As a teacher, it's your job not only to teach your students but also to assess what they've learned. Of course, there are several ways to do this.

For example, "performance assessment" involves asking students to demonstrate that they've gained certain knowledge and skills by completing such tasks as writing a research paper or taking an exam. "Portfolio assessment" requires students to demonstrate their mastery of concepts or skills in a certain area by creating a portfolio, or collection of work produced during the unit, quarter, semester, or year. And

The type of assessment that you choose will determine the assessment tools you'll use. If you opt for a performance assessment, you'll need to create a test or quiz. A portfolio assessment might mean supplying students with growth/mastery charts to complete. And a project assessment might necessitate creating self/peer evaluations for students to fill out.

You can create all of these tools quickly by using the Microsoft Office System. For the busy teacher, templates may prove to be especially effective timesavers. For example, if you create a test by using the Test template for Microsoft Office Word 2003, you can adapt the test to all types of questions (multiple choice, true/false, essay, and fill in the blank) and save the template to use again and again.

Learn to create your own template, or learn how to customize an existing template to get started. The following tools and information will show you how.

• Understand assessment strategies (Article)
  Know which assessment types and tools will work best for your classes.
• Create tests, rubrics, and more to assess student performance (Article)
  Learn how to create assessment tools for your students by using Word 2003 and Excel 2003.
• Create and save test templates (Article)
  Find out how to design a custom test template and save it to use again and again.
• Test template (Template)
  Save time when creating your next test by using this Word 2003 template.
• Modify a template (Article)
  Learn how to customize a Word 2003 template to suit your needs.
• Require a password to open or modify a file (Article)
  Learn how to preserve the integrity of your test by keeping it safe until exam day.