Chemistry is tough for everyone. But it can be really hard to assess student learning in high school chemistry. Students are really unsure how well they’re learning. They are often shy and lacking confidence. This is usually one of the first classes that doesn’t come entirely naturally to them and requires a good amount of studying. For many students, they’re not able to admit this to you, or even themselves.
There’s quite a few barriers to know if students are really learning chemistry, and learning it well, so here are my tips on ways to assess student learning in high school chemistry.
Test and Quizzes
This one is pretty obvious. But it could be tougher than you think. When students do well on a test, you have to look at it and determine if the test was a fair test. Did it ask a variety of questions? Were those questions of varying difficulty? Was there enough time given for the assessment? Was there enough time in class to learn the material? If students were given a second or third chance to test their knowledge, would they perform better?
This is just one way to assess student understanding in chemistry, and it’s important that we don’t give it too much weight. It does only represent their knowledge on a specific day. Perhaps that student was having a bad day, or just recovered from being sick and run down. Maybe it’s basketball season and this student is a bit sore or overworked physically. Be mindful of the context.
Test Retakes
For a few years now I’ve been offering my students unlimited test retakes. I find that it works very well! The students who are chronic test failers don’t have a desire to retake tests (and I’m not here forcing them!) But the kids who really want to do well in chemistry, will retake them. This will show you they they are learning and growing.
My policy is pretty simple. You can retake any test that is in our current marking period as many times as you like. The highest score sticks. Read more about the unlimited test retake policy in this blog post.
Labs (and Written Conclusions)
I think this is really where the magic happens! Students are not just regurgitating material back to you. They need to actually apply their knowledge of chemistry. Now, I know that a lot of the time, we pair students up for labs and lab reports, but students working together could be a great thing for assessing student understanding of chemistry. Hear me out!
We all know two heads are better than one. And when students are appropriately grouped they will work together to get the lab completed. Doing this, they will pull out their strengths for the group, often coaching each other through their weaknesses. Of course, you should be walking around the lab to monitor student safety, but next time, make more of an effort to eavesdrop on student conversations. I’m sure you’ll learn more and be able to better assess student learning.
Considering this is chemistry class, we’re certainly able to ask more of our students than they did last year. I always have my students write in depth conclusions. They hate me for it, but I don’t care – it’s some tough love! You can check out my free lab rubric that includes sentence starters for each section of a lab report. It will really get your students writing quality conclusions that will showcase what they know. Asking good questions is one of the ways to probe students and fully assess student learning.
Self Assessment
The end of each of my lessons includes a section where students “Show What They Know.” It’s usually 5-10 questions that they answer on their own. When they are done, I give them the answers and they are required to ask me any questions they have. I don’t go over every question. I go over only what is asked. A lot of the time, I will ask students to “raise your hand if you got all of them right” or “raise your hand if you got most of them right and know you’ll do better next time.” I love when I see no hands for “raise your hand if you’re still confused.”
This is not something that happens overnight. Students really need to learn to trust you in order to publicly share their results. Read more about how I build a culture of self assessment in my classroom in this blog post.
The Questions They Ask
If you are very careful with your climate of self assessment, students will grow to feel comfortable asking you questions. When a student asks you “what’s the charge of an electron?” in November, you know they’re struggling. (You would have known that anyway…) But if you’re very diligent about listening to the specifics of their questions, you’ll be able to assess student understanding pretty well. You’re probably already doing this, but sometimes the reminder will put this back into your mind as a great way to assess student learning on a regular basis.
Sometimes the questions are so good that you should write them down. Ask your students that question! Embed it in your lesson plan! If you get the same question over and over, make sure you address it in your lesson. Common misconceptions can be hard to pick out, especially if you haven’t been teaching chemistry very long. Use them to make some adjustments to your curriculum.
How Students Answer Questions and Prompts
You probably spend a good amount of time drafting questions that you’ll ask your students. If that’s the case, you’re going to want to make sure they’re answered well and thoroughly. If you’re anything like me, you may ask more questions than you give statements in your lessons. (I’d love to have someone follow me with a clicker counter and tell me how many questions I ask in a day.)
How students answer these questions will give you good insight into the level of student learning in your classroom. This is true for both written and spoken answers. The better the quality of the question, the better the quality of the response, so make sure you take a few seconds to really think about your question. It’s also a good idea to give students “time to cook” their response. As cheesy as it is, a “think, pair, share” is a good idea too. Sometimes just taking the time to flesh out the response gives a higher quality response.
Gut Feelings vs. Recorded Data
You know in your gut who is struggling and who isn’t. This is probably not what your admin wants to hear. When you are juggling the learning of around 100 students, it’s not easy to keep track of everyone’s current status. And I don’t think you should. It’s certainly valid to attempt! There’s nothing wrong with trying to keep track of who is learning what. I think standards based grading is a fantastic move. (I’ve never tried it, but I’ve read quite a bit about it and seriously love the idea.)
When it comes down to it, one of the quickest ways to assess student learning in chemistry in terms of standards (to me at least) is using a unit test. I like to notice the most missed questions, most correctly answered questions and common misconceptions in written responses.
When you’re looking at a student’s test scores over the course of the year, you have a good idea of what they’re understanding and what they’re not. I like to use this FREE TEST SCORE TRACKER to keep an eye on students. Well actually it is for them to keep an eye on themselves.
Test Score Tracking
Students typically keep this in their binders (or folded and glued into their INBs). When I hand back each test, they are to plot their score. If they retake a test they plot that score as well. At the end of the year, when we take the diagnostic test they look at the questions grouped by topic. This data is all compared as we go. We do a lot of self assessment and reflecting in my class. This document really helps them to see how they’re doing.
What’s the Best Option?
There is no single way to assess student learning in high school chemistry and do it fairly. You know how stressful those midterm-final classes were in college! If you’re going to properly assess student learning over the course of the whole school year, you’re going to need a mix of these strategies (and I’m sure there’s others I don’t use regularly). Choose what works for you and your students and be open to switching things up.
