination. It’s important to identify each learner’s starting point rather than
make assumptions about their prior knowledge and experience. In doing so,
we avoid missed learning opportunities and time spent focusing on activities
that they already understand and have accomplished.
3. Make a Diagnosis: Diagnostic assessment is a tool for use during class to
quickly gain information about the students’ understanding of the concept they
are examining and how we as classroom practitioners are facilitating learning.
Each question we write or task we develop must be deliberate and purposeful.
For each and every question or part of the diagnostic task, we must ask the
following questions:
 What does this question or task examine?
 Does it accurately identify existing knowledge?
 Can it help differentiate the different depths of knowledge, skills, or
processes?
 What is the correct answer?
 How can I use it to improve learning?
 Is it suitable for the audience?
 Is it suitable for the purpose?
4. Master Multiple Choice: Here are some guidelines for writing effective
multiple-choice questions to diagnose prior learning of concepts or theory:
 Keep it simple by removing extra reading which may be confusing or
distract from the questions.
 Avoid using negatives like “not” in the questions.
 Organize your questions alphabetically, in increasing size (numerical),
or in time sequence. Present your answers vertically as this is easier to
read than horizontally.
5. Hold Up a Mirror: Teachers should encourage students to self-question
and self-verbalize their performance. Self-questioning and self-verbalizing are
metacognitive strategies in which the student creates appropriate questions,
then predicts the answers, validates these answers, and then summarizes
them. Steve Dinham’s research regarding powerful teacher feedback notes
that, in our best assessment practices, mindful educators and students ask
and answer three key questions:
1. What can I do?
2. What can’t I do?
3. How can I do better?
6. Give Great Feedback: Feedback can be a hard pill to swallow; we all
struggle to accept critique and find it uncomfortable. A positive, affirming, and
honest relationship between both parties is necessary to enable this dialogue.
Similarly, feedback from peers requires trust and understanding as well as
clear ground rules for behavior, process, and so on. Use these feedback best
practices to guide you.
7. Powerful Portfolios: Many think of an artist’s portfolio as a collection of his
or her best works. But such a collection would really be more of an exhibition
than a portfolio. The truth is that a proper portfolio is a record of the
development of one’s thinking and ideas that provides background to the
finished product. This not only allows for formative assessment but also
clearly demonstrates the formation of ideas and understandings that are hard
to measure any other way.

Assignments:
1. Plot an activity for assessment related to your subject that you
teach using the 7 Mindful Assessment Tools (See my samples in
JPEG file). It must be submitted thru the Facebook Messenger of
Sir Prince.
2. (By partner) Find a partner. Meet your partner and decide what
kind of Learning Competency which you’ll like to focus related to
your subject that you teaches (only one Learning Competency).
Use five in any 7 Mindful Assessment Tools or you can invent
your own assessment tool/s with explanation on how you will
meet that Learning Competency and how the students will be
assessed if they really understood well that Learning Competency
using the assessment tools. (See my sample that I submitted last
time). It must be submitted thru the Facebook Messenger of Sir
Prince.