Tests are a fact of life.
Even in my family’s own non-testing homeschool, my teens still have to take tests.
Driver’s test, state-mandated standardized tests, ACT or SAT tests. Later today, my 11th grader will be taking the ACCUPlacer test at the local technical college for dual enrollment admissions.
Ugh. There seems to be no escaping our test-happy culture.
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What’s wrong with tests?
All the tests I just mentioned serve some purpose of proving the baseline of knowledge and skill needed to drive a car or attend college. I have no issue with these tests.
But…
Random multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, true or false, matching, and short answer tests every few days in every high school course do little to prove mastery. At least in my humble opinion.
Mastery of subject matter means a student can explain the material in their own words and can even teach it to others.
I think many (if not most) classroom teachers agree with this. Unfortunately, teachers just do not have enough time to “test” each and every individual student by their ability to explain the material.
Even if teachers gave very open-ended essay tests allowing students to explain the material in their own words, grading would take days!
Thus, in a classroom setting, fill-in-the-blank, multiple-choice, true or false, and matching tests are easiest.
It’s just the best of all possible worlds for institutional schools.
So, what do we do instead?
Since our homeschool is not an institutional school and since we only have 2 students, I, as the teacher, have plenty of time to make sure my kids have mastered the material.
We use 4 different means to prove understanding and mastery.
Oral Reports
Theses are not necessarily the pre-planned and rehearsed oral reports we remember doing in school.
Our oral reports are more like conversations. My teen will tell me what they learned in their own words. I may ask for clarification on some issues or ask them to define a term more clearly.
From these conversations, I can tell whether or they grasp the concept.
Written Reports
Classroom teachers may only have time once a semester to read and grade essays or research papers from all their students.
I, on the other hand, have plenty of time.
Written reports allow the student to explain the material in their own words in depth.
Project Notebooks
Project notebooks that my kids put together (using 3-ringed binders, typically) will often include maps, graphs, drawings, short biographies, photos (lifted from the internet and printed out), bullet-point lists and short essays.
Project notebooks might be overkill for explaining a simple concept. Instead, we use project notebooks with unit studies.
A unit study on the European Renaissance, for example, might include maps of Europe, photos of Renaissance architecture, short biographies of famous people, a bullet-point list of Renaissance inventions, and more.
This where my love of notebooking pages from Productive Homeschooling comes in. ProductiveHomeschooling.com lets me print easy to use notebooking pages for my kids to fill in and create their project notebooks.
PowerPoint Presentations
PowerPoint is an excellent way for students to organize and present the information they have learned, as well as utilize a computer program they may need to know about in their future careers.
PowerPoint presentations are just digital versions of the project notebooks I just mentioned. The same information (timelines, lists, photos, etc) can be added.
My son also got a kick out of using the numerous fun tools that PowerPoint offers. He may or may not have used the swirling text feature a little too often!
Nonetheless, for my son, PowerPoint was a much more entertaining and engaging way to gather and present the material he had learned.
Caveats
I only give Pass/Fail grades for these projects. If you are a stickler for letter/numerical grades, then you will need to develop a grading rubric that will help you.
I do still test for math and vocabulary, but not necessarily after each chapter. I just periodically throw in a test to make sure the information is sticking.
Though I listed 4 project methods here, oral presentation (conversations) are typically added to the other 3.
Also, be sure to check out these other posts about homeschooling:
How to Homeschool for Free (or on the cheap)
What Does a Relaxed Homeschool High School Look Like?
