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Education is different today than any other point in history. In the post-Covid, digital world of TikTok, Snapchat, and ChatGPT, it is always good to reflect about what skills are being taught.
There is a great video that was published in 2008. It is called Did You Know (Shift 8)Happens) (8:2. In 2018 there was an updated remix (4:46). The videos are worth watching. It makes us reflect about what is important because we are preparing today’s students for jobs that do not exist. Most experts agree, AI is going to drastically change the workforce landscape.
What hasn’t changed? Students need to acquire skills, solve problems, and be creative. The concept of a standardized multiple-choice final exam might need to be altered based on changing times.
An important question for teachers of all subjects and grades “What are the skills that students will learn in the classroom?” The responses should be clear and reflect the skills that will be required in the future. In a US history class, reading critically, analyzing texts, and writing clearly are all valuable skills.
A skills based final addresses the skills that have been developed through the school year.
Reading, annotating and summarizing a primary source are skills covered in most US history classes. So one part of a skills based final could involve a primary source that has not been covered. Students will read, highlight, and annotate the text. After completing these tasks a student could write a summary of the main points, audience, and point of view. (Written responses might not fit with a final exam because the turnaround time on correcting is so short.)
Assessing how a student reads and annotates should be a quick assessment for a teacher. Teachers can evaluate in a variety of ways. One way that we like to evaluate is to create a question and have an answer in the text that needs to be underlined. Students will also write the number of the question in the margin. This is a skill that will have been practiced all year. Some students still may struggle, but for the most part students should have acquired the skill.
Reading Comprehension: This is a skill that will always be important for students. Select appropriate readings and use resources, such as AI, to create multiple choice questions.
Interpreting Graphs & Charts: Students need to be able to look at a graph or chart and identify the most important information, look at the title, key, and other critical information. We are big fans of Atlas activities. Create opportunities for the students to showcase their skills.
Writing: Writing is an important skill, however another philosophy of ours is keep it simple stupid. A writing assessment on the final exam requires significant time to correct. We feel written responses are too hard to grade efficiently in the short amount of time between final exams and posting grades.
Many veteran teachers choose to have a final writing assignment during the final weeks or days of school. This allows for a little more time to correct.
Grading: With the final exam, multiple choice is always easiest to be assessed. Teachers can use grading resources, such as zip grade. When designing a final exam, it is always important to have the end in mind. And for our purposes, there are two ends in mine.
- To give a fair and accurate assessment of skilled development for the students.
- To create an easy to grade final so the end of the year can be stress-free and teachers can enjoy the first day of summer vacation.
These are just a few ideas for creating a skills based final.