Audience: Teachers with Seesaw AI
Show What You Know Assessment gives students a familiar Seesaw way to explain their thinking and gives teachers a faster way to understand what students know. Students use Draw + Record to show their work and explain their thinking. Seesaw AI then reviews their response using a teacher-provided rubric and provides an AI-generated summary, concept understanding indicator, and overall score.
School and district admins can control whether teachers have access to any AI-powered features.
How it works
Create your assessment
- In the Creative Canvas, select the Question Type "Show What You Know."
- Establish a time limit for the student recording - this can be anywhere from 15 seconds to 5 minutes.
- Ask a question that asks students to demonstrate their understanding. You can create your own, or have the question generated for you.
Add a grading rubric
Your rubric tells Seesaw AI what students should demonstrate. Clear, specific criteria help AI evaluate responses consistently across your class.
For example, instead of:
Shows understanding of fractions.
Try:
Explains that equivalent fractions represent the same amount and explains how the visual model demonstrates this.
- You can create your own, or have the rubric generated for you.
- Tap Add.
Students show what they know
- Assign the assessment to your students.
- Students use Draw + Record to show their work and explain their thinking. They can combine drawings, writing, and verbal explanations to demonstrate what they understand.
- Seesaw AI will generate a transcript and AI insights.
Review AI-generated insights
Once students submit, Seesaw AI provides:
- Summary: A quick overview of the student's response.
- Concept understanding: An indication of the student's demonstrated understanding.
- Overall score: A score based on your evaluation rubric.
Use these insights to decide which responses to review more closely and where students may need additional feedback or instruction.
Try it with...
Show What You Know is especially useful when students need to explain how or why, not just give an answer.
Math: Have students solve a problem, draw a model, and explain their reasoning.
Science: Have students draw a model, explain a concept, or describe what happened during an investigation.
It's also a great fit for other open-ended tasks involving reasoning, problem-solving, critical thinking, and explanation.
Tips for great results
Give students a clear prompt. Tell them what to solve, explain, or demonstrate.
Keep your rubric focused. Describe the specific evidence of understanding you're looking for.
Encourage students to explain their thinking. Their recording gives them another way to show what they know.
Aim for clear audio. Quiet environments and headphones can help improve transcription accuracy.
Take a look at the original work. AI insights are a helpful starting point, but the student's complete response and your professional judgment should always be part of the picture.
About Formative Assessment
Show What You Know Assessment with AI Autograding is designed to support formative assessment. Use it to understand student thinking, identify misconceptions, and plan next steps.
It is not intended to replace standardized summative assessments or teacher evaluation.