How do you know they know? How do you know when students really understand, not just memorize, but really understand whatever it might be you are teaching? Which assessment tools might a teacher use to really find the answer to these questions?
This question really hit me last week. My students watched a wonderful video, “The Vietnam War: Part 1” by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Better than any other resource, it describes just how the United States became involved in the war in Vietnam, beginning with Woodrow Wilson and ending with the Diem regime. While students were taking prolific notes I paused the video often, explained the history, and answered questions. Looking through the student notes I could see they took all the right notes about all the important points. They had this. They knew exactly how years of turning points inevitably sucked the United States into the war.
Just to make sure the students really knew the sequence and importance of the events I had each student team construct a timeline listing the important events with paragraphs explaining each event. This is where the reality check began. The notes, while clear to me, were not so clear to the students. “If we saved Ho Chi Minh’s life, why did we turn against him.” Why did we sides with the French?” “Why were there no free elections.”
These questions were the beginning of a treasure hunt through our reading material and search engines. Little by little I watched the teams reconstruct the meaning of their notes. It was a tedious process, two class periods, but we got there. Understanding began to emerge as students compared notes, did more research and explained to each other.
It is not enough to take notes, a multiple-choice or short answer quiz. Students must have the opportunity to reconstruct the knowledge for themselves. It can be a timeline, an essay, a presentation, a discussion or a debate, anything that elicits deep understanding of the subject. This takes time, lots of time. There is no fast way to reach that level of understanding that truly allows students to make it their own.