Classroom Assessment Project Cycle

How do you decide how you will assess your students and their learning? Angelo and Cross (1993), suggest a Classroom Assessment Project Cycle. In Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers, they outline a three-phase, three-step process by which you can design such a cycle.

Phase I Planning a Classroom Assessment Project

1. Choosing the class in which to carry out the Classroom Assessment Project
2. Focusing on an “assessable question” about student learning
3. Designing a Classroom Assessment Project to answer that “assessable question”

Phase II Implementing the Classroom Assessment Project

1. Teaching the “target” lesson related to the question being assessed
2. Assessing learning by collecting feedback on that assessable question
3. Analyzing the feedback and turning data into usable information

Phase III Responding to the results of the Classroom Assessment

1. Interpreting the results and formulating an appropriate response to improve learning
2. Communicating the results to students and trying out the response
3. Evaluating the Classroom Assessment Project’s effect(s) on teaching and learning (p. 34)

Such a cycle is a good starting point, but if you are looking for more specific and innovative ways to assess student learning, Angelo and Cross (1993) provide fifty specific ways of assessing everything from prior knowledge and skills, to critical thinking, to learner reactions to teachers and teaching. Their book is philosophically sound, practically applicable, and available at a library near you. If you’ve never read it or haven’t read it in a while, it’s worth skimming.

Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

You can check this book out from the CTL Library:
http://www.bgsu.edu/ctlt/page15501.html

**The Center for Teaching and Learning will conduct two related workshops this Summer**
Identifying Your Teaching Goals Using the TGI
July 15, 1:00pm-1:45pm
August 6, 10:15am-11:00am

Formative Assessment Using CATs
July 16, 1:00pm-2:00pm
August 6, 11:00am-12:00pm

You can visit the website for more information:
http://www.bgsu.edu/ctlt/page11755.html

Call to reserve your location at 372-6898

Resources on the Web:
Angelo and Cross, from their book:
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/assess-1.htm

Classroom Assessment Techniques:
http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/assess.htm

PowerPoint on Classroom Assessment using Angelo and Cross:
www.uwlax.edu/catl/2006%20CoTL%20Materials/COTL%20-%20CATS%20with%20BOON%208-29-06.ppt