3 Strategies for Organizing Your Classroom Assessment
Learn three practical strategies to organize classroom assessments, save time, and stay focused on learning—streamline processes, organize files, and collect resources.
I’m often asked how I manage assessment within the classroom.Managing all aspects of assessment can be overwhelming. Staying organized is a key aspect of using assessment effectively. I’ve found three key strategies that can help.
- Streamline the process.
- Organize your files.
- Collect your resources.
Streamline the process
First, streamline what you do. You want to be effective, but you don’t want to have so many choices that they overwhelm you. For example, I visited a kindergarten teacher one day. She regularly used “Know, Want-to-know, Learned” (KWLs) for pre-assessment, which is a great tool. However, she opened a file drawer and showed me almost 200 patterns for KWLs—one for each day of the year. That’s great—but you don’t need that. It can overwhelm students, and they focus on the graphic organizer rather than learning. If you want some variety in the look of a graphic organizer, have a few, but don’t go overboard.
In another situation, a teacher shared with me her coding for feedback on student work. She had been writing out every comment on every paper. She realized that, for the most part, she made seven to 10 general comments. She developed a code for those, taught it to students and families, and was able to save about 60 percent of her grading time by using the code. She could then focus on comments at the end or in a unique situation. Today, there are a variety of text expander tools that facilitate this process.
TextExpander
A popular, subscription-based tool with features like team sharing and AI integration.
Text Blaze
A browser-based tool with a free version and features for web-based workflows.
Espanso
A free, open-source, and highly customizable option for tech-savvy users on Windows, macOS and Linux.
PhraseExpress
Offers a free version and paid options with centralized management and built-in macros.
Magical
A free text expander that works on Windows and Mac and offers time-saving features.
Organize your files
Another important aspect of managing assessment is to organize your files. You can do this with paper or electronically. Start with the basics. Build a folder for general pre-assessments, one for general formative assessments, then one for general summative assessments. You’ll put generic options here that you can pull for use at any time.
Next, move to specific subjects if you teach more than one. Build similar folders that work just for that content area. Third, and this is most critical, build folders for each unit or topic you teach and organize the pre-assessment, formative assessments and summative assessment. This will be your go-to set of folders next year when you are teaching the same topic. Don’t be overwhelmed with this—just organize as you go through the year, and then you’ll have it done. Again, it’s up to you whether you organize with paper or electronically. Choose what works best for you.
Excerpt from Sample Computer-Based File Organization for Elementary School
Assessment Folder
General-Pre-Assessments
General Formative Assessments
General Summative Assessments
Language Arts Assessments
- Reading Assessments
- Writing Assessments
- Other Assessments
Math Assessments
Science Assessments
Social Studies Assessments
Other Assessments
First Nine Weeks Assessments
- Unit or Topic
- Unit or Topic
- Unit or Topic
Second Nine Weeks Assessments
- Unit or Topic
- Unit or Topic
- Unit or Topic
Collect your resources
Finally, you probably have some key assessment resources you regularly access. It’s time to organize those too! I use two electronic methods for this, but you can also do it with printouts. First, I bookmark all my key resources in a folder called “assessment.” If you want to be super organized, you can have subfolders here.
Sample Bookmark Subfolders
Assessments
KWL Options
Anticipatory Guides
Other Pre-Assessments
General Formative Assessments
General Summative Assessments
Topic-Specific Formative Assessments
- Unit or Topic
- Unit or Topic
Topic-Specific Summative Assessments
- Unit or Topic
- Unit or Topic
Standardized Testing Resources
Miscellaneous
I also keep an email folder for assessment. These are emails I receive that I want to review later. When I have time, I read the information and bookmark as necessary. Most of the time, these are emails I receive about state resources or articles about different options for assessments.
A Final Note
Taking the time to manage your classroom assessment will help you be a more effective teacher. Streamline the process, organize your files, and collect your resources to build an efficient, effective system.
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As a teacher, a leader and a university professor responsible for graduate training for educators, Barbara Blackburn has used her knowledge and experiences to write 40 best-selling books. She utilizes the engagement she advocates there to capture and instill in nationwide audiences the desire to... See More
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