I bet most people reading that title cringed. Did you? I kind of did just writing it. Pop quiz: the world’s worst invention!
Yes, quizzes are one of our best ways to gauge how our students are doing in class.
On the other hand, quizzes are one of the quickest ways to stress our students out and cause them to stumble on information they know.
That seems like quite the conundrum, doesn’t it?
Why not make pop quizzes in your classroom the norm?
You can utilize these “quizzes” to get to know your students. Rather than having them answer questions only about your curriculum, give them quizzes on themselves.
You can ask them questions like:
- What’s the first thought that comes to mind when I say “summer”?
- What is the best compliment you’ve ever gotten?
- If you could be anything, what would it be?
Make these quizzes about your students and ask questions that are related to things you know about them. These quizzes obviously aren’t something you’ll grade. These are things you can look at, comment on, pass back… whatever you want to do with them.
Not only will you get to know your students better, but they will also – hopefully – give your students a little less anxiety when it comes to the curriculum-based quizzes.
Testing knowledge is unavoidable, but there’s always something we can do to make the process a little easier.
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