My UVU professor has given an assignment to write a blog post describing different or creative assessments I can use that the standard ones.
Portfolio
I have done some research on three different assignments. The first is a portfolio. While researching this type of assessment, I realized it is a collection of work done by a student over a long period of time. I have my students collect all their writing examples throughout the year. The students keep them in a three ring binder. Each entry is dated and kept in chronological order. Most students usually peruse their writing folders each time we put something new in it
The nice thing about this type of portfolio is it also includes self assessment. They can take a look at their writings from the beginning of the school year to the end. In third grade we start by printing, but after the Christmas break, all work is done in cursive. It gives the student to see how much they have learned and how far they have grown.
In the past, there has been no formal reflection done as the student has reviewed his/her work. I would like to create a rubric that has the learning standards from our core curriculum. This way they can review their work and check off if they really have learned how to capitalize and punctuate. Do they have an introduction? Do they have a main idea? Are their key details to support their main idea? Is there a conclusion? Is there text evidence? Dr. Cox suggested the students write a final paper citing text evidence from their own writings to show they have met the standards. I love this idea.
After gathering the data from the rubrics, I would like to compile it to see if there are trends or outliers. I would also like to see if there are specific learning targets that did not get met or others that seem to be completely met.
Project/Performance
The next type of assessment I would like to discuss is that of project or some type of performance. Part of my centers in third grade is a listening center. We listen/read several books of The Magic Tree House Series. It fulfills many purposes, but mainly one of the common core standards of comparing two books from the same author.
After reading the book, I give out a list of projects/performances the students can choose from. I also give them a rubric by which they will be graded. They present or perform in front of their peers and then submit their product guides to me. Dr. Cox suggested I might meet with each student after they turn in their product guides and interview them about the scores they give themselves to the score I give them. I also thing this might be a great way to introduce peer assessments.
I need to develop some kind of rubric or form each student can fill out so they can rate the project or performance by their fellow student. This way they can have a self assessment, a teacher assessment and a peer assessment all on the same project. This will help them see the difference between these three types of assessments. It will be interesting to see which they think is the most valid.
Self Assessment
The last type of assessment is self-assessment. I have talked a little about it in the previous types of assessments as a layered effect. For the last several years, I have produced a list of all the learning targets we cover in a year. I have them organized in a month to month list. Each month, we go over the learning targets and talk about them in class. We discuss as a class each learning target. Sometimes, I have things on the list that I have not had time to cover. It is interesting to see if the students think we have learned these particular goals or not. We discuss success criteria to know if they have really learned the target or not. The student checks off the box in front of the learning target if they feel they have learned it.
It is very easy for students to check off the box. Many do not really stop to analyze if they have learned the target or not. They are happy to check off the box. I do consider this a type of self assessment, but I would like to refine this a little better to have specific success criteria under some of the learning targets to help guide the student to whether s/he has mastered the skill.
I would like to gather this information and chart it in order to see the percentages of those who believe they have mastered it and those that do not. One of the biggest cons of this type of assessment is those who are very conscientious and do great work, often grade themselves lower. Then other students who do not do great work, but have great self-esteem, grade themselves highly because they believe they did a great job.
