40 Alternative Assessments for Learning

By: Charity Preston

When people think of assessment, pencils and bubble sheets may be the first things that come to mind. Assessment does not always have to involve paper and pencil, but can instead be a project, an observation, or a task that shows a student has learned the material.

In the end, all we really want to know is that the skill was mastered, right?  Why not make it fun and engaging for students as well?

Many teachers shy away from alternative assessments because they take extra time and effort to create and to grade. On the other hand, once the assessment guidelines and grading rubric are created, it can be filed away and used year after year.

The project card and rubric can be run on card stock (one on each side of the page), laminated, and hole punched with other alternative assessment ideas.  Keep them all together in a binder or with an o-ring.  Assessment just became a snap!

Here are 40 alternative assessment ideas to get you started!



Alternative Reading Assessments

1. Bookmark
Create a bookmark to match the theme of the last book read.

2. Time Capsule
Put together a group of 5 things from the story of the week.

3. Stuffed Animal
Students can make a stuffed animal that matches the theme of the story read.

4. Business Card
Summarize the story by designing a business card (this will be harder than it sounds).

5. Radio Show
Create a radio program that is set in the same time as the book.

6. Recipe
Make a recipe (or just the instructions) for something that a character in the story might make.

7. Paper Doll
More geared towards the younger set, this activity involves creating paper dolls and costume changes for the characters in the story.

8. Wanted Poster
Make a wanted poster for the antagonist in the book.

Alternative Writing Assessments

9. Eulogy
Write a eulogy for a word that is overused in the student’s own writing samples.

10. Infomercial
Students will tape a segment that uses persuasion.

11. Bumper Sticker
Design a bumper sticker with a catchy slogan for each of the writing genres.

12. PowerPoint
Pairs can create a slideshow about their writing process from start to finish.

13. Newscast
Students can form teams to create a news program about writing conventions (run-on sentences, spacing, punctuation, etc.)

14. Comic Strip
Draw a comic strip that shows examples of figurative language.

15. Brochure
Create a brochure that explains the steps involved when writing for different audiences.

16. Survey
Create a survey of students’ favorite writing styles or writing pet peeves.  Make a graph that explains the results.

Alternative Math Assessments

17. Acrostic Poem
Using one math term, such as geometry or algebra, make an acrostic poem.

18. Internet Resource List
Students will find a list of websites that explain the current math concepts correctly.

19. Readers’ Theater
Perform a readers’ theater that is all about the current topic.

20. Crossword Puzzle
Use the vocabulary from the assessed chapter to create a crossword puzzle, including the design and matching clues.

21. Scrapbook Page
Each student makes a page that describes a certain vocabulary word. Combine them to provide a future review tool for students.

22. Paint By Number
More artistically-inclined students may want to create a paint by number portrait that includes math terms and examples. They can also write and solve problems that match the paint-by-number answers.

23. Pattern
Find a pattern in the current math unit that can be explained.

24. Collage
Using magazines, students can cut up and paste math strand examples.

Alternative Science Assessments

25. Help Wanted Ad
Write an ad to find a “professor” who can help to explain the subject at hand.

26. Singing Telegram
More musically-inclined students may love to create a song about the latest chapter.

27. Calendar
Mark on a calendar (paper or electronic copy) the time frame for how long it takes to see changes in a scientific event (such as erosion or plants growing).

28. Diary
Pen a diary entry from a famous scientist.

29. Advice Column
Students write advice to an “anonymous friend” who has a scientific problem that needs solved.

30. Trivia Game
Students create the questions (and answers) that will be used in a review game.

31. T-shirt
Design a t-shirt that matches the current science concepts.

32. Experiment
No explanation needed for this one.

Alternative Social Studies Assessments

33. Cheer
Compose a cheer for someone in history who has struggled through something in your latest unit.

34. Fashion Sketch
Draw an example of what a person would wear from the era being studied.

35. Toy
Create a drawing (or a prototype) of a toy that might have been used from the children of that specific time period.

36. Documentary
Recreate an important historical event.

37. Family Tree
Research the family tree of a famous historical person.

38. Time Line
Students create a class timeline as they study different eras.  Post the master time line up in the classroom and add as new eras are learned.

39. Speech
Memorize and recite an important historical speech.

40. Museum Exhibit
Students each create a museum “artifact” and set them up in the classroom as a museum, where they will stand next to their artifact to explain and answer questions from visitors.  Invite other classes or parents to come do a walkthrough of your museum.

Additional tasks:
-  I do a "Periodic Table of the Class" by having students create "characteristic cards" for classmates: eye color, birthdate, shoe size, # pets, favorite color etc. They have to arrange classmates into families and periods. If there are spaces, they have to "predict" the characteristics of the unknown classmate.

-  I would add creating a mobile. I have done this using literary elements with third graders and my tenth grade daughter just completed one about herself for health class. She used pictures with cardboard backings with a paragraph about each one on the back. I have also had students add 3x5 note cards for written information. They look great when displayed in the classroom too!

-  I have students create an ABC book for our autobiography unit. Each of the pages must be constructed differently. No two can be alike. I ask them to think outside the box. I do teach gifted students, so creativity is a must and it kind of revives the old way of doing ABC books.