How do I know my students know what I want them to know? It can’t be because I taught them. That’s only the beginning. Students actually knowing and synthesizing what I taught them is an entirely different thing. There are  plenty of quick tests for recall, but these do not test for understanding or the other higher level thinking skills.  For example, I could make a multiple choice test to determine which facts students might know about Thomas Jefferson’s treatment of his slaves, but what if I want to discover how well my students really understand the hypocrisy of Thomas Jefferson’s words about slavery? I can learn more in a few moments of conversation with each student than I can with even the best multiple choice or short answer quiz.

To find the answer to the question in the example I would present a Thomas Jefferson quote on slavery like this one: “This abomination must have an end, and there is a superior bench reserved in heaven for those who hasten it.” Then I would ask each student to explain the hypocrisy of the quote using several examples of Jefferson’s treatment of his slaves. It would take me about one minute per student to find how well each student both remembers the content and can synthesize the information. But might there be a even better, more efficient and more evidentiary way to accomplish my goal?

There is. And more than one. The fastest and easiest is Voice Memos. Every student has a voice recorder and knows how to use it. The typical Voice Memos lesson for evaluating student understanding of my Thomas Jefferson question might include these steps:

1.     Ask the question. “How do Thomas Jefferson’s actions show the hypocrisy in his words, “This abomination must have…””

2.     Give the students 10 to 15 minutes to write a brief outline of what they will say.

3.     Give the students 5 minutes to record their answer which must be between one and two minutes long.

4.     Tell students if they cannot complete the answer in the allotted time, they don’t know it well enough and need to do some more studying.

5.     Everyone who finishes turns in her voice memo to Schoology.

6.     After class I listen to the recordings and take notes.

7.     When I am done I know who understands the concept and who needs help.

This method is efficient because all the students are completing the assignment at the same time. It is more evidentiary because I have a record that can be saved and used for remediation or for determining progress. It also provides a record of each student’s ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the content of the lesson.

I also use Voice Memos for determining the level of empathy students have for others. One such lesson begins with a video of an actual firefight in Vietnam. Students must take the persona of one of the soldiers and create a voice recording of what happened and what thoughts might have been going through his or her head during the firefight. Some pretty intense recordings have been created from this assignment.

Even more information can be ascertained by using a video recording program such as Flipgrid. Seeing student faces adds another dimension. Facial expressions provide a wealth of additional information for assessing student understanding. One formative assessment I created using Flipgrid was based on this introduction, “You have just lost your home in the Subprime Mortgage Crisis. You followed all the rules. Who is to blame? Explain every level.” Once again, this tool demonstrates each student’s ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the content of the lesson. It also allows the teacher to “see” the ease level of confidence with which each student gives her answer.

Both of these tools work well for distance learning. Just set the due date time on Schoology to the requisite due date and time. Students don’t have time to look up answers or message their friends. These assignments can only be completed well if the student already knows the answers. It is close to impossible to cheat on a test like this one. Even if you have multiple sections, you can just change the question a bit for each section.

Aside from using time more efficiently, another great advantage these tools have over live conversations is they provide a permanent record of progress. These records can be a valuable addition to portfolios of student work. Students can see how much better they do in subsequent recordings.

I use VoiceMemos for shorter formative assessments. I use Flipgrid for longer, more involved formative assessments. Both of these tools are readily accessible, easy to learn, and more fun for the students, than formal written assignments. They are great tools both for formative assessment and for providing an interesting alternative to writing.