Assessment: A word that makes many teachers groan, roll their eyes, and sigh.

As we talked about during the chat, however, assessment doesn’t necessarily develop these feelings. Conjuring a grade or number to match it is what create the negative connotation in assessments.

How can we make assessments, dare we say, amazing? Perhaps aiming to make every assessment an unforgettable, adrenaline-thrilled experience is far-reaching, but we did chat about many ways that made them effective and less grade-y and number-y.

Without any further ado, my favorite talking points:

#1: Sharing expectations with students. @legendlearning Aryah Fradkin is effective teaching 101, but sometimes in the midst of February and the weight of the school year, we forget about not just setting expectations but sharing them with students. This can be especially important in #gbl. Yes, we want games to be fun, but that’s not the only objective. What do we want students to gain from the game play? How is it connecting to what we’re learning, or about to learn, in class?

#2: Great reflection resource! When we talked about how to encourage students to go deeper in their reflections, @marianaGSerrato shared an @edutopia resource that I immediately knew I needed. Each section has a variety of questions about learning, and Mariana’s student select one question from each section to answer.

#3: How often in the process do students reflect? @MrRoughton’s tweet gave me pause. How often do my students reflect? Some will naturally reflect so, but not all. As I work through my plans this summer, I need to check that students are reflecting at a few checkpoints — not just the finish line.

#4: Keep games short. Another of @MrRoughton’s comments brought up an interesting point: Student-designed games that were shorter turned out better than longer games. Game-design is tough and complex; keeping it streamlined and focused on the objectives can result in better products. Perhaps some of it is due to the time allotted. Today, I learned about Parkinson’s Law, that any project will take the amount of time allotted for it. If I have 60 minutes to create a game, I’ll have a game in 60 minutes. If I have a week to design a game, it’ll take me a week. The question is this: How much better will the game be?

Want to see the transcripts of the chat? Check them out here!

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