I don’t know how finals work at your school, but I’m required to give some kind of final at the end of each semester. This final counts as 10% of the students’ semester grade. In the past, I’ve given many cumulative exams. To me, that made the most sense: it’s a semester final, so why not give a final exam on the semester’s content?
However, lately I’ve been moving away from final exams. There are several reasons for this, and it’s not because tests are bad, per se. However, there are three main reasons I’ve moved away from final exams:
- Critical Thinking – I’ve found that final exams are good for assessment reading comprehension and memorization, but more difficult for critical thinking.
- Test Anxiety – The idea that 10% of your test comes from one big exam that you need to study for (or stay up late cramming for) makes my already-anxious kids more anxious than ever. Alternative assessments (see below) help them aim for a goal and work towards it on their schedule.
- Cheating – Exams are often cheatable, especially when the same test is offered at several different times.
I realize I should have posted this at the beginning of November, but as a real-life teacher with a very busy schedule, I only finalized my final plans this past week. But here is what I’ve turned to in place of final exams in each of my classes. I’m also sharing other teacher’s ideas for non-test finals!
The Socratic Seminar
When I brought up the idea of a final with my English 10 class, they were the most adamant that we not have a test. And since they’ve been working on Socratic methods in some of their other classes, we agreed that a Socratic Seminar was the best idea. I decided to offer a Seminar on all of the activities we’ve done this semester, not attributed to a singular unit or work of literature.
I asked students to prepare paragraph answers to 8 of our 15 questions in preparation for the Seminar. Here are some of the questions I posed:
- Consider the titles of our short stories. What story has a significant title that adds meaning to the text? Why is this important?
- Racial injustice and conflict still permeate our society today. What text can help us combat racism and what’s a good quote or message we can use from it?
- What’s a theme that can be found in more than one text from this semester? Why is this theme important?
- Name a scene or moment in literature from this semester that made you uncomfortable. Why did it make you feel that way?
- Many feel that learning MLA citations is a waste of time. How can you argue that learning MLA citations can help you in the “real world?”
- What is something not career-related that you learned from writing the career paper?
- Connect one of our short stories with our literary terms. Where can you apply one of our literary terms and why is it important?
- In what capacity should seminal U.S. documents be taught and what class(es) should they be taught in?
- Think of our texts with memorable narrators. Who is a narrator you’d like to meet in real life and why?
The On-Demand Essay
Two of my classes are writing on-demand essays for their final. While on-demand essays can be stress-inducing, they don’t usually require any preparation beforehand. They also help AP and Pre-AP students prepare for writing on-demand as needed for the AP Exams.
For my sophomores, I gave them their prompt beforehand. I’m even allowing them to brainstorm or outline essays before the finals period. I have found that this eases those with anxiety, as they’ve been able to prepare before the final.
Book Bentos
This popular assignment is not only a great alternative to book reports, but an enjoyable credit recovery option. My students in AP Lit are required to do one for one of their independent reading titles this semester, and my Honors students have it as an option for their projects (see below). The rest of my students can do one for extra credit!
Read this blog post to learn more about Book Bentos!
Independent Reading Projects
My Honors students read a nonfiction book for independent reading each semester. For their final, they must write an on-demand essay on their book. However, we also spent the week before the end of the year working on two book projects to demonstrate close reading and understanding. I gave them five choices for this project:
- Movie Trailer: Create a movie trailer using iMovie that depicts the main events, characters, and themes of the novel. The trailer should match the tone of the book and show reflection/careful reading of the novel.
- Art: Design a piece of art that shows a major theme, symbol, or motif of your novel. Please do not use technology to complete this assignment. Abstract thought or symbolism is encouraged. It should represent the book as a whole, not just a specific scene. Also, be sure to write a minimum of 150-word explanation of your interpretation of the piece. OR Illustrations: Illustrate at least three different scenes from your book. They should show creative thought and effort. These illustrations must reflect on a specific scene from the novel, as opposed to a large theme or symbol (see previous project). For each illustration, give a brief explanation (3-5 sentences) of your project and why that scene is important.
- Timeline: Develop a timeline of main events, at least 20, from your book. For each event, write a short summary (2-5 sentences) and include an image. You may do this by hand or using a website such as tiki-toki.com.
- Book Bento: A Book Bento is a flat lay photo of a book, surrounded by images that correlate with the plot, themes, or setting. A “bento” is a type of Japanese lunchbox, with barriers between each item so they are laid out geometrically. Therefore, the bento-style flat lay should have equal distance between items surrounding the book itself. I WILL NOT GRADE A PHOTO WITHOUT A WRITTEN EXPLANATION! See the rubric below for what I’m looking for and the photos on the side wall of my classroom for examples.
- Book Soundtrack: On Spotify, select a minimum of 8 songs that would serve as a soundtrack for your book. Share the soundtrack with me, along with a written explanation of each song selection. This should explain what scene each song pairs with and why it was chosen. Do more than simply match up words in a song title—be sure the song itself matches the tone of the scene.
The Journalism Group Project
Finally, my Journalism class has spent all semester learning how to research, interview, report, and write articles for Journalism. We’ve put out 5 issues of our school’s newspaper so far. Their final is to work in small groups to put together an entire issue of the newspaper, filled with new reporting. This is a huge task, but they’re capable of doing it! I’ve been doing it for 3 years now and it’s great to see them lay out the newspaper themselves, appreciating how much work it is on my end!
To do this assignment, I’ve created a template for our school’s newspaper, which makes it easier for them to fill in with photos and articles. This template is my newest resource available for purchase in my TpT store. If you’re looking to lay out your own school newspaper, there’s no need to pay for expensive software. Canva is really all you need! Check out the template here to learn more!
What others are doing
I asked around on Facebook, and many other educators are exploring non-test options for finals. In my poll, the following assessments were reported:
- 20 reported giving essays instead of tests
- 42 are exploring projects for their classes
- 4 are doing Socratic Seminars or graded discussions to wrap up
There were several other assessments recorded in place of tests, including:
- An e-portfolio of work, such as writing assignments
- Speeches
- TED Talks
- Self-reflections
- Essay revisions
- Escape rooms
- Hexagonal thinking
- Film projects
- Infographics
I love the idea of a Socratic Seminar as a final! What do you do if a student is absent?
I’ve always assigned about half of my assigned questions in preparation for a Socratic seminar, so if a student misses one I assign all of them and grade the written work only. Hope that makes sense!