by Matthew Huddleston

Created on: June 15, 2009

Peer Group Testing and Test Review

As a secondary English teacher, the first message I present to my students at the onset of each course is that language arts is about communication. Communication skills taught in the classroom come in the basic forms of reading analysis, writing response, and oral presentations. More important, I tell them, is the ability to develop interpersonal communication skills. Beyond the academic world of high school and college literature courses, the ability to work together in groups, share knowledge and resources, and come to collectively relevant solutions, is paramount to success. To that end, I have developed a group learning model that provides equal opportunity for access to the curriculum, shares individual strengths among the group, and serves as a review tool for specific standards of required learning in formal assessments.

Group testing is set up exactly as it sounds. Like other group activities, students work together to accomplish a task. In this case, the task is a formal assessment.

Group Dynamic: Groups need to be diverse in skill sets. To achieve this balance, it is best to wait until you have graded writing samples and test results of independent work from each student before placing them in groups. For instance, I match each of my best writers with others who struggle in that particular skill set. Interactive, detail-oriented readers are matched with students who tend to brush through material. Students with high academic marks are matched with struggling students. Groups should consist of two to four students each, keeping the group size as equal as possible.

Formal Assessment: The group testing format works best with pre-formatted tests utilizing multiple modes of assessment. For instance, most textbook sets come with unit tests that incorporate multiple choice, matching, graphic organizers, short answer, essay response, etc. Using this style of test allows the groups to play to their individual strengths. These multi-modal tests also allow an easy division of labor among the group members. If available, the use of multiple test versions helps to keep groups focused internally, rather than trying to gleam answers from other groups.

Testing Environment: Unlike traditional assessment environments, there will be talking and sharing of information during the testing period. The new rule for this environment is that the group members may only communicate

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