Bored With the Usual Assessments

Assessing, grading, planning, assessing, grading.  Are you bored with the usual assessments?

It is a constant never-ending cycle.  It is what we do and what we are good at, but how can you break from the groundhog day and make that assessing and grading more fun?

Try using poetry!

Why poetry?  Well, poetry is fun.  It takes learners outside of the box.  It reaches your creative types. The ones who struggle with A,B,C, or D and fill in the blank.  You can get grades, and if you are lucky – you get student work samples for portfolios and wall displays.

Favorite ways to assess with poetry!

Social Studies Poetry Assessment Ideas

1. Write haikus about different time periods of history you study and organize them into haiku timelines.
2. Create a bio poem on important people you study this year.
3. Write acrostics on the time periods you study (Colonial Times, Civil War, American Revolution, etc.)
4. Write shape poems about landforms.
5. Write diamantes comparing and contrasting time periods, people, or places.
6. Write free verse poetry using your vocabulary words and feature words in the poem.
7. Use found poetry to understand the main idea of reading passages.

Math Poetry Assessment Ideas

1. Write haikus about the different operations.
2. Create a bio poem on a specific number.
3. Create cinquains on algebra, geometry, or measurement.
4. Write bio poems on different shapes.
5. Write a shape poem about each shape.
6. Write acrostics on math vocabulary terms.
7. Write diamantes to compare odd and even numbers, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division.
8. Write free verse poems about math concepts.
9. Write geometry haiku shape mysteries. Let students find a way to describe the attributes.
10. Write a free verse poem with each line being a different measurement. (ex. ¼ in, ½ in, 1 in, 1 ft.)

Science Poetry Assessment Ideas

1. Write haikus about habitats.
2. Create a bio poem about a water droplet going through the water cycle.
3. Write a diamante poem comparing and contrasting light and sound waves.
4. Write life science bio poems. Have students write from a specific animal point of view or that of a group of animals (ex: consumers, producers, hibernators, carnivores, etc.)
5. Write free verse on specific topics. Use important vocabulary terms to help guide the poem.
6. Use found poetry to understand the main idea of reading passages.

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