Pattillo - Assessment

Assessment in related arts classes tends to be a tricky topic with a wide range of opinions and differences per teacher. As a business teacher with computer classes, I teach a wide range of skill level students. Some students do not have computers at home and have zero experience with them when they enter my classroom, whereas other students often times are better with computers than I am! Unfortunately, "teaching to the middle" is often a reality for my classes. I want all students to master the content but that isn't always possible. I struggle with finding the "right time" to move on and advance to the next unit because I want ALL students to be ready before I do. At the same time, I do not want the higher level students to sit idly with nothing to do because they easily grasped and mastered the content quickly. I want to challenge them.

Usually assessment in my class is in the form of a project completed during class time. I always tell students I want them to "show me they know HOW to do something" rather than regurgitate vocabulary words and definitions. I usually use rubrics to grade projects but struggle with them sometimes because I see some students use them to do the bare minimum and still receive the same grade as a student who goes well above and beyond. With my typing class, I have students periodically complete speed tests to calculate their WPM (words per minute). Rather than giving them a threshold speed/errors to achieve, for the first few months I tell them I am grading on them based on their personal improvement from week to week in their scores.