Essay Questions on Tests

So I Brought Back An Old Testing Friend

When I first started teaching Social Studies most of our tests had an essay question.  We would give the students a study guide that contained three choices and they would pick one and write a simple 5-10 sentence paragraph. 

At first I was overwhelmed at asking that of my students, mostly because I was worried about grading and didn’t feel comfortable.  Thank goodness my teaching partner assured me that the students would be fine and she would help me grade my first couple. 

After that first year, we tweaked how that essay question happened on the tests.  We started giving students key words/phrases that should be included in their essays.  It helped tremendously with grading and it also gave the students a framework to build their essay responses from. 

Then I got a new teaching partner and the idea of hand-grading hundred-plus essays was not her cup of tea.  And since I was too new to Google Forms to figure out how to create a rubric, I let her win and we took away the essay question. 

Several years passed, and low and behold I got another teaching partner.  This time around, I warned them at the beginning of the year that I wanted to include an essay question on the test and they were on board.  

But the year got away from us and if you’re ever taught you know that sometimes sticky to what you already have created is easier and saves your sanity.  

Yet, I truly felt that the students were beginning to slack on actual test prep.  They had gotten so dependent on the test prep we made that they did not create any on their own.  And testing prep is an incredibly important academic tool. 

Maybe it was out of frustration, but I told my students that they were not going to get the expected test prep AND they were getting an essay question. 

You would have thought I told them they had to hand-write the test in Latin.  They groaned, they complained that this wasn’t English class thank you very much and that they would fail. 

But I stuck to my guns. I gave them their essay question a week in advance.  I choose their essay question to nicely go along with an activity we had completed a week prior.  And, I offered to look at any essay in advance. Which only two students took advantage of. 

I will not lie, the night before the test, I was nervous.  And I wasn’t even taking the test! I was worried that they format was too new.  That the new format would throw them off and that this final test grade of the quarter would tank their grades. 

And of course that did not happen.  Most of my students performed just as well as they had on previous test grades.  Some even did much, much better.  Overall, the test outcome was successful. 

Now, was it more work for me. HECK YES. 

Mostly because I have still not figured out how create a rubric and tie it to Google Classroom so that I wouldn’t have to grade each essay by hand. 

And if any teacher out there isn’t aware, if you put TWO Google Form into the same Classroom assignment you can’t import grades. Yes. I had to look up EACH student’s multiple choice test grade, add their bonus question to that score. Then open another Form and grade their essay. 

It would have been easier to grade an entire paper and pencil test. But lessons were learned. Even if it was the hard way. 

Bottom line, it was a good experience.  I learned a lot about my student’s thought processes by reading their essays.  Some students did so much better because they were able to gain points by telling me what they know instead of having to pick the correct multiple choice answer.  And not going to lie, some of the essay responses were hilarious and totally worth the extra effort! 

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