As we progress further into the digital age, teachers have more and more online platforms to elevate explorations and questioning for their students. Wouldn’t it be awesome if students were assessed in a way that more accurately reflected how they learn in the classroom? Northwest ISD (NISD) teachers and students are in luck; to start the 2022-2023 school year, NISD adopted Canvas as its new Learning Management System. Through Canvas Quizzes, teachers now have access to a plethora of different questioning types for their students. Many of these question types mimic the New STAAR Question types, which will appear for the first time on the 2023 STAAR test. Check out how the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has redesigned the STAAR to fit the needs of Texas students. TEA states that this new, redesigned STAAR “will more closely align the test with classroom instruction” and “new question types will look more like what students are asked everyday.” This is our goal for Canvas Quizzes too.

Tiffany Wood, Algebra and Geometry teacher at Medlin Middle School, has taken on the challenge of moving all of her past pencil and paper quizzes to NISD’s new Canvas Quizzes option. Mrs. Wood stated, “It’s just been a fun little experiment and challenge to figure out what item types in Canvas would best allow me to assess in the same way I was assessing it on paper.” These digital capabilities are especially beneficial for teachers like Mrs. Wood who shuffles between having Geometry students in person and remotely.  Mrs. Wood agrees, “these questions test more than a student's ability to just plug in an answer and check it or eliminate answers using traditional testing strategies. Instead, It's testing what they actually understand. It gives them more opportunities to show what they know.”  As you can see from the quotes in the graphic to the left, students agree. Some students were apprehensive to say they like the new question types because many said they were “harder.” Many shared they had to stay more focused and really know the content before being able to answer these types of questions. Wow, I thought, what a special response from students. They actually have to show what they know. It’s like a teacher's (and parents’) dream come true. Although students felt some of these question types were more challenging, all students ultimately agreed they saw the benefit of them. One even stated it was harder to cheat. I’d say that is a win! Mrs. Wood also brought up some important benefits to using Canvas Quizzes. Many of these questions, as we will see with new STAAR questions, have the ability to give partial credit. Students I spoke with also appreciated this option as they would still receive credit for knowing pieces of the information rather than losing full credit.

Mrs. Wood also enjoys the ability to give feedback on multiple answers. In Canvas, teachers can present feedback for students for each individual question and/or answer choice, as well as personal feedback to students through their submitted quiz. Tanya Dahlin-Valenti, Texas History teacher at Medlin,  has also worked hard to take steps to incorporate new question types through her quizzes. Valenti is able to easily share these quizzes with her team spreading rigorous questioning with the click of a button.

Below you can see examples of past STAAR questions that have been transformed into New Canvas Quiz questions. Interactive and thought provoking, these questions step away from the comfort zone of multiple choice and provide students with opportunities to show their content knowledge through different formats.

Our district is rocking and rolling when it comes to preparing teachers to connect with new question types. Canvas has a wide support community, teachers can click here to discover how to create a Canvas Quiz and explore new question types. Each core content area incorporates them through CBAs in Edugence. NISD Instructional Technologists all around the district are offering TechBytes, PLCs, and other support for creating and using Canvas quizzes.  The ELA STAAR has specialized questioning types, such as short and extended constructed responses.  Brittnie Bragg, Secondary ELA Curriculum Coordinator for NISD, says, “ [ELA] teachers received professional learning, facilitated by curriculum writers this summer, pointing out where these new item types could be located, instructed over, and practiced in our curriculum documents. Our Curriculum Support Team is leading Writing Calibration professional learning to help teachers better understand ways to instruct and score these new written item types (SCRs and ECRs), so that scoring in NISD is consistent with the state, from campus to campus, and from teacher to teacher.” Bragg believes, “the new STAAR questions will allow students to read, write, and think critically at deeper levels in all grade levels, and across all content areas.”  Canvas’s ability to recreate these new question types empowers teachers to create innovative and engaging assessment opportunities for their students.  Teachers don’t have to “teach to the test” they just teach and students are assessed in a way they are taught.