Robert Gandy Kuhs T Johnson R Agruso S Monrad D 2001 Put to the Test Tools and Techniques for Classroom Assessment I Overview of Assessment Quality Assessments should have validity reliability and fairness these qualities can be judged by the following questions 1 Does the assessment focus on the knowledge and skills that are taught in class and outlined in curriculum frameworks and state national standards 2 Does the assessment provide information about student learning that represents typical performance 3 Does the assessment provide opportunities for all types of students to demonstrate what they have learned More frequent and varied types of assessment create a comprehensive classroom assessment system that is valid reliable and fair Assessment is an iterative process meaning the consideration of one aspect of an assessment may need to be revisited when decisions are made at a later step in the process II Types of Assessment A Observation Anecdotal records Record important spontaneous behavior in an open ended format Checklist Record the presence or absence of specified behaviors characteristics attitudes and so on be on be provided Rating scale Record the teacher s judgment of the degree of specified behaviors characteristics attitudes Focus should specific observable behaviors Behavior being rated should defined as precisely as possible A description should be for each level to be rated Steps in developing an observation to ensure consistent data 1 Determine the purpose and focus of observation 2 Determine how the observation will be recorded 3 Decide when to observe 4 Identify the behaviors to be observed 5 Develop the record form 6 Try out the observational record Robert Gandy B Performance Tasks In Depth Assessment of Learning An assessment activity that requires students to demonstrate their achievement of a learning target by producing an extended written or spoken answer by engaging in group or individual activities or by creating a specific product Examples include essays projects debates skits etc Require that students construct their responses rather than select i e multiple choice true false Performance tasks should measure higher level thinking or problem solving skills use meaningful challenging engaging instructional tasks provide a real world context These tasks are well suited to assess learning in the highest three levels of Bloom s taxonomy Analysis Synthesis and Evaluation Assessment should emphasize both the content and process skills students are expected to learn There are three types of performance tasks Oral Describing a picture Demonstration Making patterns with blocks Reporting to class Product Bark Graphs Dioramas Using manipulatives Telling a story Debating Conversing in foreign language Participating in class discussion Brochures Finding locations on a map Participating in a group Pictographs Showing a physical skill Playing an instrument Oral Report about books or activities Essays Conducting an experiment Reciting a poem Journals Creative stories drawings Collections Posters Performing a search on the internet Written reports Robert Gandy C Checklists and Rubrics Checklists and Rubrics are also known as scoring guides The simplest scoring guide is a checklist and point allocated checklists allow teacher to reward partial credit depending on level of proficiency However this can sometimes leave the evaluative process unclear to the student Rubrics combine evaluative criteria with scales that explicitly define standards of performance They can be analytic or holistic An analytic rubric gives several scores for one piece of work and provides parents teachers and students with feedback about specific skills that need improvement Usually there are three to four levels of performance for each criterion A holistic rubric is useful at the end of a unit of study to provide a description of a student s performance It includes all the criteria of a checklist or analytic rubric but the teacher makes a single judgment and gives a single score considering all the criteria It simplifies the evaluation when it would be difficult to separate the evaluative criteria Typically they have five to six levels of performance Rubrics should have parallel structure each element of performance that is to be considered is mentioned in the description of every level of the rubric Rubrics can be task specific to a particular assignment of phase of a project or they can be generic evaluating a broader range of work Rubrics work to ensure that all students are assessed equitably on the same scale They sustain consistent attention the evaluative criteria Rubrics also have instructional implications they can help summarize for students what they will be learning and help the teacher ensure he or she has covered all the relevant process skills and content Have students construct a checklist and ensure they understand all the evaluative criteria featured in the rubric Then students can self and peerassess their work using the checklist Steps in constructing a rubric and checklist 1 Decide what evaluative criteria are central to the task s to be graded Robert Gandy 2 Decide if student work will be evaluated holistically or analytically 3 Develop rating scales for the scoring guide What qualitative and quantitative characteristics of performance will the teacher consider in grading the work Parallel structure addressing the same elements of performance in the descriptions at each level enhances the clarity of the language in a rubric In a holistic rubric difference in proficiency levels may be triggered by only one criterion it is better to repeat the descriptions of the unchanged elements rather than to ignore them When the description of a proficiency level has more than one element the use of conjunction and and or can distinguish performance levels Descriptors such as poor good and excellent do not communicate what is expected at each level stay away from general descriptors Make the language supportive of student learning by suggesting what the child needs to do rather than what is missing D Selected Response Items Generally speaking these are test questions but since all items on a test are not always presented as a question they are dubbed items These include 1 Multiple choice typically with four to five alternatives 2 True False 3 Matching Benefits include ease of data analysis with quick scoring and grading and no partial credit MC scores can be analyzed with frequency
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