Uzswlu english philology faculty english Theoretical disciplines department

2. Learner-designed 

If student participation is a central pillar to success, then why not let them help design 

their own tests? 

Over the years, teaching has become progressively more student-centric and 

participatory. This next 

type of assessment

 is a product of that school of thought. 

Here’s what it looks like: A week or two before testing is set to begin, do a review day 

with students. Go through every lesson together and determine what would qualify as 

mastering that lesson, what would qualify as passing/average and what would qualify as 

failing/unsatisfactory. 

Let’s say the chapter you’re looking at covers irregular verb conjugation and vocabulary 

about weather. Students could determine that, in order to have mastered this chapter, 

they should be able to: 

• 

Show that they can conjugate all of the main irregular verbs (written exercise) 

• 

Be able to use them in a sentence (written & verbal exercises) 

• 

Have a conversation using them without making mistakes (verbal exercise) 

• 

Write a 300-word text that incorporates all of their weather vocabulary and each 

irregular verb, using a provided word bank (written exercise) 

This is a time-consuming process, but by the end, not only have you developed a logical, 

end-of-course assessment that your students think is fair, you’ve also made them 

accountable and invested. They designed the test, after all. 

The test-designing class activity doubles as a thorough review of everything learned in 

the course.