Why Students Should Have the Option to Choose Their Assessments

Students in the 21st century require a more individualized learning path to support the skills they have obtained from the advancements and changes of technology. Being given the opportunity to choose how they are assessed within the classroom allows students to be creative with the topics they are learning about. The choice of assessment allows students to showcase their individual skills rather than show that they know how to write a paper or memorize vocab and ideas. This helps foster different ways of thinking about a topic and creates new ideas.

In David Kirklands video, Culture Now, he discusses how hip hop as a creative outlet helped him through school. He talks to Richard Andrews about his life growing up in Detroit and how difficult it was for him to relate what he was learning in school to what was going on outside of the classroom. Giving students this type of outlet would be beneficial to their learning inside and outside of the classroom, being able to choose how they are assessed on material would give them this opportunity. Choosing their assessments also holds students accountable for their own learning. In her article A Role for Student Choice in Assessment?, Maryellen Weimer stated “Giving students some choice about which assignments they will complete or letting them decide how much the assignments will count in a grading scheme are learner-centered strategies that help develop student responsibility for learning” (A Role). Students get to choose what they will do for their assessment and how much it will count towards their grade. This helps create a sense of responsibility for learning and teaches students how to manage their knowledge and time.

Allowing students to choose their assessments helps them develop critical thinking skills. In the article, Let Students Choose Alternative Assessments and Watch their Creativity Bloom, author Kara Wyman said, “Giving students options to use what they’ve learned to problem-solve and create something develops their ability to think outside of the box, find creative solutions and formulate their own ideas and opinions”(How Alternative). All of these skills are useful for students inside and outside of the classroom. Chapter one of The Right to Literacy in Secondary Schools: Creating a Culture of Thinking by Baynard Woods discusses a new student at a school who felt that his ideas were not taken seriously in the classroom setting based on his appearance. “School was not a place where thinking was encouraged. It was the site of indoctrination. It seemed to me that my teachers were interested in obedience to the exclusion of thinking and independence” (Woods). This shows how students can feel within the classroom if they are not given the opportunity to be themselves. Having student chosen assessments can help each student feel that their individual voice matters and makes them want to contribute in class.

Students having the ability to choose their assessments makes them feel like they matter in the classroom. It gives them a chance to be creative and utilize critical thinking skills. Assessments should be used to foster development and make sure students understand concepts in a new way rather than to see if they know the material.

Works Cited

“A Role for Student Choice in Assessment?” Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning,

23 May 2016,

www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/a-role-for-student-choice-in-assessment/.

“How Alternative Assessments Benefit Students & Increase Proficiency.” Concordia

University-Portland, 16 Aug. 2018,

education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/students-choose-assessments-creativ

ity/.

ICA. “Culture Now: David Kirkland.” YouTube, YouTube, 11 June 2012,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS4owMqvvsc.

McConnell, Mike. Specifying the Outcomes of Student Learning,

www2.rgu.ac.uk/celt/pgcerttlt/assessing/assess19.htm.

Woods, Baynard. “The Right to Think: Giving Adolescents the Skills to Make Sense of the World.” The Right to Literacy in Secondary Schools: Creating a Culture of Thinking, by Suzanne

Plaut, Teachers College Press, 2009.