Bruce Oliver and Paula Rutherford shared some great ideas about how to liven up our assessments in the classroom.
I chose to use the "Lifeline" method with my class. We took a Reading Assessment this morning that had some challenging comprehension questions on it. I told my students that I would be their "lifeline" and give them the answer to any one question they wanted. At first I had several kids pick either the longest question or the question with the longest multiple choice answers. I needed to explain that they should do all of the ones that they understood first and then go back and choose the one they thought was the most difficult.
This assessment piece worked out nicely since earlier in the week we talked about test anxiety and how often kids worried about tests. I think this lifeline gave them a moment to catch their breath since they didn't have to worry about the hardest question.
I also use my own "phone a friend" method during whole group instruction. If kids raise their hand the answer and don't quite get the answer they have the option to "phone a friend" to see if someone can add to their answer to make it more correct. This also lessens the pressure when asked to answer a question aloud.
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