On the top of the final draft of the human dignity/Night paper that 10th graders handed in today, I asked them to reflect on 1 thing they had learned in writing the paper. (See below for the paper prompt.) It was fun to read the reflections. Here are some of the things they said they learned:

1. I learned that doing devotions can help form my Biblical perspective in both my life and in essays.
2. Writing this essay really got me thinking. It scares me that so many people passively disregard human dignity. What's scarier is that I'm one of them.
3. I was able to acknowledge and see clearly how we so often do put others down to try to feel better about ourselves, but how that actually has the opposite effect. I re-learned once again that in God alone can we truly know (not only feel) that we are valuable.
4. A Christian perspective helps any essay bring its points to a satisfying conclusion.
5. I have known the words "human dignity” for really long but never knew what it truly meant till I had to write this essay.
6. I learned that we don't have to kill millions of people to disregard human dignity. It happens every day when we gossip or bully. 

Paper prompt (750-1000 words): Part of what’s wrong with the world is the tendency to disregard the human dignity of others. Analyze this tendency, using examples from literature, history, current events, and your own experience, and articulate a Christian response. Be sure to address the relevance of the Biblical concepts of the image of God and the second greatest commandment. Quote Night and the Bible at least three times each.

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan

Assessment helps your students learn. Assessment can also help your students connect God’s world and Word. Watch this video to learn 5 things about using assessment:




Want to work with your colleagues to better use assessment? If so, then purchase Use Assessment (US$25), a discussion-based kit with 7 sessions.
 
These 7 sessions will help you…

• Evaluate and improve your use of assessment to help your students connect God’s world and Word.
• Analyze and explain how assessment can help your students connect God’s world and Word.
• Identify and explain what types of assessment can help your students connect God’s world and Word.
• Make one assessment even better.
• Prepare your students for and give an assessment that requires your students to connect God’s world and Word.
• Use your assessment data to help your students connect God’s world and Word.
• Increase your commitment to using assessment to help your students connect God’s world and Word

Download a sample session.

Purchase Use Assessment (US$25). This kit is 1 of a 4-part series:

1. Help Your Students Connect God’s World and Word
2. Use Assessment
3. Use Questions
4. Meet Student Learning Needs

You want your students to apply a Biblical perspective to what they study. You’ve heard that assessment can help. So, you want to learn more. Good.

Question: How can you learn more about using assessment?

Answer: By exploring the following list of 12 questions.

1. How does assessment impact student learning?
2. What type of assessment can you use?
3. What makes a good assessment good?
4. How good is your assessment?
5. How can you make your assessment even better?
6. How proficiently do you want your students to use a Biblical perspective?
7. How much practice do your students need?
8. What makes a good rubric good?
9. How can you use a rubric?
10. How can you use assessment data?
11. What's your vision for using assessment?
12. How committed are you to having your students apply a Biblical perspective to what they learn?

Remember: The real question isn't "How can you learn more about using assessment?" The real question is "How will you use assessment help your students apply a Biblical perspective to what they study?”


Additional resources:

1. Videos: Teach and assess Biblical perspective, Biblical perspective assessment helps, Assessment helps students value and get proficient at Biblical perspective,
2. Teacher testimonials regarding using assessment
3. Self-assessment: To get started with using assessment, take this self-assessment
4. Tutorial: Use assessment to help students understand and apply a Biblical perspective
5. Use assessment

You want your students to apply a Biblical perspective to what they study. You’ve heard that assessment can help. So, you want to use assessment.

Question: How can you get started?

Answer: By taking the following self-assessment. Rate each item, using the following scale:

4: Strongly agree • 3: Agree • 2: Disagree • 1: Strongly disagree

___ I understand how assessment impacts student application of a Biblical perspective.
___ I know what type of assessment to use to help my students apply a Biblical perspective.

___ I know what makes a good assessment good.
___ The assessments I give my students are good.
___ I work to make my assessments even better.

___ My students proficiently apply a Biblical perspective to what they study.
___ My students apply creation-fall-redemption-restoration to what they study.
___ My students get sufficient practice in applying a Biblical perspective to what they study.

___ The rubrics I use to score my assessments are good.
___ I use my rubrics effectively.
___ I use my assessment data to modify instruction.

___ I use assessment to help my students apply a Biblical perspective.
___ I have a clear vision for using assessment to help my students apply a Biblical perspective.
___ I want to learn more about using assessment to help my students apply a Biblical perspective.
___ I am committed to helping my students apply a Biblical perspective to what they study.


Now, ask yourself 4 questions about the data:

1. How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
2. What satisfies/concerns me about the data?
3. Which items would it be helpful to learn more about?
4. What will I do?

Additional resources:

1. Videos: Teach and assess Biblical perspective, Biblical perspective assessment helps, Assessment helps students value and get proficient at Biblical perspective,
2. Teacher testimonials regarding using assessment
3. Tutorial: Use assessment to help students understand and apply a Biblical perspective
4. Use assessment
5. To learn more about using assessment, explore these 12 questions

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan, responds:

I use assessments to see how well my students are connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches—and I use assessments to give my students practice making connections. I give a total of 9 Biblical perspective assessments. I assess content/Bible connections in 2 of 4 presentations, 2 of 9 unit tests, and 5 of 8 essays.
 
Here are the prompts for my 9 assessments:
 
Presentation prompt (used at the end of first and second semester): Connect to something you studied this semester in English 10, develop that connection as your project, connect a Biblical principle to the topic, and connect the Biblical principle to your life in a way you can implement and report on. This may be done as an individual (5-8 min. presentation) or in a group (8-10 min. presentation).
 
Unit test prompts:
(1) Short story unit (12/100 points): Describe Camus’s existentialism. Be sure to include:

• A definition of existentialism.
• The juxtaposition that makes humanity’s situation absurd.
• The 2 things the author says give meaning, illustrating them from the story.
• A response to “What of truth (from a Biblical perspective) has the author seen, and what has he missed?”

(2) Night unit (6/60 points): What can a Christian say to someone whose painful experience causes him or her to question the existence of a good God? In your answer, be sure to list and briefly explain 3 of the points in the letter “What Can Speak to Our Wounds?”
 
Essay prompts:
(1) Cry, the Beloved Country unit (750-1000 words): Compare/contrast how 2 of the characters from Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country illuminate the Biblical concept of shalom. Next, apply insights gained from your comparison/contrast to a current event or personal situation.
 
(2) Night unit (750-1000 words): How significant a part of what’s wrong with the world is the tendency to disregard the human dignity of others, and how should a Christian respond? Illustrate your answer from literature, history, current events, and your own experience. Be sure to address the relevance of the Biblical concepts of the image of God and the second greatest commandment.
 
(3) Short story unit (500 words): For one of the short stories you read, identify a theme, analyze how the author uses literary conventions to communicate it, and evaluate it from a Biblical perspective.
 
(4) Poetry unit (500 words): Using the poetry analysis skills we practiced, critique the lyrics of a favorite song: what the lyrics say, how they say it, and what God might think of what they say.
 
(5) A Doll's House unit (750-1000 words): What kind of individual are you, why, what kind do you want to be, and what will help or hinder you in becoming that individual? In your answer, be sure to include responses to the following 3 questions:
(A) Who are you spiritually, personality-wise, and culturally? (See below.)

• Spiritually: How does God define you, to what extent do you agree (if not, what’s your alternate definition?), and what practical implications does that have? (Cite the Bible at least 3 times.)
• Personality-wise: How does the Meyers-Briggs assessment define you, to what extent do you agree (why/why not), and what practical implications does that have? (Cite personality information at least 2 times.)
• Culturally: Which of Kohls’ cultural values are strongest for you? Why? (Influence of home culture? Japanese culture? US culture? CAJ culture?) (Cite Kohls at least 2 times.)

(B) How do these aspects of you interact?
(C) How does understanding these things about yourself help you determine your mission in life and how to attain it?

Do you want to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches? To value those connections? And to get feedback you can use to modify instruction? If so, give your students a Biblical perspective assessment.

Help your students develop a Christ-centered worldview during class by teaching Biblical perspective lessons and giving Biblical perspective assessments.

Kim Essenburg serves with Christian Reformed World Missions by teaching English 10 at Christian Academy in Japan. Kim shares about how assessment helps students apply a Biblical perspective to what they study.

What student learning results are you excited about?

Kim: At the end of a recent short story unit, I had students apply a Biblical perspective to 1 of the short stories we studied. Here are 3 excerpts from student essays:

1. “The Guest” by Albert Camus: In contrast to what Camus and Daru experienced, there is inherent meaning and moral guidelines in life given by God—a conclusion based on a Biblical principle. Truth, which is God’s teaching, is apparent everywhere…(New International Version, Romans 1.20). In fact, the truth of the only God is accessible…(Acts 17.20). We must learn what God’s truth is and apply it to our lives because as Daru understood, human wisdom is faulty…. Humans must establish God’s truth as their anchor and base their decisions on his truth, which may not yield the obviously “good” consequences in this life, but are right because they are part of God’s perfect will.
   
   
2. “The Bucket Rider” by Franz Kafka: We…have…hope that Nihilism doesn’t know of: all our suffering is going to end. Revelation describes the coming of heaven in chapter 21, verse 3b and 4: “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tea from there eyes. There will be no more death or morning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” What a comforting thought!
   
   
3. “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” by Leo Tolstoy: The Bible is clear about what fostering such desires does to people. Jesus said in Luke 12.15 that people have the wrong idea about what it is to truly live when they look for fulfillment in things…. And Paul commands the rich to put their hopes in God, rather than in their wealth “so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life” (I Tim. 6.17-19). But what could be greater than having substantial wealth? Hebrews sheds some light on this question: “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (Hebrews 13.5).

What was the assessment prompt?

Kim: My students wrote a 500-word persuasive essay on the following: Identify the theme of a short story, analyze how the author uses literary conventions to communicate the theme, and evaluate the theme from a Biblical perspective.

• The main part of this essay will be about the theme.
  
• For your thesis and preview of points, state the theme and the main literary conventions the author uses to communicate the theme (setting, characterization, plot, imagery, symbol, irony, diction…).
  
• In the body paragraphs, use support from the story, including at least 3 quotations.
  
• For your conclusion, write a Biblical perspective paragraph. Pick 1 Biblical principle related to the theme and cite at least 3 Bible passages and 1 example from your own life/observation to support the Biblical principle.

What are you learning about helping students apply a Biblical perspective to what they study in class?

Kim: Assessment helps. The more Biblical perspective assessments I give, the better my students get at applying a Biblical perspective. The more practice I give them, the better they get. Repeatedly giving Biblical perspective assessments really does help my students apply a Biblical perspective!

Kim and Michael Essenburg, missionaries with Christian Reformed World Missions, serve at Christian Academy in Japan. Here they discuss students applying a Biblical perspective.

Michael: What are you excited about?

Kim: I’m excited that 1 of my English 10 students wrote, “I have no right to choose whether I should help or not; the day I chose to follow my consistent and loving God, I threw away the option of apathy.”

Michael: I can see why you’re excited. What were your students studying?

Kim: Elie Wiesel’s Night, a Holocaust memoir. During their study, they focused on 2 essential questions: “What’s wrong with the world?” and “Who is my neighbor?”

At the end of the 3-week unit, my students wrote essays. I’m excited that their writing is improving, and I’m excited that they applied a Biblical perspective to a theme of Night, the mistreatment of others.

Michael: What was the essay prompt?

Kim: My students wrote 750-word essays on the following: How significant a part of what’s wrong with the world is the tendency to disregard the human dignity of others, and how should a Christian respond? Illustrate your answer from literature, history, current events, and your own experience. Be sure to address the relevance of the Biblical concepts of the image of God and the second greatest commandment.

Michael: That’s a challenging essay prompt. How did you prepare your students for it?

Kim: Before they started reading Night, my students considered 2 essential questions (“What’s wrong with the world?” and “Who is my neighbor?”) and discussed “Justice in an Unjust World,” a 5-page article by Gary Haugen, president of International Justice Mission.

Then as they read Night, they discussed racism, discrimination, human dignity, and the basis of human dignity, being created in God’s image. They also increased their awareness of recent events by watching clips from Hotel Rwanda and jig-sawing 4 articles:

1. “Being Muslim in a Mad, Sad, World”—an August 3, 2005, editorial in The Yomiuri Shimbun (which was reposting the article from The Washington Post).
   
2. “Keep Crying Out”—a 1-page description of Darfur from the December 9, 2006, edition of The Economist.
   
3. “A Responsibility to Protect”—a 2-page article from the December 2006 edition of Sojourners that considers the question, “‘Is military intervention the only way?’”
   
4. “Alien Nation”—an article by Isaac Canales from the fall 2007 edition of Leadership that discusses illegal aliens in California.

After reading Night, they discussed Wiesel’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, which asserts that apathy helps the oppressor. They also worked in groups of 4 to study Leviticus 19:18 (which talks about loving our neighbor) and the 7 Bible passages mentioned in the NIV study note. For each of the 8 passages, they identified the speaker, occasion, audience, and purpose.

Michael: Your students did significant preparation for the essay. Sounds like they learned a lot. What did you learn from teaching your Night unit?

Kim: Well, I have a deeper appreciation for the power of preparing students for an assessment before, during, and after the study of a piece of literature. And I realize that providing students with additional articles is helpful—last year they discussed 2 articles and this year they discussed 5. The additional articles helped my students get a better understanding of sin and its implications for how people treat each other.

Teaching can be discouraging at times, and reading essays in which students apply a Biblical perspective is encouraging! I was encouraged, for example, when I read, “Our voices can be heard. We just need to speak up loud enough for the world to hear; there are many ways to do this…[not] telling racist jokes is how I plan to do my part.”

Writing this essay helped my students more deeply connect what they study, their lives, and a Biblical perspective.

* Want to read additional reflections?

• Course: Use 9 questions to reflect on Biblical perspective in your course
• Subject: Use 8 questions to reflect on a subject area

You know.

You know the following 5 statements are true:

1. Writing essays helps your students improve their writing.
   
2. Singing in concerts helps your students improve their singing.
   
3. Giving presentations helps your students improve their presentation skills.
   
4. Playing basketball games helps your students improve their basketball skills.
   
5. Performing in plays helps your students improve their acting.

Why am I telling you this? Here’s why:

• Essays, concerts, presentations, games, and plays help your students improve.
  
• Essays, concerts, presentations, games, and plays are forms of assessment.
  
• Assessment helps your students improve.

Connection: Assessment helps your students improve their use of a biblical perspective. That’s right. Your students will improve their use of a biblical perspective as they complete rigorous assessments that require them to connect course content, their lives, and a biblical perspective.

Ask yourself, “If my students completed an assessment in each unit like those listed below, how would that affect their proficiency?”

• Science 2: Write a 1–2 paragraph report about a dinosaur of your choice. Include where the dinosaur lived, when it lived, what it ate, what it looked like, its size, how it got its name, who found it, and any other interesting facts you found. Give three examples of how your dinosaur shows God’s creativity and power.
  
• Math 6: Construct a model of the solar system that accurately represents planet size and planet distance from the sun. Next, write a paragraph in response to the following question: What does math have to with God’s world? In your paragraph, make three connections between the biblical truths we studied in class and the model you made. Include quotations from two Bible passages.
  
• English 10: Write a 1000-word essay to answer the following two questions: Who are you? How does knowing who you are help you love your neighbor and/or heal what’s wrong in the world? In your answer use first-person, use six quotations (three from the literature studied in class and three from the Bible) and cite a minimum of seven sources (including works of literature, the Bible, and a Bible dictionary).

Now you know. Assessment helps your students improve their use of a biblical perspective of course content. Use assessment to help your students. Today.