My wish is to only have formative work in our classrooms. I believe in this so much that even many of my tests and assessments can be repeated if students don’t perform well. Early in my development of my assessment philosophy, I had plenty of constructive feedback on all student written work, regardless of if it was creative or academic, formative or summative-everybody can benefit from knowing what to improve. However, my summative test was where the rubber hit the road, and the students had to prove what they knew-there would be a grade. If you can do it now, after all the practice, and on demand, you’ve proven yourself. After all, the province required a number grade on all official report cards, and I had to generate that somehow!
The Pandemic’s Silver Lining
A pandemic asked me to see that even these tests had room for retakes in many cases. Some of my students had other circumstances, stressors, or home issues I either knew I knew nothing about, or sometimes even worse, I was painfully aware of. They would come to me and ask to do the assessment again. Like a bolt of lightning, I saw that there was no skin off my nose if they did! You see, they were the ones that had to go back and study more (or for the first time). They had to arrange a time to see me when I was available. They had to do the work, and isn’t that what I wanted in the first place? They took longer to realize what had to be done to feel successful, but when they did realize, took initiative to ask me for a retake, then did the work to get the job done.
Rethinking Retakes
Now here is where I get push back or questions:
1. Q: “Is it fair to have students retake a quiz or test and still receive a good grade, maybe the same or better than the student who studied in the first place?”
A: This statement comes from a place of competition and a power structure. The very question seeks to compare students to each other instead of striving for students to compete with themselves for their own personal bests. To me a retest is just like taking the MCATs or a driving test more than once until passing. Allowing a student to recognize their mistakes and seek to repair it does not take any power away from the teacher. I am still the expert in the room, the mentor, and may even gain appreciation and future cooperation from the student I helped. Also, I do not advertise retakes. Students build up the courage to ask. If a student even started to take advantage of me, then my classroom management and relationship-building hat goes on and a conversation would be had. Rarely have I had a one-on-one that didn’t result in a sincere mea culpa, a pouring out of wrongs, a promise to do better, and a positive outcome because I have spent the time and effort to cultivate the relationship in the first place.
2. Q: “Why should I work harder than the student? I have to make up a new test and take the time to grade it…multiply that by the number of students and then again by each assessment, and I am adding many more hours to my work”.
A: For this I have an easy answer. Many of our assessments consist of objective questions in part or whole. Give the assessment to the class. When done, take away the test. Write the answers on the board. Students correct their test (I usually have them correct their own-I will discuss this later) and I find it helpful for this to be in a different colour ink that they used to write the test, so nobody is tempted to pull a fast one! Have them tally up their score and pass them in for you to record. Erase answers (or like me, pull down the screen or world map!) IF anyone wants to re-write they can (at a time convenient for ME).
Retesting Smarter, Not Harder
Now here are two of my methods: Give the student(s) a different test using the same skills, just different variables (same story, different multiple-choice questions or different story altogether at the same level of difficulty) if you are like many of us who have years of tests sitting in a file, OR, use the exact same test! I do not tell them it will be the same test, just that they will be reassessed.
Students did not have the test questions when they were correcting the material. They just know they got a lot incorrect. They have to study all the material again, anyway, because they do not know what they got wrong. Unless they have a photographic memory to remember how they answered every question, and also what the answers were, in order, on the board, they are starting from scratch. Either way, they write, correct themselves, tally it up, and they have done all the work to better their learning. In my school, we usually have a test room at lunch that is supervised. So, unless I want to keep my student at lunch, retesting does not even impact my time.
Practice Makes Perfect with ReadTheory
Just as I’ve reimagined classroom assessments to prioritize growth over one-time performance, I’ve found a digital tool that mirrors this philosophy perfectly: ReadTheory. This online reading comprehension platform gives students multiple opportunities to practice, reflect, and improve—without the pressure of a single high-stakes test.
I encourage my students to hover over their wrong answers when doing Readtheory reading comprehension quizzes to learn from their mistakes, then keep going, taking test after test to hone their skills. I don’t base their reading score on one test, but LOTS of tests. The more they take, the more confident they are, partly because they had a hand in their score!
Give ReadTheory a try and see for yourself how this little bit of grace combined with expectations can improve student learning.
