The Review of "Getting Creative with Assessments," by Holley P.

Getting Creative with Assessments, by Kenneth Peterson, Richard Ponzio, Pamela Castori, and Robin Galloway, is an article that gives insight on multiple techniques to assess young learners.... See More

Getting Creative with Assessments, by Kenneth Peterson, Richard Ponzio, Pamela Castori, and Robin Galloway, is an article that gives insight on multiple techniques to assess young learners. The assessments discussed in this article don’t consist of writing on paper and using a pencil, instead the assessment techniques access students’ knowledge on the recently taught science concepts. The first technique discussed is using photographs of the students’ hands-on learning experience, asking different questions, and allowing the student to orally answer. The second technique discussed is known as the “Hot-House Approach,” which is where a teacher presents an effective science lesson and ask a variety of questions, while the lesson is videotaped and then analyzed. The third technique allows student imagination, exploration, and observation by implementing inquiry creativity, where the student observes a scientific concept, list their observations, compares, and ask questions. The fourth technique is the idea of using focus groups, where the teacher asks a small-group of students a variety of questions, then allows them to discuss and share their science experiences/knowledge. The fifth technique is a card sort that consist of multiple different cards, and then the child arranges them in a list that describes a good scientist. Getting Creative with Assessments is a clear and informative article that provides teachers of young learners with creative techniques to use when assessing students, instead of using pencil and paper. As a future teacher, I would personally use these five different techniques in my future classroom to assess my students, because the techniques seem to be effective in obtaining scientific information from the students. This article would be useful and beneficial to provide any elementary teacher with effective, yet creative, ways to assess learners.

Interesting Twists on Assessment

This article outlines five ways to assess student learning that as the author points out ‘makes science visible.’ These five approaches are provided in a chart for the read along with an ex... See More

This article outlines five ways to assess student learning that as the author points out ‘makes science visible.’ These five approaches are provided in a chart for the read along with an explanation of each technique. These techniques having catchy names are very doable and as the author points out need to be used in conjunction with each other and not alone. These are an interesting collection of approaches to assessment.