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Content Area Learning Authentic Assessment

How do students monitor their understanding and take

responsibility for their learning?

January 19, 2010

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Authentic AssessmentIf I taught someone to play golf I would not check what they have learned with just a written test. I would want to see more direct, authentic evidence. I would put my

student out on a golf course to play. Similarly, if we want to know if our students can interpret literature,

calculate potential savings on sale items, test a hypothesis, develop a fitness plan, converse in a

foreign language, or apply other knowledge and skills they have learned, then authentic assessments will

provide the most direct evidence.

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Silent Discussion: How do students monitor their understanding in your classroom? Give an example.

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What is Authentic Assessment?

A form of assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills –

Jonathan Mueller (2008)

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Why Use Authentic Assessment?

We want students to be able to use the acquired knowledge and skills in the real world. So, our assessments have to also tell us if students can apply what they have learned in authentic situations.

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What does authentic assessment look like?

In authentic assessment, students:

do science experiments

conduct social-science research

write stories and reports

read and interpret literature

solve math problems that have real-world applications

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How is Authentic Assessment similar to/different from Traditional Assessment?

“Traditional assessment" refers to multiple-choice tests, fill-in-the-blanks, true-false, matching and some writing prompts.  In these cases students typically select an answer or recall information to complete the assessment. These tests may be standardized or teacher-created. (Meuller,1992).

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In authentic assessment the teachers first determine the tasks that students will perform to demonstrate their mastery, and then a curriculum is developed that will enable students to perform those tasks well, which would include the acquisition of essential knowledge and skills.  This has been referred to as planning backwards (McDonald,1992).

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  In the authentic assessment model, the same authentic task used to measure the students' ability to apply the knowledge or skills is used as a vehicle for student learning.  

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Teachers do not have to choose between authentic assessment and traditional assessment. Often, teachers use a mix of traditional and authentic assessments to serve different purposes.

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  You may already be using authentic tasks in your classroom.  Or, you may already have the standards written, the first and most important step in the process. Perhaps you have a task but need to more clearly articulate the criteria for evaluating student performance on the task. Or, you may just want to develop a rubric for the task.

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Analytic rubrics articulates levels of performance for each criterion so the teacher can assess student performance on each criterion. (Research Rubric)

Criteria 1 2 3

Number of Sources 1-4 5-9 10-12

Historical Accuracy Lots of historical inaccuracies

Few inaccuracies

No apparent inaccuracies

Organization Can not tell from which source information

Can tell with difficulty where information came from

Can easily tell which sources info was drawn from

Bibliography Bibliography contains very little information.

Bibliography contains most relevant information

All relevant information included

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Holistic Rubric assigns a level of performance by assessing performance across multiple criteria as a whole (Research Rubric)

3 - Excellent Researcherincluded 10-12 sources no apparent historical inaccuracies can easily tell which sources information was drawn from all relevant information is included

2 - Good Researcherincluded 5-9 sources few historical inaccuracies can tell with difficulty where information came from bibliography contains most relevant information

1 - Poor Researcherincluded 1-4 sources lots of historical inaccuracies cannot tell from which source information came bibliography contains very little information

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What is an authentic task?

The term task is often used synonymously with the term assessment in the field of authentic assessment. A task is considered authentic when…

students are asked to construct their own responses rather than to select from ones presented

the task replicates challenges faced in the real world. 

 

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How can I use authentic assessment in my classroom?

Performance Assessment

Performance assessments test students' ability to use skills in a variety of authentic contexts. They frequently require students to work collaboratively and to apply skills and concepts to solve complex problems. Short- and long-term tasks include such activities as:

writing, revising, and presenting a report to the class

conducting a week-long science experiment and analyzing the results

working with a team to prepare a position in a classroom debate

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Short Investigations

Many teachers use short investigations to assess how well students have mastered basic concepts and skills. Most short investigations begin with a stimulus, like a math problem, political cartoon, map, or excerpt from a primary source.

The teacher may ask students to interpret, describe, calculate, explain, or predict. These investigations may use enhanced multiple-choice questions. Or they may use concept mapping, a technique that assesses how well students understand relationships among concepts.

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Open-Response Questions

Open-response questions, like short investigations, present students with a stimulus and ask them to respond. Responses include:

a brief written or oral answer

a mathematical solution

a drawing

a diagram, chart, or graph

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Portfolios

A portfolio documents learning over time. This long-term perspective accounts for student improvement and teaches students the value of self-assessment, editing, and revision. A student portfolio can include:

journal entries and reflective writing

peer reviews

artwork, diagrams, charts, and graphs

group reports

student notes and outlines

rough drafts and polished writing

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Self-AssessmentSelf-assessment requires students to evaluate their own participation, process, and products. Evaluative questions are the basic tools of self-assessment. Students give written or oral responses to questions like:

What was the most difficult part of this project for you?

What do you think you should do next?

If you could do this task again, what would you do differently?

What did you learn from this project?

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Summary of Steps for Authentic Assessment (Meuller, 2008)

Identify your standards for your students. For a particular standard or set of standards, develop a task

your students could perform that would indicate that they have met these standards.

Identify the characteristics of good performance on that task, the criteria, that, if present in your students’ work, will indicate that they have performed well on the task, i.e., they have met the standards.

For each criterion, identify two or more levels of performance along which students can perform which will sufficiently discriminate among student performance for that criterion. The combination of the criteria and the levels of performance for each criterion will be your rubric for that task (assessment).

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Self-regulated Learning (Paris & Ayres,1994)

The term self-regulated learning (SRL) became popular in the 1980’s because it emphasized the emerging autonomy and responsibility of students to take charge of their own learning.

Three central characteristics of SRL are– awareness of thinking – use of strategies– sustained motivation

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When students direct their own learning they….

Select goals to pursue and work on a variety of task. This means they have choices.

Adjust the task they are working on to be challenging, interesting, and achievable.

Know how to use the resources that are available to the; they know how to plan.

Know how to collaborate.

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Focus on constructing meaning from what they are doing.

Evaluate and interpret their behaviors in ways that promote further effort and resiliency.

Monitor their own performance and evaluate their progress against criteria and reasonable standards. (Metacognition)

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Metacognitive Knowledge (Paris, Lipson, and Wixson, 1983)

Students have declarative knowledge about what strategies are available to them

Students understand procedural knowledge about how strategies operate.

Students understand conditional knowledge about under what circumstances strategies are helpful, when they should be applied, and why they are necessary.

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Self-regulated learning activities also include self-evaluation tools that include…

Portfolios Term/Semester

Reflections Inventories Surveys Journals Peer Conferences

Summaries Exit Slips Revision/Editing Sheets Group Evaluations Goal Setting

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Freewrite: What is the relationship between these three concepts?

Concepts Response

Authentic AssessmentConstructive FeedbackSelf-Regulated Learning

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Turn and Talk:

How do these three concepts fit into the Gradual Release of Responsibility?

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References

McDonald, J. P. (1992). Dilemmas of planning backwards: Rescuing a good idea. Teachers College Record, 94, 152-169

Meuller, J. (2008). Authentic Assessment Toolkit. http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/index.htm

Paris, S.G. and Ayres, L.R. (1994). Becoming Reflective Students and Teachers with Portfolios and Authentic Assessments. A Series on Applied Educational Psychology.

Paris, S. G., Lipson, M. Y., and Wixson, K. K. (1983). Becoming a strategic reader. Contemporary Educational Psychology.

Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.