How to Design Questions and Tasks to Assess Student Thinking

by Susan M. Brookhart

Overview

With new standards emphasizing higher-order thinking skills, students will have to demonstrate their ability to do far more than simply remember facts and procedures. But what's the best way for teachers to ensure that students have such skills? In this highly accessible guide, author Susan M. Brookhart shows how to do just that, by providing specific guidelines for designing targeted questions and tasks that align with standards and assess students' ability to think at higher levels.

Aided by dozens of examples across grade levels and subject areas, readers will learn how to

* Take a student perspective and view assessment questions and tasks as "problems to solve."

* Design multiple-choice questions that require higher-order thinking.

* Understand the difference between "open" and "closed" questions and how to use open questions effectively.

* Vary and control the features of performance assessment tasks, including cognitive level and difficulty, to target different thinking skills.

* Manage the assessment of higher-order thinking within the larger context of teaching and learning.

Brookhart also provides an "idea bank" that teachers can use to jump-start their own thinking as they create assessments.

Timely and practical, How to Design Questions and Tasks to Assess Student Thinking is essential reading for 21st century teachers who want their students to excel in the classroom and beyond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416619246
Publisher:	ASCD
Publication date:	08/20/2014
Pages:	142
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Assessing Higher-Order Thinking: Five Ws and an H

Chapter 2: Assessment Questions and Tasks as "Problems to Solve"

Chapter 3: The Assessment Toolkit

Chapter 4: Multiple-Choice Questions That Assess Higher-Order Thinking

Chapter 5: Open-Ended Questions

Chapter 6: Performance Assessment Tasks: The Basics

Chapter 7: Performance Assessment Tasks: Varying the Amount of Structure

Chapter 8: Performance Assessment Tasks: Controlling Cognitive Level and Difficulty

Chapter 9: An Idea Bank of Performance Assessment Tasks

Chapter 10: Managing Assessment of Higher-Order Thinking

Appendix A: Using a Test Blueprint to Plan a Test

Appendix B: Using a Protocol to Review Assessment Tasks

References

Index

About the Author