Assessment checklist sample for students

by Nicole Lauzon, OCT, Educational Consultant, LDAO

Introduction

The use of checklists and achievement charts is effective in supporting student learning. These tools encourage students to play an active role, not only in their assessments, but in the learning process.

The simple act of establishing objectives and criteria with your students allows them to progress, because they will have a better understanding of what they need to do to reach their full potential.

Checklists

Checklists are assessment tools that set out specific criteria, which educators and students may use to gauge skill development or progress. Checklists may be used with students from JK to Grade 12 and for every subject. Checklists set out skills, attitudes, strategies, and behaviours for evaluation and offer ways to systematically organize information about a student or group of students.

Generally speaking, checklists consist of a set of statements that correspond to specific criteria; the answer to each statement is either “Yes” or “No”, or “Done” or “Not Done”. A student, a group of students or an entire class may use checklists; they may be “single use” or designed for multiples usage.

The Purpose of Checklists

• To provide tools for systematically recording observations;
• To provide students with tools that they can use for self-evaluation;
• To provide examples of criteria for students at the beginning of a project or learning activity;
• To document the development of the skills, strategies, attitudes, and behaviours that are necessary for effective learning; and
• To identify students’ learning needs by summarizing learning to date.

Checklists can also be used to communicate a student’s learning to his/her parents.

For a student with learning disabilities [LDs], the simple act of creating and using a checklist may bring a level of order into their life that was previously missing. Executive functions, which are the different cognitive processes that students use to control their own behaviour, may be an area of weakness for students with LDs and ADHD, so providing them with strategies to overcome these weaknesses is extremely important.

Click here to access the article Understanding Executive Function and Learning Disabilities.

Checklists can also play a role in a student’s ability to self-assess, along with a variety of other tools.

Click here to read LD@school’s article Self-Assessment.

Create Your Own Checklists

To create checklists, teachers must:

• Take the current learning outcomes and standards for the curriculum and current units of study into account;
• Ensure that descriptors and indicators are clear, specific, and easy to observe;
• Encourage students to help create appropriate indicators. For example, what are the indicators for a persuasive text?
• Ensure that checklists, marking schemes, and achievement charts are dated, in order to document progress during a specific period of time;
• Ensure that checklists provide space for anecdotal comments because interpretation is often appropriate;
• Use generic models so that the students become accustomed to them and so that criteria and indicators can be added quickly, based on the activity being assessed.
• Encourage students to create and use their own checklists, so that they can assess themselves and set learning goals for themselves.

Achievement Charts

Achievement charts are guidelines that set standards for performance or products. They are based on standards, and contain a series of indicators for each level of performance. They are assessment tools that document performance on the basis of clearly defined criteria. They enable educators to perform in-depth assessments and are developed by both educators and students.

Benefits of Achievement Charts

• Compared to checklists, they convey more specific data about teaching and assessment;
• They clearly explain what is expected of students at the beginning of a project or task;
• They contain specific indicators of quality upon which to base judgments;
• They enable students to evaluate their own work or receive feedback from classmates;
• They allow for a specific and comprehensive assessment of a student’s strengths, as well as areas of a skill or subject where there is room for improvement;
• They enable students to set criteria for creating high-quality products and recognising the quality of the processes they use.

To the extent possible, achievement charts should be created with student participation. To start, explain what high-quality work consists of. Once the “standard” has been set, it is easy to define satisfactory performance and unsatisfactory performance.

The best achievement charts have three to five levels to allow for objective assessment of a product or task.

These charts are particularly useful when they have been refined and grouped together in a series of samples of work illustrating what is acceptable and what is outstanding. Students then have a set of examples of work from which to draw for inspiration.

Achievement charts for high school students may be used for marking. Have each mark correspond to a level of performance and then calculate the total mark.

Related Resources on the LD@school Website

Click here to access the article Understanding Executive Function and Learning Disabilities.

Click here to read LD@school’s article Self-Assessment.

Click here to access the video Building Self-Advocates: A key to student success.

Additional Resources

The canLEARN Society has created sample checklists that students can use to evaluate their own work and to refer to when they are stuck in class. Click here to access the checklists and an article on self-regulation.

A Guide to Effective Instruction in Writing, Kindergarten to Grade 3 offers classroom educators of primary students a variety of practical approaches to help students develop writing skills. The role of checklists is explored in great detail throughout the guide and a number of writing checklists are provided in Chapter 7: Assessment and Evaluation. Click here to access the guide and sample checklists.

This checklist was developed by an Ontario educator and can be used by students from grades 4 – 8 to self-assess in areas identified on the Ontario Report Card. It allows students to reflect on areas for improvement and to set goals. Click here to access the checklist.

References

Winebenner, S. [2008]. D. Demers adaptation of Teaching Kids with Learning Difficulties in the Regular Classroom entitled Enseigner aux élèves en difficulté en classe régulière. Montreal: Les Éditions de la Chenelière.

Arpin, L and Capra, L. [2001] L'apprentissage par projets. Montreal: Les Éditions de la Chenelière.

Manitoba Ministry of Education, Citizenship, and Youth. French Language Education Division [2005]. Des outils pour favoriser les apprentissages : ouvrage de référence pour les écoles de la maternelle à la 8e année. Available at:  //www.edu.gov.mb.ca/m12/frpub/ped/gen/outils_app/docs/document_complet.pdf

What Is an Assessment Checklist?

An assessment is a systematic process that determines, measures, and evaluates the abilities, quality, skills, and nature of a specific subject. And if you list down all the criteria and evaluating factors in a sheet, you form an assessment checklist. This assessment tool makes it easier to collect information and make observations about any matter to scrutinize. So instead of writing lengthy forms or wordy evaluation sheets, assessment checklists give you a quicker experience as the rubrics are merely listed. And, you only put checkmarks on where observations are applicable.

According to the Society of Human Resource Management [SHRM], studies concluded that 54% of people rely on job simulation, and 51% go with culture fit in a pre-employment assessment.

More so, a survey stated that 82% of enterprises evaluate using pre-employment assessment tests.

Meanwhile, Harvard Business Review reported that assessment tools are often used for entry-level [59%], middle management [72%], and senior-level positions [80%].

Who Creates the Assessment Checklist?

Generally, the one who conducts the assessment should make the assessment checklist. That way, evaluations get easier because you planned and organized the list in the first place. Hence, you know what the rubrics or scoring means. However, you can make checklists for other people expected to evaluate too. But be sure to orient them about the criteria, descriptions, and specific instructions so they will be guided accordingly on how to work on the list. And don’t forget that assessments are flexible for many fields like school, business, agriculture, hospital, and more.

When to Use Assessment Checklists

After realizing that assessments are crucial to other fields, it is essential to familiarize what those other examples are. Moreover, find out how each field handles assessment as its purpose varies. Who knows? You might assess similar to the way other fields manage assessments. So in this section, we will orient you on when to use assessment checklists.

Employment: An example of assessment application is employment. As reported by SHRM, 82% of companies prepare assessment tests for pre-employment. Moreover, 54% of individuals rely on job simulations, while 51% use culture fit as their pre-hiring assessment tools. With that said, assessments are a big deal at the workplace. The same goes for employers who interview job applicants since the assessment answers if such applicants passed the job standards or not.School: There is a need to assess student enrollees. And that explains why schools come up with entrance exams and student interviews to evaluate enrollees. Another example of a school assessment is a teacher who evaluates students. Teachers use assessment checklists to score each student according to the planned criteria.Hospital: In the hospital, the staff conducts health assessments for the patients. This way, it will be easy to keep track of every patient who is healthy and safe. Patients can’t just leave if they do not pass the assessment anyway. On another note, assessments are also used in checking how sanitary or safe the hospital environment is.Psychology: Psychologists, counselors, and similar professionals usually associate assessment documents with personality and aptitude tests. Assessments help these experts understand if people are troubled with their early childhood, struggle with autism, and other factors.Agriculture: Assessments also play a crucial role in agriculture. How else will farmers know if crops are ready to grow or if plants are bearing fruit already? They inspect and evaluate. Most importantly, these professionals assess if anything will hinder the plants’ growth. Otherwise, farming would be a disaster.Business: Of course, businesses have various assessments to process. For example, how can a business know if their business is suffering from competitors, sales, and other aspects? They conduct assessment and analysis reports. Also, assessments help companies strategize if developmental ideas are necessary for business operations.Self-Assessment: Let’s not forget self-assessment. Sometimes you need to assess your current skills, personality, health, and performance. For example, how much do you know yourself? Self-assessment exams help you rediscover more about yourself.

The Elements of an Assessment Checklist

Aside from discovering where assessments are applicable, it is time to familiarize what’s inside these checklists in the first place. Yes, assessment sheets are different as those depend on who made it and what the sheet’s purpose is. But common aspects are found too. Hence, find out the common elements of an assessment checklist:

Title

Always input a title. Otherwise, people might wonder what the sheet is about. But, putting the “Assessment Checklist” label is not enough. Be more specific if it is a job training assessment checklist, a personality test evaluation, or any other example. Thus, the title should give the gist about the form’s content.

Assessment Purpose

To spell out the assessment’s goal, don’t forget to include the assessment purpose. This segment clarifies why there is a need to assess. Not having a purpose often leaves assessors and the audience confused about the whole process. Also, this part is where you introduce who or what is being evaluated. For example, many businesses use pre-employment assessments for entry-level [59%], middle management [72%], and senior positions [80%]. For your case, finalize the main subjects.

Criteria

The meat of an assessment checklist is the criteria. Are you familiar with research surveys? There are questions and descriptors inside to complete the survey. And assessment checklists are similar to those. Yes-or-no questions and the 5-point rating scale are the common rubrics used among checklists.

Checkboxes

What is a checklist without any space to put checkmarks? Although checkboxes can sometimes be in the form of circles and lines, its function is still the same, which is to put those marks. On the other hand, some lists don’t require checks if instructions state that answers are to be encircled, boxed, underlined, or shaded.

At the end of the assessment checklist, there will likely be extra lines to write the remarks. That space can be used freely by assessors. If there are some observations not outlined in the list, then add those observations, comments, or feedback in the remarks section.

How to Create an Assessment Checklist

While it is easy to understand what the assessment checklist is, the challenge goes on how to make it. But remember that it is quite easy as it is similar to making a to-do list. You ensure that all the criteria will be assessed and done. However, don’t be hasty as there could be a bunch of errors in your list. To prevent failure, learn these easy steps on how to craft the assessment checklist:

Step 1: Define Your Purpose

You already know that the assessment purpose is one of the key elements in the assessment checklist. And it is your first concern to clarify because poorly constructed goals could cause the assessment’s outcome to fail. Meeting the objectives is your priority anyway. So when you finally know what or who to assess and why it is needed, you are guided accordingly.

Step 2: Set Your Criteria

Next, set up the criteria. How will you assess your subjects? Do you use yes-or-no questions or maybe the Likert scale? Also, take note to plan this part carefully. Poor criteria would not derive at the best conclusions. To perfect this, evaluate first if you think your rubric system is appropriate for your assessment. Also, are the questions or descriptors written in the list relevant to the topic? Plan it out.

Step 3: Edit the Format

Be concerned with your list’s format too. Nobody wants a checklist that isn’t aligned well, like when there is no proper spacing of words and if the checkboxes are too far from each other. You adjust the format in a way where assessing is no longer difficult. And don’t forget that the assessment checklist templates available to download here are easy to edit. So, take your time and tweak the format based on your preference.

Step 4: Use Specific Descriptors

Many evaluators want their assessment lists to be very informative, like a detailed letter. However, don’t overdo it. Maybe you have descriptors that are wordy. Omit those unnecessary words that are only consuming a lot of space on the list. Instead, use specific terms to keep it clear. Short but concise statements already suffice compared to lengthy sentences and flowery words with almost no point.

Step 5: Keep It Easy

Lastly, keep the checklist understandable and straightforward. As the evaluator, you wouldn’t want to have a hard time assessing anyway. And you can do so by organizing the list. For example, you divide the descriptors and questions according to their groups. Take the health assessment, perhaps. One group of questions asks about the client’s physical health factors. Hence, other groups concern the mental, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects.

FAQs

Performance-based assessments are common for students. First, teachers evaluate the student’s grades in math, reading, science—you name it. And aside from the grades, how the pupils perform in dances, speeches, and plays can be assessed.

There are five known types of checklists. And these are:

• Task list
• Troubleshooting list
• Discipline list
• Coordination list
• To-do list

Good and efficient assessment checklists are easy-to-use lists that reach the results effectively. Such documents should be practical and understandable to work.

Educator Andy Hargreaves once said, “On assessment: measure what you value instead of valuing only what you can measure.” His statement tells us to prepare for the unexpected when it comes to assessing, as long as you know what you value or what your goal is. Because at the end of the day, creating a decent assessment checklist and assessing are not your only concerns. Your next challenge is to analyze and interpret the findings until learnings are gathered.