1.1. "Authentic assessment refers to assessment tasks that resemble reading and writing in the real world and in school." (Hiebert, Valencia & Afflerbach, 1994; Wiggins, 1993)
1.2. The purpose of this assessment is to make education as meaningful as possible and create lifelong learners. I consider it to be for learning because it motivates the student to keep learning.
1.3. An advantage to this is that students will develop skills that they can use outside of school.
1.4. I can't think of a disadvantage other than what the OECD report said about there being inconsistencies between formative and summative assessments.
1.5. An example of this would be for students to assess themselves on the first day of the unit in regards to what they know about nouns, verbs, punctuation, and capitalization, and tenses and compare it to what they know about all these areas at the end of the unit to see how much they have learned and improved. I think it would give them perspective as well as build their confidence.
2. high-stakes
2.1. "A high-stakes test is any test used to make important decisions about students, educators, schools, or districts, most commonly for the purpose of accountability—i.e., the attempt by federal, state, or local government agencies and school administrators to ensure that students are enrolled in effective schools and being taught by effective teachers." (Edglossary, 2014)
2.2. The purpose is to make sure students and teachers are meeting certain criteria.
2.3. An advantage is that it can help teachers know what to work toward.
2.4. A disadvantage is that it might not be fair to certain students, such as ELLs.
2.5. An example would be standardized tests.
3. diagnostic
3.1. The University of Exeter states that "diagnostic assessment is intended to improve the learner’s experience and their level of achievement. However, diagnostic assessment looks backwards rather than forwards. It assesses what the learner already knows and/or the nature of difficulties that the learner might have, which, if undiagnosed, might limit their engagement in new learning. It is often used before teaching or when a problem arises." (2006)
3.2. As the definition points out, the purpose of diagnostic assessment is to determine what the students' abilities are. It is an assessment for learning because it checks what the students know allowing the teacher to know what to base their lessons on.
3.3. An advantage of this is that it helps the teacher know the levels of their students therefore avoiding unnecessary confusion and misunderstanding.
3.4. I can't really think of a disadvantage for my classroom because I think this is essential but some teachers might not think they have the time to practically implement this, according to the OECD report.
3.5. An example of this in my classroom would be pre-assessment on which to scaffold my lessons. Before I get into teaching tenses, I could start with the basics and ask the students to write down what nouns or verbs are on a piece of paper at the beginning of the unit.
4. summative
4.1. Edglossary.org defines summative assessments as being "used to evaluate student learning, skill acquisition, and academic achievement at the conclusion of a defined instructional period—typically at the end of a project, unit, course, semester, program, or school year." (2013)
4.2. This is an assessment of learning. Sometimes the purpose is to motivate students to work hard. Oftentimes, it is for the teacher to assign students grades.
4.3. An advantage is that students can see how their score matches up with their classmates.
4.4. A disadvantage is that students can't revise their scores because they are usually final and it is often too late for teachers to help failing students.
4.5. An example would be a multiple choice test on past, present, and future tenses at the end of the unit.
5. formative
5.1. Edglossary.org defines formative assessments as referring "to a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course. Formative assessments help teachers identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or learning standards they have not yet achieved so that adjustments can be made to lessons, instructional techniques, and academic support." (2014)
5.2. The purpose of formative assessments is to check for learning so teachers can cater their lessons to help students reach their academic goals. It is a for learning process because students can check their own understanding and as a team, teachers and students can work together to make adjustments before they have summative assessments.
5.3. There are many advantages but one I haven't already written is that these assessments usually help students process information better than summative assessments.
5.4. A disadvantage is that the focus is not on them as much as summative assessments, according to Rick Wormeli.
5.5. An example would be the teacher observing and questioning students to see what they understand and don't understand and altering following lessons based on that information to ensure that students are learning at their levels.
6. self-assessment
6.1. "Self-assessment requires students to reflect on their own work and judge how well they have performed in relation to the assessment criteria. The focus is not necessarily on having students generate their own grades, but rather providing opportunities for them to be able to identify what constitutes a good (or poor!) piece of work. Some degree of student involvement in the development and comprehension of assessment criteria is therefore an important component of self-assessment." (Boud, 1995)
6.2. Self-assessments are indicators for learning because they are types of formative assessments usually and help students and teachers know what to build on.
6.3. An advantage to these kind of assessments is that the student is involved in figuring out what they know and don't which I find to be motivating for them.
6.4. A disadvantage is that some students might not take it seriously or it might not be completely accurate.
6.5. I used a form of this in my unit plan when I had students answer two questions at the end of the day which were: What did I learn? and What do I need help with or to keep working on? They could write this privately on a piece of paper to save face and pass it in to me before they left class.
7. performance-based
7.1. "Performance-based assessment is a way for students to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and material that they've learned. Performance-based assessment measures how well students can apply or use what they know, often in real-world situations." (Eduptopia, 2015)
7.2. As the definition states, performance-based assessments are used to determine what students know and how they apply it. I believe it can assess both for and of learning because it can be used as a formative assessment to tailor future teaching by the teacher or as a summative assessment and final grade.
7.3. An advantage of performance-based assessment is that it might be more effective than a rigid test. It allows the student to use a variety of ways to prove what they have learned, usually.
7.4. A disadvantage is that just like other assessments, extenuating circumstances could affect the student's performance and therefore, grade. If a student is sick, low on time, or low on money to invest in a project, a performance-based assessment might not be accessible for them.
7.5. An example for my class would be the students creating a presentation or skit with a dialogue implementing the proper tense and question words. It could be the final project and employ the media of their choice.
8. peer assessment
8.1. The University of Reading states, "Peer assessment involves students taking responsibility for assessing the work of their peers against set assessment criteria." (NDA)
8.2. The purpose of peer assessment is to use collaboration to promote deeper learning. This is an assessment for learning because it is a formative assessment that students can usually use to help them revise for their final and summative assessment.
8.3. An advantage to this type of assessment is that students can work together to help themselves achieve understanding while the teacher can circulate and take notes to also assess learning.
8.4. A disadvantage is that some students might feel uncomfortable being critiqued by their classmates and classmates might not always be tactful.
8.5. An example of peer assessment for my subject area would be to have students employ Two Stars and a Wish. The two stars will be things they liked and the wish will be what the student can improve on next. For example, in my unit plan, I had student working on dialogues in various tenses. In pairs, students can construct a rough draft of these criteria. Then they can rotate to a different partner, read the dialogue, and give the feedback on two things they liked and didn't. We can keep rotating until everyone has worked together so all the students can see the different ideas and opinions everyone has. Then we can discuss our ideas, what we learned, and see how our dialogues changed.
9. portfolio
9.1. "Portfolio assessment is an evaluation tool used to document student learning through a series of student-developed artifacts. Considered a form of authentic assessment, it offers an alternative or an addition to traditional methods of grading and high stakes exams. Portfolio assessment gives both teachers and students a controlled space to document, review, and analyze content leaning. In short, portfolios are a collection of student work that allows assessment by providing evidence of effort and accomplishments in relation to specific instructional goals." (Jardine, 1996)
9.2. This kind of assessment seems to also be possible both for learning and of learning because teachers and students can use it either to base what students need help with or as a summative assessment to decide a student's grade.
9.3. An advantage is that it is a holistic way to see what the student has learned because it can contain many pieces of work over a long period of time.
9.4. Again, I don't see many disadvantages other than the possibility of it being lost or difficult to organize. The benefits outweigh all that though, in my opinion.
9.5. An examples for my class would be to place students' self-assessments and questions in here. We could also include their written dialogues in here, although if it is the work of two students, we might need to make copies so both students have them. We could look at these at the end of the year or unit to review or see if students have any more questions about what we studied to further internalize and reinforce knowledge.
10. References
10.1. Hidden curriculum (2014, August 26). In S. Abbott (Ed.), The glossary of education reform. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/hidden-curriculum
10.2. Principles of Assessment. Retrieved on January 27, 2016 from: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/staff/development/academic/assessmentandfeedback/principlesofassessment/typesofassessment-definitions/
10.3. Boud, D. Enhancing Learning Through Self-Assessment. (1995). London. Routledge Falmer.
10.4. What Is Authentic Assessment? Retrieved on January 27, 2016 from: http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/litass/auth.html
10.5. Performance-Based Assessment: Engaging Students in Chemistry. Retrieved on January 27, 2016 from: http://www.edutopia.org/practice/performance-based-assessment-engaging-students-chemistry
10.6. Fernsten, L. Portfolio Assessment. (2009) Retrieved on January 27, 2016 from: http://www.education.com/reference/article/portfolio-assessment/
10.7. Engage in Assessment. Retrieved on January 27, 2016 from: https://www.reading.ac.uk/engageinassessment/peer-and-self-assessment/peer-assessment/eia-peer-assessment.aspx
10.8. Wormeli, Rick. Formative and Summative Assessment. Retrieved on January 27, 2016 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJxFXjfB_B4
