Planning
for
Quality
Assessment
“It is about learning to learn, about becoming independent thinkers and learners. It is about problem solving, team-work, knowledge of the world, adaptability, and comfort in a global system of technologies, conflict and complexity. It is about the joy of learning and the pleasure of productivity of using one’s learning in all facets of work and life pursuits”
2006, Fullan, Hill and Crevola, Breakthro
Karen Yager –
Designing for Deep understanding through Assessment
“The aim of assessment is primarily to educate and improve student performance, not merely to audit it” (Wiggins, 1998).
The design of assessment is an integral aspect of this process as it provides teachers with essential information for planning and adjusting each subsequent unit of work, evaluates the quality and extent of student achievement or performance in learning and provides students with the information they need about their learning and what they need to do to develop and grow as learners. It must be valid and reliable.
All students must participate fully in learning experiences and assessment tasks - including those accessing life skills outcomes and content. Therefore, assessment tasks should be adjusted to reflect any adjustments to teaching and learning for students with special needs.
The four types of assessment that need to be considered and should be addressed in a balanced way in units of work and programs are:
§ Pre-assessment: This can be informal but it is important as it informs teachers what the students know so that a unit of work or program can be differentiated to suit the learning needs of the students. The assessment from the previous unit of work provides rich information to inform the design process.
§ Summative assessment: Assessment of learning is used to provide a snapshot of what the students know at a key point in time such as half way through or at the end of a unit of work. It enables teachers to monitor and evaluate student progress.
§ Formative assessment: Assessment for learning is ongoing and builds the depth of students’ learning and provides valuable information to students about what they can do and what they need to do to improve their learning outcomes.
§ Self assessment: Assessment through learning occurs when students are critically evaluating and assessing their own learning. The skills and understanding needed for self assessment must be explicitly taught.
Effective assessment practice is:
§ embedded in the syllabus having clear, direct links with outcomes
§ planned deliberately and integral to teaching
§ balanced, comprehensive and varied
§ fair, inclusive, valid and reliable
§ ongoing and sequential
§ engaging and student-centred
§ time efficient and manageable
§ supported by models, scaffolds or annotated exemplars that demonstrate what is expected and what can be achieved
§ reflects any adjustments made to teaching and learning.
In this step of the design process teachers begin by designing the assessment for learning and then plot sequentially the other types of assessment in the unit of work or program when they are planning what will happen during the course of the unit.
Assessment for learning
Where are my students now?
How do I know when my students get there?
The assessment task or tasks must assess the targeted outcomes and the skills, knowledge and understanding that are being taught. It has to be explicit in what students are required to do or produce. A clear and precise rubric and marking guidelines that reflect the outcomes being assessed and enable teachers to make consistent valid and reliable judgements are essential.
The task expressed in the language students can comprehend should include:
§ The outcomes being assessed: Include the full wording of the outcome. Only choose those outcomes that are to be the main drivers of the learning. Even if you will ‘hitting’ on other outcomes, do not use them as you want deep knowledge not wide, shallow knowledge.
§ The nature of the task: Set the task in a context and inform students what they are expected to do and why it matters.
§ Expectations: Derived from the outcomes and shaping the marking guidelines, and informing students how well they are expected to do the task.
§ Exemplars or models
§ Marking guidelines or scheme
As much as possible plan for authentic assessment that is connected to the real world and requires students to be creators and producers! When appropriate have students present or design their work for real audiences. Northern Beaches Manly Fairy Penguin Project is a perfect example of authentic assessment!
Considerations
§ Include pre-assessment tools and if possible use the relevant data to determine what the students know and need to learn.
§ Build the field beginning with background knowledge and moving towards challenging and extending the students. Use a range of tasks to build the knowledge and understanding, and enable all students to access and demonstrate learning. Unless new knowledge becomes integrated with the learner's prior knowledge and understanding, this new knowledge remains isolated, cannot be used effectively in new tasks, and does not transfer readily to new situations.
§ Value the conceptual thinking behind work and the process, as much as the finished product.
§ Ensure that the task requires Substantive communication, such as research tasks – inquiry or project based, investigative tasks, critical reflections that focus on the key ideas or concepts.
§ Differentiate through Student direction. Encourage students to choose their own tasks based on the rubric and marking guidelines. Gifted and talented students will need to be provided with alternative activities, not more activities.
§ Consider the verbs in the task! Students reveal their understanding most effectively when they are provided with opportunities to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, justify, and self-assess.
§ Provide clear and explicit instructions – Explicit quality criteria - regarding the nature of the task, expectations and what the students will be assessed on. When you state “You will be assessed on how well you…” the expectations must reflect the intention and language of the outcomes.
§ Try to include Problematic knowledge in some tasks so that students are using Higher-order thinking skills to consider others’ perspectives or how knowledge is constructed.
§ Feedback should be precise, directed, timely and constructive. ‘The most powerful single modification that enhances achievement is feedback’ (Hattie, 2003).
Key questions
1. Are the assessment tasks inclusive of all learners?
2. Do the tasks relate to what is being taught and what the students need to learn?
3. Are the tasks integrated and connected to what is being taught?
4. Are the tasks linked to syllabus outcomes?
5. Do the tasks have clear and explicit instructions?
6. Are the tasks challenging and rich, inviting risk-taking and higher-order thinking skills?
7. Do the tasks invite student direction?
Authentic Assessment Tasks
F.M Newmann, W.G Secada, & G. Whelage
Definition:
The extent to which an assessment task represents construction of knowledge through the use of disciplined enquiry that has some value or meaning beyond success in school.
Criteria for Authentic Assessment Tasks
1. Construction of Knowledge
§ Students construct or produce knowledge rather than reproducing knowledge
§ This knowledge is expressed in written or oral discourse, or by making and repairing things, or and in performances
§ Students should hone their skills through guided practice, receive ongoing meaningful feedback, and have the opportunity to refine their task
§ Construction of knowledge is based on understanding or prior knowledge, builds on this knowledge, and is connected to other tasks
2. Disciplined Inquiry
§ The task draws upon prior knowledge
§ The task strives for in-depth understanding rather than superficial awareness
§ The students use elaborate forms of communication such as: narratives, extended expositions, explanations, justifications, elaborations, and so on, rather than brief responses such as: choosing true or false, multiple choice, filling in blanks, or writing short sentences
3. Value Beyond School
§ The task has value for the student beyond documenting his or her competence or assessing knowledge
§ The task is connected to real world contexts
Implications
§ Not all tasks will meet all three criteria.
§ Authentic tasks promote engagement and motivation.
§ There is still a valid place for “inauthentic” conventional tasks such as memory drills that are necessary to build knowledge.
Authentic Assessment
§ What do the students need to learn?
- Identify the overarching concept/s and the key learning ideas based on the content and outcomes of the syllabus to be assessed.
- Identify the learning goal of the assessment task
- Pose overarching question/s
§ Why does it matter?
- Ensure that the task assesses the essential knowledge and skills of the syllabus and the subject
§ What do they already know?
- Pre-assessment
- Use the data
- Connect task to previous and future learning
- Ensure that the task is inclusive of all students
§ What do I want the students to do or produce to demonstrate their learning and understanding?
- Identify what is to be produced
- Ensure that the product or performance is connected to the real world
- Identify the audience
- Have real deadlines
- Provide scope for student choice
§ How will they get there?
- Identify any possible misunderstandings
- Provide scaffolds, exemplars, annotated models
- Identify the literacy and numeracy demands of the task
§ How well do I expect them to do it?
- Explicit clear directions on what is expected
GRASPS
1. Goal: What must the student know and accomplish?
2. Role: What role does the student play in this situation?
3. Audience: Who is the primary audience for the work?
4. Situation: What is the situation? What conditions/opportunities/constraints exist?
5. Products/Performance: What does the student have to produce or do?
6. Standards: What outcomes are being assessed and what is the criterion for judging the work?
(The Understanding by Design Handbook, Wiggins & McTighe)
When students truly understand, they can:
§ Explain, make connections, offer good theories: Make sense of what they experience; show their work and defend it; provide thorough, supported, and justifiable accounts of phenomena, facts, and data; answer such questions as: Why is that so? What explains such events? What accounts for such an effect? How can you prove it? To what is this connected? How does this work? What is implied? Why do you think so?
§ Interpret: Tell meaningful stories; offer translations; provide a revealing historical or personal dimension to ideas and events; make it personal or accessible through images, anecdotes, analogies, models; answer such questions as: What does it mean? Why does it matter? What does it illustrate or illuminate in human experience? How does it relate to me? What does and does not make sense here?
§ Apply: Effectively use and adapt what they know in diverse contexts and answer such questions as: How and where can I use this knowledge, skill, process? In what ways do people apply this understanding in the world beyond the school? How should my thinking and action be modified to meet the demands of this particular situation?
§ Appreciate Other Perspectives: See multiple points of view, with critical eyes and ears; see the big picture. Answer such questions as: From whose point of view? From which vantage point? What is assumed or tacit that needs to be made explicit and considered? How is this justified or warranted? Is there adequate evidence? Is it reasonable? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the idea? Is it plausible? What are its limits?
§ Empathise: Get inside, find value in what others might find odd, alien, or implausible; perceive sensitively, enter the mind and heart of others. Answer such questions as: How does it seem to you? What do they see that I do not? What do I need to experience if I am to understand? What was the artist, writer, or performer feeling, seeing, and trying to make me feel and see?
§ Gain Self-knowledge: Perceive the personal style, prejudices, projections, and habits of mind that shape and impede their own understanding; are aware of what they do not understand, and why it is so hard to understand. Answer such questions as: What are my blind spots? What am I prone to misunderstand because of prejudice, habit, and style? How does who I am influence how I understand and do not understand?
§ Synthesise: Access ideas and information and internalise this knowledge to arrive at a personal understanding. Answer such questions as: How is what I am doing now connected to what we have learned previously? How can this information help me?
Authentic Assessment
§ Requires students to be effective performers and producers with acquired knowledge. Traditional tests tend to reveal only whether the student can recognise, recall or "plug in" what was learned out of context.
§ Values the conceptual thinking behind work; the process, as much as the finished product.
§ Students reveal their understanding most effectively when they are provided with opportunities to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathise, and self-assess.
§ High Expectations and Connectedness: Connected to the real world, challenging and invites risk-taking.
§ Student direction: Students choosing activities with teacher guidance.
§ Problematic knowledge: Research, investigation and problem solving.
§ Substantive communication: Focused on the concept and key ideas.
Assessment tasks must reflect the ways in which a person’s knowledge and abilities are tested in real-world situations. Such challenges:
§ Ask students to “do” the subject
§ Require judgment and innovation: Instead of merely reciting, restating, or replicating through demonstration the lessons taught and skills learned
§ Reflect the contexts in which adults are tested in the workplace, in civic life, and in personal life. Contexts involve specific situations that have particular constraints, purposes, and audiences.