Assess Student Learning

Assessment is the process used to gather information and make decisions about how well students have learned the skill or concepts in a lesson. There are two major steps to designing an assessment:

• determine the assessment procedures
• decide how to judge the performance.

The assessment procedures are the specific activities or tasks that will be used to evaluate how well students have learned the objectives. The assessment activities should reflect the knowledge and skills described in the objective and mirror the way they were taught and practiced. The assessment procedures may use traditional paper and pencil activities, performance assessments, or portfolios.

The second step in planning an assessment is to determine how to judge student performance. The mastery criteria come directly from the lesson objective. It’s a good idea to develop an answer or response key, rubric, or other tool to use to evaluate student performance. Such tools promote consistency and objectivity as you judge student performance.

Accommodations are changes to the way a student accesses instruction and demonstrates performance. When accommodations are incorporated into the assessment, they meet the needs of individual students and often the entire class benefits. Some accommodations may need to be provided on an individual basis.

Accommodations in Lesson Design

Go to sample lessons: Elementary School | Middle School | High School

Write Objective | Introduce | Present Content | Practice & Feedback | Summarize