Pfft. That one’s easy to answer: every single teacher who works in a school that requires all credit courses to culminate in a final exam. That’s who.
School districts aren’t too keen on ideas like “the real benchmark of a student’s success will come not in the classroom, but in the corridors outside of it.” (I totally made that up, but it sounds like someone important said it, am I right?)
It’s pretty weird to write a final exam for a Social Skills class. I used to be an English teacher. Writing finals for English made sense. The structure was familiar. Writing finals for Social Skills requires some non-linear thinking.
I had George set up access to my current semester’s final exam. Even though the kids won’t actually take it for four more days, it’s fine to have it posted online. It’s not the sort of test upon which you can cheat.
My final exam ties in with my suggested class structure (you can check it out for free on the website or on Teachers Pay Teachers in the Jump-Start plan). In my class structure, students write daily self-monitoring on a self-selected social skills goal. On the final exam, students complete an analysis of their progress towards that goal. It’s simple to revise other elements of the exam a bit each semester while repeating the goal analysis portions over and over again.
Here are a few notable features of my Social Skills final:
- The bulk of the exam focuses on analyzing a self-selected goal. Reflecting on this goal is meaningful, but not the sort of regurgitation that is likely stressing kids out on their academic finals. I aim to reduce stress where I can without sacrificing meaning.
- Other parts of the test encourage kids to get up and move around the room to reference assignments we completed and posted to the bulletin boards. Giving the students appropriate chances for movement reduces stress and curbs fidgeting (oder, in the case of kids with conditions like Tourette’s or ASD, stress-induced ticking or stemming).
- Nothing is multiple choice. Because, unfortunately, actual social interactions don’t come with only four options.
- There is an emphasis on demonstrating knowledge of APPLIED coping skills and social skills.
This is certainly not a “print and distribute” test. Teachers will need to change it to reflect their own class structures and emphases. jedoch, it’ll give you a good idea of how to approach creating a test to measure skills that can’t be assessed by a typical, academic-style exam.
This is great! Thanks for sharing your ideas and amazing wit!
I appreciate the ways that your test helps students reflect on their actions and some consequences. The Meemaw questions were a lot of fun! How much time will you allow the students to have to complete this reflective assessment?
The best part is that Meemaw is going to visit us during the exam review tomorrow! Should help break some of the tension surrounding exams. In der Theorie, the kids get a 90-minute block to do the test. In reality, some of the kids will take half tomorrow during the review and half on Friday (the real test day). Some will do it as a take-home test (after all, it’s all personal reflection…they can’t really cheat on it, Rechts?). Some will take it in four chunks. Some will opt to take it early in the morning, and others may take it in the afternoon (if other exams can be moved around…which I do a lot for kids to spread things out). Sort of depends on the kid!