Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross have written   Classroom Assessment 

Techniques: A Handbook for College   Teachers. The book has helped faculty across the

World  to  gain valuable insights   about how well students are learning what faculty intend to be teaching in   the classroom. The discussion of academic outcomes  assessment has focused

 most on the assessment of student learning in  many programs such as 

undergraduates and graduate programs. However, we  readily acknowledge that 

the classroom is still the most basic meeting  ground between faculty and 

students and continues to be a critical arena  in which learning takes place.

The classroom assessment techniques proposed by Angelo and Cross

have many advantages.

I ) They are formative in nature: they are unlike  final exams or major term papers in that they provide faculty with  feedback on student learning while the teaching/ l earning 

relationship is  still intact, so that we as faculty can yet intervene to help this

semester's (as opposed to next semester's) students learn more completely.

2) They are speedy: they often consume just a few minutes of classroom

time to administer and can be read easily and quickly by faculty. 

3) They   re flexible: they can be tailored to the unique and specific concerns of 

the instructor. 

4) They can be anonymous for students (although they need 

not be): the aim of classroom assessment is not necessarily to grade 

individual student work or to provide individual students with feedback 

on their performance; rather, the aim is to provide the instructor with 

feedback on student learning. Anonymity may prove useful in freeing  

students to express not only what they do understand but also what they 

do NOT understand.

 5) Classroom assessment activities can themselves be  positive learning

 activities for students; they can be developed to   promote (and not just measure)

writing skills or critical thinking skills   and to increase student motivation

 to take themselves and their learning   more seriously.

               The author suggest that new users of classroom assessment

techniques will be most successful if they use only those techniques that

appeal to their intuition and professional judgement, if they start with

techniques that are quick and easy to use in a classroom setting in which 

the faculty member and the students are comfortable, if they only use 

classroom assessment techniques that they have previously tried on 

themselves, if they allow more time to complete the task the first time 

than might seem necessary, and if they "close the loop" by reporting 

back to students what they as faculty have learned from student feedback 

and how that information can be used to improve student learning.

 In their  book,Angelo and Cross recommend that faculty interested in using

classroom assessment techniques begin with one of the five techniques

outlined below. 

The One-Minute Paper (also called the Minute Paper and Half-Sheet

Response)

               Description: The instructor stops the class two or three minutes

early and asks students to respond briefly in writing to some variation of

the following two questions: What was the most important thing you learned

during this class (today)? What important question remains unanswered?

(Or, what are you still confused about?)

               Purpose: This technique allows faculty to assess the match between

their instructional goals and students' perceptions of these goals and

their own learning. Further, because the instructor knows what students

perceive their own learning problems to be, the likelihood that the

students will receive answers to those questions during the next class

period is enhanced. The task asks students to evaluate information and to

engage in recall.

               Suggestions for Use: The task works well in small and large

classes. It can be used frequently in courses that present students with

large amounts of new information on a regular basis.

               Using Information: Often it is sufficient for the instructor

simply to tabulate the responses, making note of any especially useful

comments. 

The Muddiest Point

               Description: The instructor asks students to jot down a quick

response to the following question: What was the muddiest point in [the

lecture, the homework assignment, the reading, the film, etc.]'?

Purpose: This technique provides speedy feedback on what students

find least clear or most confusing. Presumably, this information helps

faculty decide what to emphasize (more) and how much time to spend on

topics. Students must also quickly assess what they do not understand and

must be able to articulate their confusion (which is itself a complex and 

useful skill).

               Suggestions for Use: This technique can be used frequently in

courses that present students with large amounts of new information on a

regular basis, and it should be presented at the end of a 

lecture/assignment. The task should be used sparingly in classes that

emphasize integrating, synthesizing, and evaluating information. (Often

student responses to the muddiest point task consist of words or phrases.)

               Using Information: Often it is sufficient to group responses

according to the particular muddy point. An alternative is to group points

according to whether they involve facts, concepts, principles, and so

forth.

The One-Sentence Summary

               Description: The instructor asks students to answer the questions

about a given topic: Who does what to whom, when, where, how, and why'?

Then the student is asked to transform the responses to those questions

into a single, grammatical sentence.

               Purpose: Faculty gauge the extent to which students can summarize

a large amount of information concisely and completely. Students are

constrained by the rules of sentence construction and must also think

creatively about the content learned. Students pr actice the ability to

condense information into smaller, interrelated bits that are more easily

processed and recalled.

               Suggestions for Use: The task works well when there is information

that can be summarized in declarative form, including historical events,

political processes, the plots of stories and novels, chemical reactions,

mechanical processes.

               Using Information: Assess answers to each of the initial questions

separately. Often it is easiest to grade responses to each of the

questions as inadequate (incorrect), adequate, and more than adequate.

 A  matrix with the questions as the columns and the three grading categories 

as the rows can quickly alert the faculty member to whether students are 

more proficient at the whos and whats rather than the hows and whys. 

Directed Paraphrasing

               Description: The instructor asks students to paraphrase part of a

lesson for a specific audience and purpose, using their own words. This is

especially useful for pre-professional students who will be asked in their

careers to translate specialized information into language that clients

or customers can understand.

               Purpose: This technique allows faculty to examine students'

understanding of information and their ability to transform it into a form

that can be meaningful to specific audiences other than the student and

instructor. This task is more complex than simple paraphrasing (or

summary) in that the faculty member directs the student to speak/write to

a particular audience and purpose.

               Suggestions for Use: The task works well when students are

learning topics or concepts that they will later be expected to

communicate to others. When this is not the case (perhaps in general

education classes in the humanities), the faculty member might

want to ask students to write to other students in the class or to other

freshmen at CMU.

               Using Information: Answers can be grouped into four sets --

confused, minimal, adequate, and excellent. Then examine responses within

and across the four evaluative categories for accuracy, suitability for

the intended audience, and effectiveness in fulfilling the assigned 

purpose. An alternative is to circle the clearest (best) point made by 

each student and the worst (muddiest) point. Then the responses from 

students can be grouped to find patterns of clarity and confuslon. 

Application Cards

               Description: After students have been introduced to some

principle, generalization, theory, or procedure, the instructor passes out

index cards and asks students to write down at least one possible,

real-world application for what they have just learned. 

               Purpose: This technique allows faculty to determine quickly

whether students understand the applications of what they have learned.

Students are forced to link new information with prior knowledge.

 They may  also have an increased interest in the material covered if they are asked 

to speak immediately to the ways in which this new material can be 

applied in realworld settings.

Suggestions for Use: Most classes cover material that can/should

be applied. The technique is often used in the social sciences, in

technical fields, and in pre-professional courses.

Using Information: Answers can be separated into four groups --

great, acceptable, marginal, and not acceptable. Responses might be

discussed in the next class, with some attention given to factors that

argue for and against sets of responses.