This is a final assessment project designed by Tim Dyke:

Ninth Grade English

As we near the end of the semester, I want you to think about what and how you have learned in this class. A final exam is one way for me to test this, and so consider this to be your final. I won't grade it separately, but you will include it in your final folder. I will ask you to discuss what you learn from the exam in your final reflection. Last quarter some of you told me that you didn't know what I wanted in the final reflection. This quarter I'll be more specific: your final reflection should tell me what the exam teaches you about what you have learned in this class this semester.

The Exam

Your final has three parts to it, and we will work on them in and out of class. You will begin part one on Tuesday (E) and will work on the other parts each day that follows.

Part One

Pretend you are the teachers of this English class. You have decided that this semester you are teaching your students to grapple with the following questions:

After I read something, how do I know what the important issues are for discussion and writing?

What is good writing, and what do I have to do to create it?

What is the difference between a memory and a story? How can I use my memories to create good stories?

How can fiction be "true?" What is the difference between "happening truth" and "story truth?"

What makes a sentence good? What makes a sentence beautiful? What makes a sentence lame? How do I fix ruined sentences?

What essential questions do I carry around with me, and how can poems and stories help me explore these questions and their answers?

Your job is to create a final exam that will test how well your students have worked on these questions. You will work in groups and each group will work on a different part of the test. There will be as many sections on the test as there are groups in the class. You should all decide together which group will work on what, but somehow the one test you create should cover every set of questions mentioned above. By the end of the first class you should all be organized and have a plan for creating the big test. The homework that night is to create whatever your group decides you should do. By the beginning of the second class, you should all be able to give me the one final created by the class.

Part Two

At the beginning of the second class, you will show me your test. I will have made my own final for you which is my attempt to complete this same assignment. We will trade tests: you all will take mine and I will take yours. My test will have a take-home part and an in-class part, so you will have one period and one night to take it. The test you give me can also have a take-home part if you want it to. I'll give you my completed test the next day.

Part Three

On the third meeting of the cycle we will go over our tests with each other. We will talk about our answers and we will see how each of us has done. We can give each other grades if we want, but they'll just count for conversation, not for anything else. What will count, however, is what you learn about your progress in this English class. By making, taking, and correcting our tests together, we should all figure some things out as to what we have learned. Whatever you learn should be described and explained in your final assessment. To put that in a less confusing way, you will use the test experience to get ideas for specific things to talk about in your semester reflection.

Does this all make sense? If not, ask.

Helpful Hints

When you make your test, think first about what it is you are testing. I have listed the questions on the other side of this page. Make sure you understand each of these questions, and then start talking about how to test them. I suggest you think of an analogy: If you were teaching me to dribble a basketball, you might test this by giving me a basketball and asking me to dribble in various ways. Maybe I'd have to dribble standing still. Then maybe I'd have to dribble while running through a simple obstacle course. The point is the test should ask the test-taker to show how well he or she can do the activity being tested. So ask yourselves, "How do we create activities that ask Mr. Dyke to do the things we're testing him on?"

Again, does this all make sense? If not, ask.

Last note: I'm going to try to make my test fun to take. I challenge you to do the same.