Student Created Summative Assessments

Traditional tests and quizzes are very teacher centered. They are made by the teacher, graded by the teacher and once taken are not given much thought by the student. I've challenged this paridgm by creating a new type of summative assessment that is much more student centered and, in my opinion, a better assessment model. This school year will be the the third year I have been giving my students the opportunity to create their own summative assessments online.

How It Works

I start out with the general parameters. This includes the topics, number of questions and difficulty I want them to select. Here is an video I made for my students at the beginning of the year explaining the process of creating a quiz:
As you see in the video, we use an online assessment website called Castlelearning. Our district provides each student with an annual subscription and I utilize this for various formative and summative assessment practices. I have found that this website allows for a robust and repeatable assessment experience for students due to the large question bank they have for my subject. I don't make a new video for each assessment, I will list the parameters on an online directions page, usually a .pdf document. Students may take this assessment either in class, or at home- it's up to them. My thoughts on "open book" assessments can be found here on my original post about this type of assessment.

Re-Assessment Comes Naturally

The ability to have the question bank pull random questions out allows students to reassess themselves if they score poorly at first. At first we have to discuss what to do before reassessing, I do not encourage blindly retaking assessments until a magic score is reached. It is a great time for reteaching on my part and relearning and practicing on the students part before they re-do a summative assessment. At first, students can feel overwhelmed at the freedom this strategy represents but after assessing this way throughout the year it becomes something that students appreciate and actually enjoy. Below are two survey responses related to these summative assessments answering "what is something you liked from this class"?

how we had take home quizzes and tests because in school you have a limited amount of time to finish the quiz and test

I think that Mr. Fox did a good job at encouraging us to do our best. For example, he always pushed us to make our own question sets on castle and to study harder.

The majority of students liked the student created
 summatives (also know as take home quizzes)

Teaching Study Skills

One of the additional benefits that I've found with this student created summative assessment is that students begin to understand how to take ownership of their own study strategies and skills. Many students will create their own assignments as study practice, then ask questions about questions they encounter that give them difficulty. This autonomy over their learning process signals to me that a shift is taking place with my students away from being a teacher centered environment to one that is squarely centered around the student. This has been my goal all along, now with a technological tool and an innovative idea, my students are in charge of their summative assessments (and studying) and I can focus more on giving them the individual attention during and after class they deserve to help them be successful.