FIAE+Chapter+6+Block+1

[|Synthesis FIAE C6 B1]


 * **Names** || **Abstract** || **Reflection** ||
 * Archambault Michael || Creating good test questions is essential in every classroom setting, but is a staple in the differentiated classroom’s design. A test with multiple choice answers in which there could be a tricky or arguable point is not effective or fair, and tends to stress students out more than help the teacher assess mastery. Multiple choice questions certainly serve a purpose in assessment, but need to be mixed with short answer and essay questions with quality prompts in order to accomplish the goal of total assessment. Use strategies that make test taking efficient and practical for the test takers like organizing the test in a way that manages the un-assessed work such as writing a T or F and makes it user-friendly. Immediate feedback on tests is huge for students to gain from the tests and not just give the teachers a grade. Having the students copy their short answer, T/F, and multiple choice question responses down and reviewing them right after the test gives the test learning value. Be aware that timed tests may not give you the results that you are looking for. Follow up prompts at the end of the test such as “what did you expect to be tested on that you weren’t?” allows the student to give feedback to the teacher. This allows the teacher to reflect on their teaching and test making skills. || This may have been one of my favorite chapters of this book. Creating tests and grading them is such a rewarding experience for the teacher because you see progress in each student. I think that when you create a test, it gives you a chance to show you are human to your students by putting humor into it, or making it a positive experience, not just a stressful one. I liked the idea of feedback questions at the end of each test. I had never thought about it, but I will definitely use them. Another thing that I loved about this chapter was that it attacked multiple-choice questions that could be arguably multiple answers. I have seen so many of them where I end up writing a paragraph explaining my answer because I am not confident I am giving them the response they are looking for, but I know what I am talking about. ||
 * Audy Melissa || Chapter 6 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal goes over how to make fair and appropriate test questions. The chapter opens with a misleading multiple choice question and the inner monologue of a student who is confused upon reading the question. As a strategy, the book suggests that teachers use “traditional” and “non-traditional” testing methods, giving examples of both. Making tests clear is also an important thing to adhere to. The authors explain that test questions should not confuse students and should clearly state what is being looked for. It is also very important that the questions actually do ask the student to demonstrate the things you are looking to assess, instead of becoming overly creative with the test questions. The chapter suggests that teachers find ways to make tests fun, as well as keep tests short—one question can demonstrate understanding rather than several questions addressing the same topic. Rather, if you must ask a lot of questions to assess the class, it is better to have several small tests than one large cumulative exam. || I almost feel as though this chapter contrasts what we read in chapter 10 of Multiple Intelligences. Though I find that I agree more with the idea of authentic assessment, it is always interesting to read about other strategies to create a deeper awareness of different strategies teachers use and find successful. It was also interesting when the authors mentioned the idea of “non-traditional” test questions, such as drawings or diagrams. This seems more like something that could potentially demonstrate genuine learning over memorization and regurgitation. Though I hope to not use much testing, the tests described in this chapter hardly sounded like tests at all. There is so much room for creativity within the world of exams that is often overlooked. I actually enjoyed this chapter quite a bit, which surprised me since I do not like the idea of tests. More teachers, who find testing necessary, should look at resources like this when creating tests, to assess whether they are being fair or not. ||
 * Boulter Elizabeth || This chapter was straightforward! It discussed the ins and outs, the do and don’ts of test questions. Students do not learn anything from complex, verbose questions that try and trick them. Instead, they need clear questions that expect clear answers to show understanding and knowledge of a topic. There should be a variety on the assessment that includes traditional and non-traditional questions that are forced choice (has possible answers provided) and constructed response (where students develop a response on their own). This way, the teacher gets a more accurate and well-rounded understanding of the students’ mastery and the student demonstrates their true knowledge by expressing ideas, opinions, and thoughts- not just nervously answering true/false or fill in the blanks during a timed test. The test itself needs to be efficient and not distracting from the questions itself. The setup should be clear as to not interfere with the taking of the test. Giving quick feedback to the questions lets the student know of their progress or change. || This chapter was practical information…but I feel like they shouldn’t have to write it down. I feel like it is common sense to make CLEAR test questions instead of trying to trick students, or put matching items on the same page to limit how often the student has to turn the page over, or not always timing assessments because students get nervous and that anxiety inhibits the outpouring of the knowledge. I guess these things happen too often and therefore they felt the need to write these tips in a book to keep future teachers from doing these things, I just think it should be common sense. You want to have a true indicator of what your students are capable of what they learned in a fun, effective, and clear way! ||
 * Brown Ryanne || This chapter examines the building blocks of good test questions. The first suggestion the book gives is to provide a mixture of traditional and untraditional questions. There are a large variety of types of questions to choose from when creating assessments. The book points out that when that variety is utilized, the students’ mastery is better determined. The chapter also explains useful strategies for more efficiency involving the test answers, and the students’ feedback. These suggestions include circling true or false for more clear answers, keeping the tests relatively short, using clear prompts, double recording of test responses, and actually having fun with the test creation and questions. All of the combined suggestions help create the best possible assessment. Another important and finalizing technique is to format the test according to the grade system being used. The chapter points out that the feedback is a very key point in the testing process, considering it is the feedback that encourages further learning. || All of these testing tips were incredibly helpful. It’s almost amazing how much effort and careful planning has to go into the creation of good tests and test questions. I agree with the emphasis on feedback as the utmost important piece. It is crucial to allow students to receive very timely feedback so that they can feel at ease and also evaluate for themselves where they could improve. This chapter almost makes testing sound like fun! All of the elements that go into choosing questions seem to be very reasonable. I think the choice of question form also depends on subject area. As an English teacher, it will be beneficial to test students with actually writing, over true or false or multiple choice. ||
 * DePue Margaux || Chapter Six of Fair Isn’t Always Equal gives advice on how to write good questions on exams and how to avoid the pitfalls of test creation. By giving a variety of questions on an exam, educators can see how well a student has mastered the material. The chapter stresses to make tests efficient for students as well as keeping exams only as long as they need to be and being wary of timed exams, since many students do not work well under pressure. Teachers should be specific when making prompts for written exams and offer opportunities for student reflection after the exam, such as with double recordings of answers and reflective questions about the test. More importantly, teachers should try to make their exams more fun for students. || The very thought of creating traditional exams for my students, which I inevitably will have to do at some point, makes me cringe. I will do my best to steer clear of timed exams, as I do not believe that these tests are accurate portrayals of a student’s true abilities. I want my students to feel at ease and not feel like they are working solely for that A on an exam I give them. They should feel comfortable, confident and understand that a test is not just taken for a grade, but for substance and important skills. Teachers should put more effort into making tests fun for students as well. There should be no reason for a student to dread a test. ||
 * Dunne Kaisha || Creating good test questions is the topic of chapter 6 and is a good topic because this may seem easy but is not. Students need to be able to clearly understand the question, it needs to be straight forward, and at their level of speech. Using a variety of questions, prompts, and styles really helps you get the big picture of how much the student learned. Each student hates some parts of test or does poorly on certain styles, such as multiple choice or matching or essays. They suggest in this chapter some ways to set up up so students succeed a little better. Another suggestion is to keep it short, students can only think well under stress for so long. || I faced this when I made a quiz while at the high school. The book didn't offer chapter quizes so I had to make some and my wording wasn't very clear on making the point I was aiming for. So this helped because it show how closely one ahs to pay attention and how much work goes into making up even a short quiz and this chapter reiterates that very well. ||
 * Hudson Kimberly || This chapter is about creating good test questions. Multiple choice questions have no use in a differentiated classroom because they do not assess students’ understanding and skill. In order to create a good test, the teacher should use both traditional questions and somewhat non-traditional questions like analogies or diagrams. Also, the teacher should have forced choice questions. These are true false or matching. Constructed response, meaning that the students have to generate the information themselves, for example, short essays. Double recording test responses have the numbers match on both sides of the paper allowing the sheet to be torn in half. This way, students have their own set of answers that they can assess by themselves and not wait for the teacher. || I really like the idea of the double answers for the test and have the students keep a copy. I always hated it when I wanted to see how I did on a question but I did not remember the exact answer that I put down. I think this method also eliminates the stress when the tests are being handed back because the student has a really good idea about whether or not they did well. Putting a variety of questions is also important because then the test has the ability to appeal to some of the different learning styles. Most of the time, teachers create a test that is easy to grade and doesn’t actually test the students’ knowledge. So then what was the point of the test other than to earn a grade? There isn’t one. ||
 * Korn Shauna || This chapter had to do with what is good testing in the cases where a teacher would want to use testing. It explained that there are ways that teachers can do testing in a classroom without testing just to test. Having multiple choice answers is really not the answer to the testing world and in fact they make students confused and second guess themselves. The right type of assessment for testing should make students think about the material that hey have learned and then present it on the test. A teacher should use different techniques on a test to hit different learning styles that students in the class have and be able to give them choices. Keeping your prompts and other ways of assessment clear and upfront will allow the students to make a decision of what is the correct answer and not have to worry about picking the “best” answer our of each question. This allows helps to let them know that you are not trying to trick them or set them up for failure. || I myself never did well on tests and still to this day do awful on them. What I found my freshman year here was that I had a professor who knew that I was having trouble with the multiple choice exams and when we sat down and talked she allowed me and the rest of the class from there on out to chose between an essay booklet and the multiple choice test, after looking over both tests. This showed me that she really cared about our learning and didn’t mind the way that I presented the information that I had learned, just as long as I could show her something. I think that more teachers should do this because it is a confidence booster to students and shows them that you really care about how well they are doing. ||
 * LaRose Rebecca || This chapter was all about testing, and how to choose the best questions for exams. One tip is to use a variety of questions. A mixture of traditional and non-traditional questions is best as well as adding a variety of choice questions. Doing this helps get a better overview of how well students are doing at mastering the subject, in order to better grade them The next tip was about how to make tests more efficient. The less writing or worrying about legibility students have to do, the less worrying in general they have to do. A large section of the chapter is regarding clarity, both of prompts, and not being tricky with wording. The final bits of the chapter are all about how to make sure that you are making the test mean something that is worthy of the students’ time. If the test isn’t making sure that the students learned what you wanted them to, then there is no reason to test. || I felt that this chapter was very important. I feel that there is NEVER a reason to trick students. All questions should be clear and should be about common sense details, not obscure details, such as the color shirt a character was wearing in a certain scene. I really like that this chapter gave instruction on how to word questions as well as how to make it easier to grade. I feel as though all of these tips are helpful and will be a good starting point for making a test. ||
 * Murphy Amber || Chapter six in Fair Isn’t always Equal is titled “Creating Good Test Questions. This chapter offers a variety of information about how to improve test questions and how to get your point across in a test question. The whole point in testing or assessing the students is to see what they have mastered so it is very important to make sure they test isn’t trying to trick the students. The book suggested mixing traditional questions with nontraditional questions to help gain a variety of responses. When you change the style of question it gives students the opportunity to display what they know in different ways. When testing students they already have enough anxiety and are stressed out so it is important for teachers to do their jobs maintain clear and concise test questions. When one question confuses a student it often times makes him or her guess which then isn’t accurately displaying the student’s mastered material. The last thing this chapter touched base with was immediate feedback to the students. When students instantly know what they did wrong they are more likely to figure out what was wrong about their response. With computers and all the technology we have access to these days it is very easy to change tests around and get the same results for all classes.  ||  I believe that this chapter was very helpful. I always remember multiple choice questions which were extremely confusing and how much they bothered me. I feel that if the student doesn’t understand the question being asked then it puts a barrier between the student and his or her grade. When I am making test or quizzes for my students I will always remember making clear test questions because there is nothing more frustrating than receiving a test and not understanding the questions on it. I also believe that immediate feedback is very important because students don’t like to wait for the grade they would rather know exactly what they got right away. If immediate feedback ensures better understanding I believe it is crucial to provide students with this valuable information and it is the teachers job to have access to more than one copy of the test.  ||
 * Nieuwkerk Hannah || It is crucial to give a variety of prompts and questions on quizzes and test because the teacher will get a better understanding of what the students did learn. A good exam mixes traditional and nontraditional prompts such as fill in the blank, true/false, short answer, and essay. Nontraditional prompts are diagrams, drawings, critiquing performances, etc. These are harder to grade and grade fairly, but, to me, they show true mastery of a concept. When making up an assessment, there are several tips: keep it simple: with matching questions, have the questions and answers on the same page, on true/false: have the students circle true or false (versus letting them write it in themselves). Let the students record their answers their answers on a sheet of paper that they can keep, while giving the teacher is final test. After everyone is done, the teacher can immediately go over the answers, then the students will retain that knowledge better. Teachers should also be careful about giving out timed tests because some students stress out about not being finished in time and it distracts them. Some last quick tips are just to make the prompts clear, make sure the question is asking what you really mean it to say, and put some fun into the assessment! It will make the students relax and probably do better. || This was a good chapter to read because we have been learning all about how to teach, but not how to assess. I liked how in all the examples, none of them were about trying to trick the student or ask picky questions. The examples just want to make sure that the student understands the lessons and can synthesize the work. I liked the idea of double recording your answers, and then the teacher goes over the answers right off. In this way, you could say, “oh, shoot! Now, I’ll never forget the capital of Nebraska!” because it is still very fresh on the minds of the student. ||
 * Scheffler Erich || Chapter six in Fair Isn’t Always Equal was about making good test questions. One way, according to the book, is to mix traditional questions, such as multiple choice and true/false questions, with non-traditional questions, such as analogies and diagrams. Another way is to make sure test questions are easy for students to do. One example of this that the book gave was giving the answers of “T” and “F” to the students on the test itself, so students don’t have to messily write down an answer. Also, the author says that when giving a multiple choice question, you should not give answers like “all of them except B” so as not to confuse the student. Also, teachers should keep test on the shorter side and not time them, so as not to put any added pressure on the student. || I think this chapter will prove to be very helpful. Making tests is very hard, and it was very nice to have some advice on how to make tests better. I liked all of the advice the author gave on how to make better questions, because all of the advice seemed liked it really would help students perform better on the test. ||
 * Simoneau Andrea ||  ||   ||
 * Stevens Newcomb || This chapter talked about creating the perfect test questions. Test questions should be clear, actually test what the teacher wants to test, and sometimes not tricky. Unclear test questions can lead to unclear results because the student did not know what was exactly asked. Tricky test questions can fool a student into giving the wrong answer. The test, in order to be successful, should assess what is supposed to be assessed. Tests are the main form of evaluation in many classrooms and should have questions that are right for the students. || I found that the prompt section of this chapter was helpful. Sometimes writing prompts can be misleading or tricky to understand. I have really messed up on writing assignments because the prompt was maybe not so clear (or it could have been my own fault). I found some great examples of bad questions: in particular, the one involving the “an” and only one answer beginning with a vowel. I would have picked up on that easily because I would know more about grammar rather than the question. Making good test questions, I feel, can be underrated. ||