Creating Custom Assessments

Kiddom is designed with customization and personalization in mind. As educators, we know that many students benefit from more practice before tests. That’s why we’ve made it easy for teachers to create practice assessments that can be tied directly to standards. This way, you can know exactly which students are prepared before their exams.

Creating an Assessment from Scratch

To create a new assessment in Kiddom, navigate to your Curriculum page (flowchart icon) and click the blue Create Content button in the top right corner. Select the Course option from the pop-up menu to create a place to store your new materials. 

Within the course, you will need to give the course a name and create at least one unit. Note: If you would like to house various types of materials, it is recommended to create different units for each type. For example, an Assessments unit, a Presentations unit, and an Activities unit. 

Within your assessments unit, you will find a default lesson plan as well as a button to add more lesson plans later on. Note: When creating standardized assessments for different units, it is recommended to create lesson plans for each unit.

You will need to give the plan a name (such as “Unit 1 Assessments”). In the lesson plan, you will find a default assessment and a default activity that you can edit, as well as buttons to create more of each. Other materials, such as presentations and student notebooks, can be added using the gray plus (+) in the lesson plan.

Clicking on the default assessment will open a blank assessment that is ready to be edited. 

Once in Editor Mode, add a title for the assessment. You can change the assignment’s settings by clicking on the Settings pillbox button above the title, including which grade levels and subjects the assessment applies to. You can also add a description of the assessment below the title. This will only be visible to teachers or administrators accessing the assessment, not to students.

Adding Questions

By default, a blank written response question is added as a starting place. To add additional questions, click on the gray plus (+) symbol above the first question and select Questions. The drop-down menu also includes other materials that you can add to the assessment, such as multipart questions, student-facing text for reading analysis, and attachments including videos.

Once a question is created, you can select or change the type of question. Kiddom has 15 different question types available, many of which can be graded automatically. Auto-graded questions will have our robot icon next to the question.

Question Settings

Each question can be customized in many ways other than just the type of question presented.

Point Values

You can adjust the question’s point value by clicking on the Points box and clicking the up or down arrows or typing in a point value.

Standards and Skills

Questions can be tied to standards by clicking the Align to Standard button. This will open a searchable menu to select which standards/skills the question should be aligned with.

Student Tools

The Show Work toggle allows teachers to require students to explain their answers using various tools available within Kiddom. Students can add images, video responses, audio responses, or drawings using the Student Tools. K-5 Students can also show their mathematical understanding using the Math Manipulative tools.

Evaluation Notes and Rubrics

Teachers can add evaluation notes, including an answer rubric, to ensure consistent grading practices across classes and classrooms. To add evaluation notes, click on the Note for Evaluating Responses button to open a text box. Beyond text, teachers can add images to this box, such as sample responses, correct graphs, or handwritten problems.

Audio and Video Recording for Differentiation

Teachers also have the option to record audio or video for a question using the Camera and Microphone tools. This allows teachers to create read-aloud versions of questions to support differentiated instruction.

Previewing, Publishing and Reaccessing a Created Assessment

The Preview button (eyeball icon) allows teachers to see what the students will see when they open the assessment, allowing the teachers to make adjustments before students begin to interact with the assessment.

Once the assessment is complete, click on the Done button. This will bring you to your assessment view, where you can assign the assessment using either the Assign or Classwork feature.

If you want to return to the assessment at a later time to assign to students or to make adjustments to the assessment:

1. Navigate to your Curriculum page and scroll down to the My Curriculum section to find the created course.
2. Navigate within that by clicking on the associated unit and lesson plan tiles.
3. Once within the lesson plan, you will find the created content. Clicking on the assessment will reopen it.
4. Once opened, you have the option to assign the assessment, edit it, or delete it. If you edit the assignment, be sure to click Done when you are finished in order to ensure that the document updates.

School and District Editors: Click here to learn more about how to share created content with your colleagues.