Student-Created Assessment: How would that work in secondary school-based agricultural education?

We are discussing "assessment" in our AEE 412 Methods class.

Today, we shared a neat article written by Dr. Maryellen Weimer of Faculty Focus on October 8, 2015 entitled: Student-Written Exams Increase Student Involvement
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/educational-assessment/student-written-exams-increase-student-involvement/

The #psuaged16 teacher candidates were asked to read the article and respond to:

• What did you think?
• How could you use this in a secondary school-based agriculture program?

Here are some sampling of their responses/comments/questions:

1. I think this method really gets students involved in their learning process. Instead of just absorbing and spitting out information, they have to be aware of the objectives and what they need to take away from their classes. I would implement this after some discussion objectives and questions that are appropriate for the content. Students could be given a list of objectives ahead of time and evidence what objective their submitted question addresses.
2. I see a challenge of grading. Maybe students could grade each others exams which would continue their learning experience and critique other types/styles of exam questions.
3. Instead of just giving students a study guide, they are using that guide to create their own exam. This individualization could be helpful for differentiation with learners. Examples:
1. Students write exam questions for a review game
2. Students write their own exam essay questions
4. I would have students create their own exams with demonstration as a graded component.
5. Having students write their own assessments is beneficial because the students learn what make a good question and the process forces them to think about materials presented and study more.
6. Ask students to review their notes and any other materials used during that unit, bringing back possible test questions. one can also use their own materials if students do not have "quality" questions.
7. How would i ensure that this methods assesses my students at a deeper level of thinking.
8. What if this was a  unit long endeavor? Starting with the student creating the unit plan, and finishing with the creation of the summative assessment.
9. This could give a good perspective to the testing styles that students do best with.
10. I could use this in the Ag Business management course I am teaching to implement higher order thinking and motivating students to study!
11. You could use something like this with my freshman animal science class on their "breed" projects where each student creates two questions abased on their assigned animal breed. Could require student to listen closer to all presentations
12. I think this is a good idea. It provides a way for the teacher to evaluate themselves. What students write as questions indicates what "stuck" and is a way to determine what was taught well!
13. Could "Lower the Stakes" for high school students going through a lot...
14. Could eliminate "Cheating" as a problem in HS
15. Could alleviate common teacher compliant of too much grading.
16. Where do you find the time to sit for an hour with one student when you have 20/30 students?

Respond in the comments with your thoughts!

What is an Interest Approach? (And, what is not?!)

A challenge faced by many high school educators is figuring out a way to ignite interest and excitement in students about the upcoming lesson for any particular day.  Engaging students has been found to promote retention of material and increase awareness of the relevance and applicability of the material being taught.  The following video focuses on how to foster interest from the very beginning of a class through the use of an interest approach, also known as the anticipatory set, set induction, or hook.  Grabbing the attention of the students from the get-go is the whole goal.  You want to make sure students see the importance of the lesson they are about to learn, and this can be accomplished by an interest approach.  Interest approaches are short activities, between 5 and 10 minutes, that 'hook' the students and have them sitting on the edge of their seats.

This video was developed to not only provide specific information on what an interest approach is, and is not, but to help in your Lab II - Interest Approach planning.  I won't lie, sometimes figuring out an interest approach is difficult, but utilizing some of the resources provided by the PSU faculty and using your own creative ingenuity, I'm sure you will be developing interest approaches in no time!

But, as always, never hesitate to come to one of the AEE Teacher Education team with questions! We are here to help you develop and become one of the nation's best Ag Teachers!