Performance and Multiple Choice Assessment Options
Assessment can be conducted in several ways.
- To score assessments with open-ended responses, you will need to use a rubric. It is important that you review your students' responses before you establish your assessment rubric. A quick review will usually make it possible for you to create three stacks of papers: those that exceed expectations, those that meet expectations, and those that do not meet expectations. You will have some papers that are "fence sitters", making it difficult to determine where they belong. As you make a closer examination of the three groups of student work, list the things that define each group. With this information, you should now be able to determine where your "fence sitters" go and you should have a rubric for continued development.
- If you have challenged the students to design and conduct a scientific investigation or experiment, you may want to use and/or modify one of the following rubrics. NOTE: It may be wise to share the rubric with your students before they begin so that they have a clear understanding of what is expected of them and how their work will be graded.
If you do not have it already, download Acrobat Reader in order to view the first two rubrics. This file can be read and printed on virtually any platform -- Macintosh, Windows, or Unix. You can download the Acrobat player for free from Adobe. For Netscape users, you'll want to use the Acrobat plug-in that makes viewing Acrobat files a snap!
If you have not done so, follow your browser's directions to allow it to recognize and open Adobe Acrobat files. If you need help,
you'll find that in the Adobe site as well.
Multiple-Choice Assessments for COIILS Investigations in PDF format (NOTE: This site is not accessible without the password. Teachers will need to contact Mike Schneider by email to receive password.)
Holistic Science Experiment Rubric Available to download as a PDF file.