Best+Practices+for+Classroom+Assessments


 * Best Practices**

Authentic assessment means measuring the ability of students to use knowledge and skills learned in the classroom in real-life situations. Authentic assessment is //not// paper and pencil tests. O’Malley and Peirce (1996) highlight performance assessment, portfolio assessment, and student self-assessment (p. 4). Oosterhof (2003) adds an important point that not //all// performance assessments are authentic (p. 147) so teachers must be mindful that the assessment contains a real-life use of the student’s skill or knowledge. Mindes (2003) points out that some critics claim that authentic assessment takes too much time and instruction suffers (p. 141). However, as she points out, when authentic assessment is used appropriately by teachers, instruction and assessment become symbiotic in nature (p. 141). The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and The National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education (NAECS/SDE) (2003) created a joint position statement in which they address the assessment of young children. They give three purposes for assessment “(1) making sound decisions about teaching and learning, (2) identifying significant concerns that may require focused intervention for individual children, and (3) helping programs improve their educational and developmental interventions.” (p. 3). These three purposes should be inherent in any authentic assessment. In addition, a supplement was added to specifically address the needs of young ELL students and seven recommendation categories were defined: 1. appropriate uses of screening and assessment; 2. culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment; 3. characteristics of assessments used to improve instruction; 4. use of standardized formal assessments; 5. characteristics of those conducting assessments; 6. the role of family; and 7. needs in the field. (NAEYC, 2005, p. 3) These categories are intended to help teachers and administrators make decisions about the purpose and types of assessments being used specifically with young ELL students and should be taken into consideration when creating any authentic assessment of ELLs.


 * Sample Authentic Assessment **


 * 1) Portfolio Assessme nt - Portfolios present an overall picture of a student’s growth over time.Assessment portfolios focus on specific standards and include student work over time as a reflection of mastery of that standard. In addition to student work, self-assessments and teacher assessments are vital to assessment portfolios. Peer assessments can also be included. Portfolio assessment can be used at all levels and for any subject area. (O’Malley & Pierce, 196, p. 37).
 * 2) Oral Assessment - It is important to assess oral language skills as well and reading and writing skills. One way that you can do this is to have students complete paired interviews. This can be done at any level. You should generate a list of questions to ask with the students, and go over what you will be looking for when you are listening to the presentation. (O’Malley & Pierce, 1996, p. 78).
 * 3) Reading Assessment - In order to assess reading comprehension, you can story re-tellings. These can be assessed using checklists, story maps, or rating scales. The criteria for assessment should be clear to both students and teachers beforehand and students should have ample opportunity using the format before they are tested using it. (O’Malley & Pierce, 1996, p. 106).
 * 4) Reading Assessment - Another way to assess reading is to use running records. A running record is a teacher-made record of the reading of a child. As the child reads, the teacher marks off words that are read correctly and notes all errors and corrections the child makes. The teacher may also note different strategies the child uses when reading. (Mindes, 2003, p. 62).
 * 5) Writing Assessment - Process Writing is one way to teach and assess writing in an authentic way. There are three parts to Process Writing, Pre-Writing (the planning stage), Writing, and Post-Writing (the editing stage). Students learn skills through mini-lessons, but the main focus is on the writing process itself. The key to Process Writing is the Writing Conference, in which teachers meet with students individually to discuss how they are doing in their writing, including strengths and areas to improve. (O'Malley & Pierce, 1996, p. 138-139).
 * 6) Writing Assessment - Another method of authentic writing assessment is Writing Across the Curriculum. In this method, students write to learn. They apply their writing skills and techniques to write for various purposes in every area of the curriculum. This includes writing notes, summaries, letters, research papers, problem solving explanations, and many other forms of writing. (O'Malley & Pierce, 1996, p. 139).
 * 7) Content Area Assessment - One way to assess vocabulary knowledge in the content areas is to use a semantic map. A semantic map is a graphic representation of the relationships between words and concepts. There are many types of semantic maps and the shape of the map will tell what kind of information it is best used for. The spider map can be used to assess main ideas and supporting details. A time ladder map can assess knowledge of sequences of events. A Venn diagram can be used to assess comparison and contrast between two concepts. A cause/effect diagram can assess cause/effect relationships. These are useful to assess ELL students because they allow the student to show what they know in many different ways (O’Malley & Pierce, 1996, p. 175-177).
 * 8) Content Area Assessment - The T-list is a very useful and versatile tool to assess students in the content areas. It is a very basic format in which the student draws a large T shape on their paper and lists on one side key concepts (vocabulary words or characters in history for example) and on the opposite side lists the supporting details that match that concept. (O’Malley & Pierce, 1996, p. 177).
 * 9) Science Assessment - Procedural knowledge in science can be assessed by hands-on science problems and experiments. Teachers can create a scoring scale, shared with students, to assess the question statement, the investigative procedure, the observation records (both how they are planned and how well they are recorded), graphic or chart information, and conclusions. Each of these areas can be rated in a manner similar to that found in O’Malley and Pierce (1996, p. 188-190).
 * 10) Math Assessment - Procedural knowledge in math can be assessed using word problems. Word problems give students situations to solve math problems under more “real world” like circumstances. They also give students the opportunity to show their reasoning, problem-solving, and communication skills as well as demonstrating their ability to compute. Therefore scoring of word-problems should consider both accuracy of the answer and problem-solving procedures (O’Malley & Pierce, 1996, p. 191-192).


 * References**

Mindes, G. (2003). //Assessing young children// (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) & National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education (NAECS/SDE). (2003). // Early childhood curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation: Building and effective, accountable system for children birth through age 8. //Washington, DC: NAEYC & NAECS/SDE.

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2005). // Screening and assessment of young English-language learners: Supplement to the NAEYC and NAEYC/SDE joint position statement on early childhood curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation //. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

O’Malley, J.M. & Pierce, L. V. (1996). //Authentic assessment for English language learners: Practical approaches for teachers.// United States: Addison-Wesley Publishing.

Oos terhof, A. (2003). Developing and using classroom assessments (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.