The daily quiz is something that I have found to be very effective in my academic career. That includes administering and taking them; both as a student and teacher I have seen their benefit. However, I have also seen some of the problems and pains that come along with them. As a teacher, the marking load and prep time for each class is bumped up which many find too much of an inconvenience to even consider implementing this practice. As students, the practice can seem overwhelming having to be on your toes day after day and stay prepared.
Hopefully, as teachers we are able to see the other side of each of these problems and all that there is to be gained. First, the most effective quizzes I have used and seen are VERY brief and to the point. They focus on key concepts or terminology and relatively simple problems. They are meant to check understanding and promote student success. The marking and manufacturing of these assessments is a small price to pay for the great diagnostic and supportive power gained. These daily quizzes can be accompanied by a very lightly weighted mark, which also allows a teacher to have evidence for learning and study habits. From the student perspective, this can serve as incentive to stay on top of homework without the stress that large quizzes, assignments, and tests have due to the all or nothing feel of these heavy weights.
I am a proponent of the daily quiz; what are your thoughts?
My wife is an English teacher and swears by 3 question quizzes. They are worth just enough that students know they need to succeed on them, but one failed one will hardly move your mark an iota.
ReplyDeleteThe key for her is that it promotes good habits and rewards students that keep up with their reading (in math, homework) in order to be positive participants in the next days class.
She is able to mark and record them quickly (usually during reading time, in math during independent work time) and immediately gives them back.
I think in math, that a quick check in is ideal, and with technology available these days, doing an online quiz that self-marks could be even quicker. I believe that they should be worth marks, because the kids won't take it seriously if they aren't.
I, like you, also hope that it will lead to students taking their homework a bit more seriously as well. And thus being more prepared for the next class to build on knowledge already practiced.
I completely agree with this point of view. Not only do daily quizzes help the teacher gage the level of understanding that the students have but provides the students with an effective time frame for studying new material. The most effective daily quizzes I have experienced are short, simple, and relevant; students shouldn't feel overburdened when preparing for daily quizzes. If done properly students should be able to increase their level of comfort with material and acquire good grades in the process. I think you have explained the proper use of daily quizzes with them being worth marks but not an astronomical amount - as stated by PLongpre the student won't take them seriously. Also, what better way to gather diagnostic information than with ongoing, prudent assessment?
ReplyDeleteI agree with the concept of regular assessments like daily quizzes, but I feel that implementation needs to be very closely considered. Students worry enough as it is about grades and assessment, having one every day can be very stressful for students, even if it's a one or two question quiz. If using this method, I believe it should be made as clear as possible to students that the quiz is for formative assessment only, and that the grades won't impact their course mark much if at all. In terms of frequency, daily might be a bit much. In my experience, a weekly quiz seems to be very effective in keeping students on track, as well as being infrequent enough that students don't need to worry overly much at missing a day of school or being to busy to study one night.
ReplyDeleteI am a proponent of a weekly quiz. Daily quizzes are too frequent. They are a great diagnostic. I find that when a new unit is started, it is good practice to introduce a quiz early in the unit to make sure the students are understanding the concepts. This is done well advance of the unit test. Students get on track quickly. The quizzes are short and many times I have the students mark each other's quizzes while I provide a Level 4 exemplar with excellent communication displayed. They get a chance to reflect on what the teacher is looking for. Assessing through quizzes on a daily basis is too much focus on a paper based written assessment.
ReplyDeleteI have considered the practice of daily quizzes to use it as a diagnostic assessment to make sure I don't leave any students behind. I do agree that it can be very time consuming to create quizzes and then grade them, but there is a great solution to that. Technology these days offer a variety of ways to provide daily quizzes that would not require a lot of preparation on the teacher's time, and at the same time be something that students would enjoy participating in. For example, Kahoot is a very popular interactive web based quiz app, where students use their cell phone to answer questions based on multiple choice. At the end of each question, a bar graph appears to show the percentage of the class that got it correct. This can be a quick diagnostic assessment on the teachers part as the bar graph is very useful in letting the teacher know which concepts need more work. This would be aimed at higher level high school classes where most students have a phone. Those that don't could partner up with someone. For the younger grades, programs such as plickers exist that are similar to Kahoot, but students don't require a cell phone. Therefore, there are ways to make daily quizzes fun, and I would use them to refresh students memory to make connections between concepts they are learning.
ReplyDeleteI think daily quizzes are a great idea. Purposeful and brief, these can serve as quick check ins to let teachers know how their students are doing on individual concepts. It is much better to find out early one that students are experiencing difficulties, rather than waiting for a larger assessment like a unit test to realize that most of the class has missed a concept. I agree that this could be an onerous task and students may find frustration with it, but if it is two or three shorts questions, I think students will start to see the value. They will likely not feel taxed to study, as the quiz is brief. Also, teachers will have to find time to mark these daily, as the purpose is to get immediate feedback on how to students are understanding which benefits the teacher and students. Definitely worthwhile to include daily quizzes into daily teaching practices.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the practice of daily quizzes for math. A workaround for the increased workload for a teacher might be to use a digital tool for the quiz. A program like Quizizz, Quizlet, or Microsoft Forms would automatically grade the quiz, freeing the teacher from this task and providing students instant feedback. It would take some time to prepare the quizzes, but once they are made they could be used every year. I agree with other comments that the quizzes are probably best as short check-ins on basic skills designed to boost student confidence. I also like the feedback loop that students who are studying daily and developing good study habits see the boost in their learning and rewards for their efforts.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your take regarding daily quizzes. Thinking about both sides (student & teacher), as you suggested, puts fairness of the practice to the forefront. The obvious two drawbacks of marking for the teacher and anxiety for the student are reasons why I would lean towards a weekly (Friday) quiz. As you suggested, it would be short, and assess one or two specific expectations. This would allow for quick grading and immediate feedback, while lessening the amount of anxiety and yet keeping them up to date on work in order to perform well on a weekly quiz.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea I would like to incorporate into my math class.
I absolutely agree with quizzes in the math classroom and up until this year I have had a quiz every second day. They realities of a pandemic are setting in and that is simply not possible anymore, but that is definitely a sign of the times. I think quizzes offer a great insight into who has the basic concept of what is being taught and who is ready to move on. It also allows you to put level 4 questions on a quiz and see who is enjoying those challenges.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that daily quizzes are an important piece of the classroom dynamic. However, I prefer to use these quizzes as assessment for learning rather than assessment of learning. I use them to gauge my students' understanding of a mathematical concept in order to determine where to go next. I prefer to call them exit tickets or check-ins rather than daily quizzes.
ReplyDeleteI also wanted to address your point that it is a lot of work for the teacher to plan & mark. Along comes tech to the rescue! I use a lot of Google Forms or "Classkick" or "Formative" for my exit tickets. Because they are self-marking, I get a very quick idea of where my students are in their comprehension.
Although it may sound counterintuitive at first, daily quizzes could also be a way to reduce student test-anxiety. Having a daily quiz both normalizes the test taking experience AND gives students ample practice in answering test questions. This can provide room from growth in test taking skills in a low-consequence situation (as failing a one-question quiz is not as significant as bombing an entire unit test or final exam). I think this is not only good pedagogy but also improves learning skills and supports student mental wellness.
ReplyDeleteWith the new math curriculum in elementary school and grade 9 there has been a flurry of activity to develop lessons and resources that can help effectively deliver and assess the revised content. Recently I have had the chance to join a math department in teaching a destreamed grade 9 math class. We maintain the perspective that it is important to assess often and in small specific amounts so that the students don't get overwhelmed and also so that the assessments can be hyper focused on specific expectations.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about there needing to be a daily"quiz" per se, but I do think that constant assessment with feedback is crucial for these learners. Now, the feedback doesn't have to be directly from the teacher's mouth as there can be preprogrammed feedback that meets the needs of the students. One easy way to do this is to use programs or websites that will automatically be able to detect their answers so as to give personalized feedback. It is especially helpful if these resources keep track of the students' answers so that the teacher can also go through and give even greater feedback to those who need it. Some examples of resources include Knowledgehook, Desmos, and Google Forms. Using these to perform assessments help to limit the amount of preparation time and allows for easy grading. One of my conversations with a coworker recently described that last semester for his grade 9 class he had approximately 250 different assessments given for each student. These were quite varied and they most of them gave the students consistent feedback.
I'm intrigued by this concept. For me, I'm torn between the benefits and the practicality of getting these marked. If i was to make the quizzes online in a way that they could be marked automatically, I can see them being very useful. Quick things to check in on how kids are doing. However, I also think that following up with the information that these types of assignments have gathered is far more important.
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