Chapter 6

Abstract:
Chapter 6 is about creating good tests, and how every questions should be important enough to ask and clear enough to answer. To make the best tests, teachers should use a variety of different test questions and prompts including traditional and non traditional. Some examples for both given in the text include: matching, true/false, multiple choice, analogies, drawings, performances, and responses. By varying questions, we are able to get better pictures at what the students know and their mastery of the material. A lot of this chapter described strategies and format for different questions that are favorable to the students and their presentation of their knowledge. Also, by incorporating “fun” into test questions can make the tests not so dreaded by the students, and they may actually look forward to see what kind of outlandish situation the professor has put them in within the test. Though being creative is important, the book mentioned that we can not be so creative that we stray away from our goals in mind. Ever so often, we need to go back to the essential understandings and questions to see if we are teaching what needs to be taught.

Reflection:
We all found this chapter to be extremely helpful, and agreed that it might be one we continually come back to when creating a test. It reminded all of us some of the bad examples of test taking techniques we had used throughout school, and how they were very inconvenient and confusing. This chapter explained many positive ways to create a test by touching upon all the students’ strengths, and we believe that it is the best way to go, along with all of the straightforwardness. We liked the special questions at the end too, it will help us improve our future test and know what the students expect from our teaching techniques.

By: Tyler