- Categorizing Grid
- Purpose:
- Assess students’ sorting rules – makes explicit the implicit rules that students are using to sort objects
- Give opportunities for students to revise their sorting rules
- What It Is:
- Students sort concepts in a work bank into categories
- Suggestions for Use:
- Use in introductory classes that have lots of detailed info that is structured
- Step-by-Step Procedure:
- Select 2-3 sorting categories. Make a list of examples that go with each category. Review list to make sure examples clearly go in one category and all are recognizable from students due to recent learning activities.
- Make a handout with sorting grid and word bank.
- Alternately can use objects to be sorted in slides or list them on the board.
- Analysis Tips:
- Check accuracy of grids
- Note patterns of common errors
- Identify which sorting categories and/or objects are giving students the most problems
- Extension Tips:
- Ask students to explain why they categorized items together.
- Provide categories and have students come up with examples themselves
- Assign grids with a few examples sorted but no category labels.
- Use Defining Features Matrix (see below) to follow-up to assess student understanding of features that go with each category.
- Use dotted lines or buffers between categories to accommodate items that straddle multiple categories.
- Pros:
- Quick assessment of categorization and recall
- Can be used as a study tool in multiple subjects
- Cons:
- Unless items are challenges, assesses rote memory.
- Caveats:
- Doesn’t assess students’ memory organization schemes that are different from the organization scheme in the grid
- Purpose:
- Defining Features Matrix
- Purpose:
- Assesses student ability to assess objects according to the presence or absence of criteria
- Helps students separate similar ideas
- What It Is:
- Students categorize concepts according the presence (+) or absence (-) of key features
- Suggestions for Use:
- Good for courses that teach similar concepts
- Step-by-Step Procedure:
- Focus matrix on 2-3 similar concepts.
- Determine which important features can be used to evaluate / characterize concepts.
- Create a matrix with concepts across the top and features listed down the side.
- Check to see that each cell can be filled with a clear + or -. Eliminate features that produce ties.
- Draw up finished matrix (with +/- cells blank). Ask students to complete the +/-.
- Explain how to fill out matrix, time limit and how data will be used.
- Analysis Tips:
- Compare students’ matrices to key
- Look for patterns in common errors.
- Extension Tips:
- Give students a model completed matrix and ask them to create one for several key different concepts.
- Replace + / – with Always Present, Sometimes Present, Rarely Present, Never Present.
- Ask students to explain what pattern of responses in matrix mean.
- Pros:
- Can help clear up differences between similar concepts.
- Break down complex comparisons into manageable parts.
- Students practice highly transferable approach to categorizing data.
- Cons:
- Time consuming prep to prepare matrix
- Not all material can be easily categorized using +/-
- Unless students understand the comparison emphases, becomes a simple recall assessment.
- Caveats:
- Keep features in matrix parallel in kind or level of importance.
- Don’t analyze more than 2-3 concepts at one time.
- Purpose:
- Pros and Cons Grid
- Purpose:
- Assess student analysis of issues of mutual concern
- Forces students to go beyond first reactions to investigate two sides of an issue
- What It Is:
- List pros and cons listed with an idea
- Suggestions for Use:
- Good for courses that deal with value questions
- Assess costs and benefits of possible solutions to projects / problems
- Step-by-Step Procedure:
- Focus on a key decision, dilemma, or issue that relate to key content ideas
- Write out a prompt that will elicit pros/cons for target issue.
- Communicate expectations for lists – format (phrases or sentences), time limits, numbers of items in lists
- Analysis Tips:
- Do a frequency count of students’ listed pros and cons to determine what students found most important
- Compare students’ grid to yours – have they excluded key points? have they included key unexpected points? How balanced are both sides of grid?
- Facilitate discussions related to questions above.
- Extension Tips:
- Have students complete pro / con list from different viewpoints
- Have students back up pro / con list with evidence.
- Use this assignment as a springboard for a debate.
- Pros:
- Quick and easy way to see if students can imagine more on one side or other
- Can indicate what ideas students find most compelling – these can be touchpoints for future lessons
- Cons:
- Oversimplifies issues that have more than 2 sides
- Students who don’t see value in this task may provide flippant answers
- Some students may reject 2 side framework
- Caveats:
- Assignment may create controversy. Be prepared to explain education rationale for the assignment.
- Purpose:
The Categorizing Grid can be used to assess how students classify ideas. The Defining Features matrix can be used to assess how students use features to separate similar concepts. The Pro/Con Grid can help assess how students see multiple viewpoints for an issue. All of these assessments can be used to help teach the analytical skills they assess.
Preparation Steps
- Analyze standards and write aligned student friendly learning targets.
- Determine if any of concepts in the learning targets are organized in ways that relate well to these assessment strategies
- ideas that can be categorized by major key topics go well with the Categorized Grid
- similar ideas can be compared using the Defining Features Matrix
- multifaceted issues can be unpacked using the Pro/Con Grid
Early Implementation Steps
- Implement assessments for concepts that fit them. See above.
- Analyze assessments to understand patterns in what students got right, got wrong, included, and omitted.
- Share results with students and describe how results will impact future teaching and learning.
Advanced Implementation Steps
- Use extension ideas for the assessments if they help students dig deeper in key concepts.
- Incorporate most effective assessment strategies into class routines.
- Assessment articles
- Learning targets