Effective Testing in History Classes
Creating Combination Assessments that Include Essay Responses
Mar 29, 2009
Creating a relevant and meaningful history test or examination can be taxing for teachers. The benefits of a good test that assesses what students should have taken from the studied unit, however, fulfill the goals, objectives, and outcomes that most syllabi and standard course of studies purport to achieve. Further, properly crafted assessments allow for greater content retention while gearing students to concepts they should be learning during the course of study.
The Bubble Sheet Test is the Easy Way Out
In certain courses, bubble-sheet multiple choice tests are necessary as in the case of Advanced Placement classes where assessments mimic and prepare students for the May examination. However, too many teachers in non-AP classes tend to rely on bubble-sheet tests to the detriment of students. Reasons to resort to this kind of testing are many:
- Not enough time to create a more meaningful examination
- Not enough time to grade student written work like essays
- An insufficient or substandard knowledge of the subject
- The ease of creating test-bank generated questions
- Simplicity in grading through “scan-tron” devices
Bubble-sheet tests completely depersonalize student responses. In essence, each student is nothing more than a number. Although statistical read-outs will determine which questions may have been invalid, no bubble-sheet test can put a face with a name or number.
Combination Test Assessments
The best history assessments include one or more short answer or longer essays. Essays enable students to demonstrate exactly what they have learned, assuming the questions are well crafted and targeted to elicit cause and effect, comparisons and contrasts, and detailed explanations that include specific examples to support conclusions.
A poor essay question might be: “What was the Cold War and how did it affect the United States?” A better question might be: “Give three examples of Cold War confrontations in the Truman Administration and show why the United States responded as it did.”
Combination tests can include definitions or identifications, geography problems, and several short essays. Multiple choice questions measure facts, something students cram for when faced with such a test. A combination type assessment forces students not only to know those facts, but to place them within the continuity of historical events.
Additionally, the incorporation of essays assists in teaching students to become better writers, particularly at a time “writing across the curriculum” is become an ever increasing academic goal. The growing dearth of student writing, long lamented by college professors and addressed recently by the inclusion of a writing section in the SAT, can be remedied, in part, through essay testing.
Finally, combination tests that feature essays, whether short or long, tend to decrease student cheating. Multiple choice testing lends itself to ingenious forms of student cheating through texting, particularly if there are only one or two versions of a test. Teachers will also find that they can put a face and a name to essay tests, which helps in identifying students that may benefit from remedial or extra help.
Bringing Integrity – and Sanity – to Test Days
One helpful “tip” in essay testing is to give out a series of questions a week before the scheduled test. If students can expect three or four essays on the test, distribute seven to ten good questions that students can use to study from. If an assessment is truly a reinforcement of taught concepts in history, this approach fulfills that goal.
If teachers adamantly refuse to disclose questions early, it is also helpful to distribute “areas of focus” or “points of concentration” that will help students to study those concepts highlighted in the studied unit. Anything short of this leaves students in a “no man’s land” of possible questions. Additionally, teachers should concentrate on specific areas discussed during classroom sessions, i.e. the daily lesson plan.
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