Varied Assessments

I like the way Understanding By Design encourages teachers to use assessment techniques that are "varied and many." This allows us to make sure students do not get the right answer, as Wiggins and McTighe explain, "as a result of rote recall, good test-taking skills, or lucky guessing" (189). Varying our assessment methods also gives students with different learning styles numerous opportunities to excel and to work on skills they have not yet mastered. While homogeneous assessments do not give teachers enough valid information to understand the whole student and his/her true understanding, I think they also can contribute to students' disengagement. The child who does not excel at test-taking is likely to shut down if he/she is only assessed based on high pressure multiple choice tests. If given a chance to show his/her understanding in another way, I imagine he/she will feel more valued by his/her teacher and gain confidence in school. I see other benefits to assessing transferable skills as well. Wiggins and McTighe explain how these activities show us whether or not we have helped students understand material in a big-picture, applicable way and help students see the relevance of the work. I think they also allow students to feel a little more prepared to walk out of the classroom. If we give them opportunities to use their knowledge, skills, and understanding in real-world ways, I imagine students will start to see the ways things that they have already learned can help them once they enter new academic and professional settings.