How to Go Over a Test

How to help students make sense of assessments

What happens after the benchmarks?

Now that you have given the benchmark (or any other test), what do you do with the information? What is the best way to go over the test?

Reading correct answer choices and having students check their papers?
Having students trade papers check and correct?
Send the papers home for students to correct?
None of the above?

The correct answer is....None of the above!

One of the staar4ward videos suggests that as teachers, we ask ourselves:

"Do we grade too much and evaluate too little?" and "How do we get students to do most of the work."

How do we make the analysis of the assessment a learning opportunity?

Remember, "The test itself is not evidence of learning. Thinking and discourse about the test is evidence of learning." (Ervin Knezek)

3-2-1 Test Review

Have students look at the test and identify

3 items the got correct
2 they missed but thought were correct
1 they want the teacher to go over

Now do a Shake and Share. Start some music, or just cue students to walk around with their papers. At the signal (or end of music), students stop, shake hands with their partner, and go over the three they got correct. Most important here is for students to talk about HOW they got it right. They discuss their strategy.

Do another Shake and Share, but this time go over the two each of the partners got wrong and try to help each other correct. Usually students can help this with minimal help.

Next Shake and Share talk about why they struggled with this one.

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Have students tell you which items to go over

Remember those items students chose for the teacher to go over? Well, you can use various strategies to do that. You don't have to reteach right away; have students do the work.

You can also do a consensogram to find out which ones the students want you to go over. Give the students 3 dots and let them put them on test questions. The questions with the most dots will tell you which ones to go over.

Here are a few more strategies.