Collaborative Assessment Design in the MYP

Designing assessment methods that are varied and fit-for-purpose for the curriculum, learning outcomes and objectives is a challenging and intellectually stimulating part of being an IB teacher!

In the Middle Years Programme (MYP), teachers plan and design assessments that are formed around conceptual learning and that are based on the criteria in each subject area. Collaborating with each other in order to do this work inevitably improves our capacity to design effective assessments, and typically that collaboration would happen in meetings with groups of teachers sitting around tables. That's just not possible at the moment... and teachers all over the world are really missing those opportunities. However, platforms like Google Docs help us to continue to collaborate in ways that transcend time and location!

In this example (click here to open the document), Francois Mccurdy created a Mathematics assessment task and then shared it with some colleagues in order to get feedback from them. By commenting on the document, and highlighting particular parts of it, Francois' colleagues asked questions and pointed out things that could be improved or re-thought. 

In the dialogue that evolved in the comments, you can see clearly how Francois was able to take feedback and use it to improve the task.