One of the most difficult things for me about assessing students is that I tend to want to create only the assessments that would like to do as a student. In other words, I don't want to make students create drawings, posters, or anything else too artsy, because I always hated those projects. I always felt that if I wasn't in at class, I shouldn't be forced to do art projects. That said, there will be a number of students in classes that do enjoy those types of assessments, so I need to be able to create them as second or third options.

The difficulty in using an art-related project is making it equivalent to a traditional essay/assessment. A five-page paper is not the same as a poster. The time involved might be the same (for a student like me, who has no art skills whatsoever), but the level of thought is entirely different. So, what steps can be taken to make them equivalent? Adding a short write-up to the art assignment would be fair, but I still don't think that gets the student to the same level of depth with the work. That is one of the biggest problems I'm having right now, because I know there are students who do like the non-traditional assignments. Between the task and the grading, though, I'm not quite sure at this point how to create them effectively.

On the other hand, I feel pretty comfortable making the traditional assessments. My feeling is that reading quizzes should be based on the topics I want students to take away from the reading, but at the same time--if I'm truly checking to see whether students read--I need to be conscious of what's on Sparknotes. That is what makes it hard to make a "fair" reading quiz, or one that's not just based on details that are hard to pick out. In that case, I'd rather lean towards a "prove to me that you read the chapter" quiz. It would be open-ended, and students would be required to prove more than that they read Sparknotes to get full credit. It's difficult, but it's also higher-level thinking using the text. The different responses and their scores would probably need to be modeled for the students.

Rubrics for essays and other assignments are relatively easy. Make requirements for the assignment, then read down the assignment sheet and create a section for each part of the assignment. If the paper is supposed to be 2-3 pages, there should be a "length" section on the rubric. Makes sense.

Exams and assessments for middle-schoolers are also a concern, because I don't know what those are like. I know papers are capped at one or two pages, but is that a good thing? Should we actually be pushing them to write two or three pages instead? Part of the problem is the education the students have received up to middle school and high school, because many teachers have not properly equipped the students with the appropriate skills for their age. That means topics and will have to be retaught, or certainly enriched, before moving on to more difficult skills. How do we compensate for the failures of prior teachers?