I've been teaching remotely since the start of the pandemic, and by the second full year I started to realize the futility of traditional tests in the remote setting. I had used informal discussions in-person as a way to reflect on learning from science labs, but was inspired to try using discussion as a method of formal summative assessment in my remote classroom. It worked better than I could have imagined, and after a few iterations, you can learn from my missteps.

A big take-away from these assessments is that students were actually learning DURING the assessment, which is not usually a goal for teachers. Why shouldn't it be? Students were more motivated to share their ideas because they knew they couldn't lose points for saying something incorrect - they had an opportunity to express their understanding, and if it was not correct, they could learn more. Additionally, the discussion is an opportunity to elevate student voices: if and when we did need a correction in the understanding of the concept, there was always a student ready to present what they thought was the correct answer. In this way, the assessment provided students with an opportunity to learn from each other, which is powerful for everyone. Finally, students liked that they only had to share what they knew - they wouldn't get put on the spot for not knowing. 

Here are some tips to make your discussion assessment go smoothly:

• Create a list of meaty questions. I have found that discussing 6 questions in a 90 minute block period is an absolute maximum. 5 is probably better.

• Allow students to choose which questions they want to answer: give them a minimum and a maximum. I have found 4 questions to be too much, I will try 3 as a maximum for my next discussion.

• Give students a structure in which to answer, like claim, evidence, and reasoning. I also had students provide a data representation that they could share with the class while speaking.

• Give students a class period to prepare. If they do their preparation digitally (eg on Google Classroom), it's easy for you to see which questions they are answering before class - this allows you to moderate the discussion efficiently.

• Require students to take notes on the discussion. The goal of the assessment is for them to learn from each other! Requiring note-taking emphasizes this goal. It's also useful for the discussion wrap...

• Provide students with the discussion rubric (link!) on the day you prepare for the discussion.

• During the discussion itself, TAKE NOTES! I created a spreadsheet where I noted which questions each student had prepared so I could call on them efficiently. This also allowed me to evaluate them fairly on the rubric, as I had detailed notes of each student's contributions.

• FINALLY, wrap up the discussion by having students write a summary paragraph about one of the questions. Now that they've researched it, discussed it, and taken notes about it, they are ready to synthesize their knowledge in an excellently written paragraph!

Let me know how it goes! If you have questions, email me at mshallscience@gmail.com !