Checklists

What are Checklists?

Checklist is an example of an assessment tool. Checklists are often used for observing performance in order to keep track of a student's progress or work over time. They can also be used to determine whether students have met established criteria on a task. At a later stage the teacher returns to the checklist when completing a more formative assessment form - or the checklist could have space for a comment, in which case the teacher can return and write the comment when s/he has more time.

To construct a checklist, identify the different parts of a specific lesson/ topic and any other requirements associated with it. Create a list of these with columns for marking yes and no.

Checklists can be useful for classroom assessment because they are easy to construct and use, and they align closely with tasks. At the same time, they are limited in that they do not provide an assessment of the relative quality of a student's performance on a particular task as compared to using a rubric.