Creative Ways for Students to Present What They Learned

A significant part of the learning process is students’ ability to showcase what they’ve learned. The most common method is the test, but there are less stress-inducing and more fun ways to allow students to demonstrate learning. Here are a few.

Posters

The humble poster is a wonderful way to spice up your classroom and give students the chance to be creative. It’s well suited to a variety of purposes, and if you can find the materials, it could keep students engaged in class, even on assessment days. Make sure you understand your students’ needs (i.e., do they have materials at home?) before you assign, but poster project ideas are a classic and highly effective assessment tool.

Interactive Presentations

It’s not just a student reading from a paper in front of the class. Interactive presentations have various elements that could allow you to make good use of that smartboard sitting in your classroom. Students can also learn how to make an engaging professional presentation through PowerPoint or other tools, a skill they’ll take with them into the workforce. Look for more ideas from experts online, such as Adobe Education Exchange.

Original Videos

For something fun outside the classroom, having students make videos on a topic or subject you’ve covered could be a fun way to unleash creativity. If students are able to work together in groups, this idea could be a good way to get students to showcase knowledge, collaborate, and problem solve. Make sure you establish parameters beforehand, and then they’ll be ready to get creative.

Storyboarding

Comic strips are engaging for a reason. Use the same method to give students a chance to illustrate cause and effect in learning or illustrate what happens over time. This can help make lessons that happen in many parts more accessible as students can storyboard the progress.

Create a Test

Instead of testing students, give them a chance to make their own test. This can get them fired up about the material and help you fill in any gaps in their knowledge. They can allow peers to take the test, or just the act of creating the test could be enough to cement new knowledge and give you assessment data.

Create a Game

You can customize this option in so many different ways that your students may feel like it’s a brand new assessment every time. They can build crossword puzzles to practice vocabulary. They can design a board game for complex, progressing ideas. Or they can make a timed game to drill concepts. There are so many ways you can utilize your students’ natural desire to play and get some assessment data at the same time.

Write a Skit (and Perform It)

In subjects such as history or language arts, skits can help demonstrate a timeline, illustrate a story, or help students remember dates and turning points. It’s a wonderful way for introverted students (they can write) to work with extroverts (they can perform).

Getting Creative With Assessment

Students can demonstrate knowledge in so many different ways. Use assessment as a way to engage students further, and you could have a thriving learning community on your hands.