Student assessment is a goal-oriented process. Before you start a new unit it is important that you know exactly what you will be measuring in your assessment. Using language such as that found in Bloom's Taxonomy can be helpful for determining what you will assess. This list provides words that help teachers determine just what children should be learning and what teachers should later assess. For instance, in a unit on invertebrates, a teacher might have the learning outcome, "Students will be able to classify the five types of invertebrates." When she is planning her assessment after the unit, the teacher must have a spot for classifying invertebrates on her assessment.
Subjective assessments are those assessments where the teacher makes a judgment of a student's performance based on her feelings about the final performance. These assessments can be somewhat controversial as parents and students will likely want more than a teacher's feelings as reasons for a grade. Subjective assessments, though, can work well in performance-based classes, such as art or music, where a student's presentation plays a role in her overall success in the class.
Objective assessments are easier to measure, as they use some kind of scoring system, such as numbers. For instance, one part of the assignment might be worth five points and another one could be worth three. If a student does poorly in one section, she will know what she needs to work on. It is also likely that a parent will be able to understand her child's progress more easily with an objective scoring system. Many teachers use rubrics to objectively score students. Rubrics are tables that allow teachers to give students a number score in several different categories.
Not all children learn in the same way. Because of this, consider varying your assessments. Basic paper and pen tests will work some learners but others will benefit from other assessments, such as projects that allow them to display their learning in another way. For instance, a kinesthetic learner might like presenting an authentic dance from the country he studied instead of writing a report.