Teaching elementary students? Use these creative summative assessment strategies!

Do you have elementary students in your classroom who suffer from test anxiety?

Do you feel that traditional summative testing leads to unnecessary stress for your students and isn't an accurate reflection of their growth?

Look no further! There is more than one way to evaluate your elementary students' academic growth at the end of units. In fact, they may even be more equitable and enjoyable for all.

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Summative assessments should always be directly related to objectives and benchmarks and reflect a wide range of skills and growth in your students.

Summative assessments are:

• used to evaluate what children have learned overall

• administered at the end of a unit, course, or school year

• formally graded

• ways to show how prepared students are for the next academic level

• useful for teachers, highlighting gaps in the curriculum

For pre and early readers, summative assessments:

• tell your student's learning story

• show the distance traveled academically

• are often prepared as a portfolio

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Teachers can develop summative assessments that go beyond the traditional written test to avoid boredom and test anxiety. As long as the assessments are aligned with the expected outcomes and the expectations are clear to the students, the options are plentiful.

Written summative assessments:

Students may:

• write a play or skit

• write a song or poem

• write an essay

• write their own test and answer key

• write a report following an interview

Performance summative assessments:

Students may:

• perform their play or skit

• perform their song or recite their poem

• record themselves as a news reporter

• record a podcast

• record a trailer or short film

• record an advertisement

• give a speech

Creative summative assessments:

Students may:

• create a board game

• develop a website

• create a comic strip

• develop a slide show or presentation

• create a model or diorama

• create a Jeopardy or Kahoot! game

• create an art collage

• create a chart or poster

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When deciding on which assessment projects to offer, consider the following:

What subject will be assessed?

Some assessments are better suited for specific subjects than others. For example, a living museum or reenactment works well with history, while an essay or poem may be best in reading & language arts.

What is the students' level?

Consider your students' abilities and offer assessment choices that they can reasonably create. While a fifth grader may be able to develop a simple website, your first grader may not be as successful with this task.

How well will the project measure learning objectives?

Be sure to focus on the objectives. Will your project choices reflect how well the students have met these objectives?

How will you assess the learning objectives for each project?

Decide how to best grade your students' performance and mastery of the subject/objectives. Will a rubric work well with the summative assessment, or would a checklist be better suited?

How will you consider student interests and personalities?

Offer assessment choices that fit your student's interests. For example, if you have very energetic and social students, performance assessments may be a great option. On the other hand, if you have shy students, written and creative assessments may be more appropriate.

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Your fifth-grade students will be wrapping up their history unit on World War 1in a couple of weeks, and you'd like to skip the multiple-choice test you usually give.

What should you do before offering the class fun summative assessment project choices?

A. Pass out a study guide for students.

B. Decide which projects to include on a choice board.

C. Create a rubric to share with the choice board.

D. Determine which learning objectives must be met.

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For non- and early readers, summative assessments often include a portfolio showing the student's learning journey.

Benefits of a portfolio in early childhood:

• pre-established documents/checklists of benchmarks save teachers time

• easy to keep organized

• shows a timeline of the student's progress toward learning outcomes

• Assists in identifying gaps and additional support needs

• Assists in creating learning goals for the future

Portfolios should highlight progress towards learning goals and may include:

• photos with dates and written descriptions

• work samples with dates

• pre-established documents/checklists showing benchmarks reached

• parent communication

• parent reflections

• child reflections (may be collected through an end unit "interview")