3 reasons you should build assessments as a class

This semester I have been experimenting with collaborative assessment. I lead my students through a collaborative process to build their own assessments for assignments. I was first introduced to this idea at our 2014 Writing Eastern Kentucky Conference by three Morehead Writing Project rock star teachers: Lindsay Johnson, Brandie Trent, and Leslie Workman.

My process is pretty simple. I usually separate this process from introducing the assignment, but we begin with that information. We review the assignment – specifically addressing the goals and purpose of the assignment and how those goals connect to the student learner outcomes for our class. I then have students brainstorm for a while about the essential qualities of a successful assignment. We then collaborate as a class to develop a definitive list of those qualities. After we have the list, we then discuss the priority and weight of each quality and what it looks like on this assignment. Each time we have done this in class, we have come up with a pretty good scoring guide and when I compared it to previous scoring guides (that I created solo in past semesters) I have been pleasantly surprised by how much they agree. The collaborative scoring is usually more streamlined and might even be better for it. While this is a time-consuming process, I am sold on the idea and think it is a worthwhile investment of our valuable class time. Here are three reasons why I think you should consider collaborating with your students to create their assessments:

Read the full “3 reasons you should build assessments as a class” post on my Metawriting blog at: http://metawriting.deannamascle.com