By Laurel White
A graceful swoop of her arms up, then down to her sides. A slight wiggle. A giggle. Then another swoop and a bob, like she’s moving through water.
The young teacher is pretending to be a squid. Her pantomime is part of a game she’s playing with other teachers — an innovative and playful UW–Madison creation called Assessment Party. The game aims to help educators think differently about the way they measure their students’ learning. Assessment Party was developed at UW–Madison through a partnership between scholars in the School of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction and office of Professional Learning and Community Education (PLACE). Since the game’s public release last year, it has been used in professional development workshops across Wisconsin, reaching dozens of teachers.
Mary Swenson, an instructional coach at Madison West High School, says the game has offered a unique, hands-on learning opportunity for teachers in her school.
“It’s a way to get teachers to think about different ways of assessment that are more engaging,” Swenson says.
The game is similar to charades. In Assessment Party, one player draws a card and is assigned something to act out. Another player takes notes on their actions, while a third keeps their eyes closed. When time is up, the third player has to guess what was on the card based on the notetaker’s descriptions.
Kailea Saplan, who graduated with a doctorate from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in May, says the different roles in the game reflect the three fundamental elements of assessment: performing evidence of learning, observing and documenting that performance, and interpreting the evidence.
“I have a background as an actor, so my mind always goes to low-tech, embodied games,” says Saplan, who was part of the Assessment Party design team. “I see that as the most equitable starting point, where all you need to bring is your imagination, your body, and your own experiences.”
Saplan says the game grew out of scholarship by former Department of Curriculum and Instruction faculty member YJ Kim, whose research focuses on playful learning and assessment. Kim had found many teachers felt constricted by traditional ways of measuring students’ growth.
“We wanted to find a way for educators to reflect on their process,” Saplan says. “We wanted it to be a playful opportunity, because we wanted educators to feel like they could share what their experiences were. It’s about breaking through the noise of theories and constructs and terms of art to focus on the process.”
In an article published last fall in the journal Learning and Instruction, the game creators argued assessment should be a “continuous, inclusive, transparent, and collaborative process, aligned with principles of asset-based learning.”
They contend using games for assessment could be a rewarding practice for educators and students alike.
“We propose that playful stances in assessment can expand what assessment is by creating flexible and creative assessment opportunities that center students’ agency and identity, ultimately leading to an asset-based approach to assessment,” they wrote.
Valerie Hammer, a doctoral student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, lent her practical classroom experience as a former middle school teacher to the game’s development.
“It was great to come on board to see the game they had created, and to be able to provide perspective on refining it,” Hammer says.
Since the game’s launch, Hammer has led several Assessment Party workshops for teachers and student teachers. She says it has been especially rewarding to see teachers-in-training reflect on what the game can teach them.
At a workshop earlier this year, several pre-service teachers were quick to connect the dots between the game and their classroom practices.
Kate Meyer, an aspiring middle school teacher, said breaking down the charade-style clues was similar to breaking down individual criteria students perform to receive a grade — all pieces come together to showcase a complete picture of understanding.
Another workshop participant, Callie Paulowski, pointed out the sometimes vast discrepancies between what the charade performer was doing and what the notetaker recorded. She said that showcased how imperfect observation and description can be when assessing and recording a student’s understanding.
“When you’re looking at other teachers’ assessments of a student, that’s something you should keep in mind,” Paulowski said.
The Assessment Party team has completed analyzing data gathered at the professional development workshops. Scholarly publications are under review. They hope forthcoming journal articles will promote understanding of the power of novel approaches to learning and assessment. So far, most workshop attendees have found the game to be both light-hearted and enlightening — just as it was intended.
“Everyone who has touched this game has found authentic ways to bring it to their work,” Saplan says.
Assessment Party is available for free via download. A hard copy of the game is also available for purchase.