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Katelyn Kelly Assessment Journal # 4 March 2, 2009 EDC 452 The assessment in the classroom that I experienced was short answer assessment. This assessment was in the subject of social studies and the students took the test individually. The teacher made up the test and the test had five short answer questions. The students were taking the test on the different branches of government. I remembered two questions on the assessment; name the three braches of government and what branch is the president in and who else is within that branch. The students had to write their answers out in complete sentences and make sure they started with a capital letter and ending the sentence with a period. Short answer test seemed hard for many of the third graders. The teacher prepped the class by giving the students a study guide to help. The teacher also informed the students that they would have to write out their answers for the test. This is the first time the teacher gave them a complete write out test. Usually the tests are multiple choice and true and false. The teacher told me that the students need to start preparing for the fourth grade and be able to think about then write out their answers. Since the assessment contained only five questions the teacher broke each question apart to try to give partial credit for answers. After taking the assessment the students were saying that they did not like writing out their response and that it was a lot of work. The teacher then went on and explained that she was preparing them and that in the future she is going to test using different styles. On the test, most students seemed to do exceptionally well. There were a lot of grades that were As and Bs. The class seems to be on a scale with most students in the B range for grades, and then there are students above and below. I found the results to be high and that the students knew their material for the assessment. This test was on one chapter from the unit, so the students now can use this test as another study guide for the unit test.  Short answer tests are definitely a more difficult test than a multiple choice. For short answer tests the student either knows the answer or they do not. Short answers take more time to write out and the students need to write out their response in complete sentences. In my classroom I will use short answers test. It always depends what grade you are teaching, but short answer tests really tell the teacher if the students understand the material that is being taught. In my experience, when I know there are short answer questions I study more and make sure I am prepared for the assessment. Short answer tests makes the students think and respond in their own way. I was fond of the teacher giving partial credit for some of the questions because not all students are great test takers. Also, some students struggle when writing out their responses.
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