Great Books assessment tools are designed to help you assess the following unique critical-thinking and higher-order reading objectives:

• Idea—generating and clarifying ideas of what a text means
• Evidence—supporting and checking these ideas with evidence from the text
• Response—considering alternative interpretations, responding to others' ideas

Great Books assessment focuses on these objectives because they are all components of finding meaning in a text that you can observe in students' discussions and writing. When you focus your assessment on these objectives, you will gain insights you can use to guide your students' learning in Great Books programs.

Great Books programs embody a holistic approach to literacy learning, addressing many objectives simultaneously. Use the tools presented here, along with the assessments you use for your literacy curriculum as a whole, to evaluate your students' learning in Great Books programs.

Great Books Read-Aloud Program

Includes:

• Activity Score and Activity Mini-Rubrics
• Interpretive Drawing Rubric
• My Question Rubric
• Student Reflection: How We Worked Together

Junior Great Books Series 3-5

Includes:

• Planning for Assessment
• Activity Mini-Rubrics and Activity Score Sheet
• Critical-Thinking Rubric
• Building Your Answer
• Writing Rubric
• Portfolio Assessment
• Student Reflection
• Great Books Student Learning Objectives: K-12

Great Books Roundtable (middle school) and
Introduction to Great Books (high school)

Includes:

• Planning for Assessment
• Activity Mini-Rubrics and Activity Score Sheet
• Critical-Thinking Rubric
• Building Your Answer in Shared Inquiry Discussion
  
• Writing Rubric
• Portfolio Assessment
• Student Reflection
• Great Books Student Learning Objectives: K-12

Great Books Social Studies Series and Science Series

Many of the assessment tools for Great Books Roundtable and Introduction to Great Books  are appropriate for use at the high school level with Great Books social studies and science texts. The critical-thinking assessment tools and the student reflection resources may be particularly helpful supplements to your subject-specific standards and rubrics.

Teacher/Leader Reflection and Mentoring

For information on self-reflection, assessment, and mentoring of teachers and discussion leaders, please see Reflection and Mentoring Tools for Shared Inquiry Leaders.

Professional Development on Assessment

Learn more about assessment in Junior Great Books by attending the Great Books Foundation's 200-level course, Assessing Student Progress.