The author, Angela Bazzo, teaches 8th grade math and science at North Royalton Middle School in Ohio.
I use digital assessments because the results are instant!
As a math teacher, taking tests and quizzes home was such a pain. I would spend more time grading than I would on commenting to students on how to improve. Edulastic has a great grading system because it allows me to comment on student’s answers. I can tell them specifically what they did wrong.
Also, digital assessments allow you to diversify the type of questions you ask. It is unbelieveable on how many question types there are. The state tests are given online, and giving online formative assessments allows students to get comfortable submitting responses online.
Formative assessments help my teaching because I can easily create interventions for students who are struggling on standards. I can also easily accommodate tests being read aloud. Digital assessments have the text to speech feature. This eliminates the need for students to be pulled out of the class in order to have the test read aloud to them.
I can also create enrichments for students who are excelling at various standards. On Edulastic, there is a DOK setting. I can choose higher DOK question types for the students that need the challenge.
“The students enjoy instant feedback.” – Angela Bazzo
This school year, I have been doing digital assessments twice a week. The students enjoy getting instant feedback. I have also been giving my students time to reflect on their answers and read why they are getting something incorrect. It gives me a chance to meet with with students who are doing poorly. Students who miss a few questions can read the correct solutions and understand their errors. I can easily email parents and have the parents log in to the student’s’ account to allow the parents to see their child’s progress.
I typically give the assessments at the very beginning of class. It gets the students focused and helps with recalling information from the previous day. It takes my students about 3 minutes to get logged on and ready to go. I have not given a digital assessment at the end of class time yet. I plan to give my students a digital assessment as an exit slip within the next week or so. The data that I receive from these assessments really help me reflect on what I need to spend more time on during class.
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