Assessment? How do you do it?

A few months ago, we had the opportunity to participate in a study at the Grad School here in town. The doctoral candidates were studying how to administer those tests given by child phsycologists and I thought it might be helpful to hear what they have to say concerning my older ones so I let them be tested. The results were great for the most part. My girls read a lot and they got really high scores in background knowledge and understanding. They are healthy, well-adjusted kids but when it came to their processing speed, it was really slow. this needs to change if they are going to be able to finish the SAT some day or complete in college with all those kids who grew up on timed tests.

I did plenty of timed tests when we were learning all the math facts with those two but since then, I have given them a lot of time to just figure things out. In light of the tests they took, I decided they needed some experience and feedback as to how they are doing. We went to the store and picked up a bunch of flash cards. German, Latin, AP world and US History, SAT vocabulary, grammar, Algebra, and Music Theory. Each day, after lunch, I pull cards out of a box (there are only 4 to 5 cards per subject in the box so they can study them) and I give them ten questions. If they don't both pass off the card, I put it back in the box and if they do, they get a new card in the box for tomorrow's quiz.

I give them grades on their quizzes and they can see if they are retaining the information and if they understand it. They are also becoming familiar with group study work when there is memorization involved and they can now set goals involving the scores of the quizzes. This has been a great improvement to our homeschool.

I have learned that while two is very smart, she doesn't remember things so well so now I know to work with her on learning and memorization strategies. I have also seen the girls really step up their game to try and incorporate their knowledge into their other learning. I also have a much clearer understanding of how they are doing.

What are some of the ways you have addressed these issues and how have your children responded to assessment?