Creativity and Critical Thinking through one-word answers

Creativity and Critical Thinking through one-word answers

Multiple choice, short answer and true/false may be the main ways to test students but isn’t something missing? Something that requires more creativity than multiple choice or true/false but takes less time than short answer? One word answers. We think this flexible item type should make it into your next assessment. Have students….

1. Fill in the blanks – This works as a quick way to keep students engaged during a lecture–post a sentence from the day’s lecture minus an important word, then have your students answer with the missing word. With nClass, students can send this one word instantly, allowing teachers to minimize the time used to assess. These question types points out the important concepts to students for further review.
2. Finish analogies – A great way to improve students’ logic as well as test their critical thinking related to subject at hand. For example, literature instructors may post an analogy comparing and contrasting two characters, while history instructors do the same with locations or eras.
3. Recall places/names – Teach students the Jeopardy way by posting a description of key term or place then have students quickly key in the answer. Their answers will quickly reveal misconceptions both before and after formal assessment.
4. Play games – In addition to Jeopardy, students will learn important team skills through a family feud-style game. Ask a portion of the class to answer subjective questions related to the material, while separating the remaining portion of students into two competing groups. Have the two groups discuss to guess how their classmates. This is a creative way to start a class discussion in a more quiet or shy classroom.
5. Suggest better adjectives/verbs – Teaching a writing class? Post a boring sentence with a highlighted adjective or verb. Then, allow students to send in their substitutions. This adds a fun spin to the process of writing critique.

How do you use one-word answers? Let us know in the comments.