Alternative assessments

Group 6:
Hoàng Long
Tường Vân
Thảo Uyên
 Content
1. Overview

 What are alternative assessments

 Why do we need them?

2. Kinds of alternatives in assessment:

 Performance – based assessment

 Portfolios

 Journals

 Conferences and Interviews

 Observations

 Self- and peer- assessment

1. Overview
 Definition:
Any method of finding out what a student knows or can do that is
intended to show growth and inform instruction and is not a
standardized or traditional test.
 Characteristics:
 Alternative to the traditional testing.
 Long-term assessment, provide better info about both strengths
and weaknesses
 Relating to real-life situations.
 Process and product - oriented.
 Humanistic
1. Overview (cont.)

 Reasons for alternative assessments:

 Testing is no longer very appealing to educators or to learners
 Tests are one – time performances, formal, administered within
time limitations, oriented to the products, not the process.
 Tests provide scores, not detailed feedback on student
performances.
 Tests are less related to real-life situations.
 Assessment is much broader than tests, oriented to both the
products and the process of students, provide better information
about students skills, strengths and weaknesses, offer greater
washback.
2. Kinds of Alternatives in assessment:
2.1 Performance – based assessment:
 In general, a performance-based assessment measures students'
ability to apply the skills and knowledge learned from units of
study.

 Typically, the task challenges students to use their skills and what
they have learned.

 Tasks can range from a simple constructed response (e.g., short

answer) to more complicated ones (e.g., writing long essays)`
2.1 Performance – based assessment:

 Examples:

 Now that the students have learned the future tenses and
adjectives to describe people, tell them to imagine and say who
they will become, and what they will be doing in the next 10
years.
2.1 Performance – based assessment:
 Characteristics:
 Students make constructed responses.

 Open – ended.

 Meaningful, engaging and related to students’ daily life.

 Both product and process oriented.

 Integration of language skills and knowledge.

2.2 Portfolios:

 A portfolio is a collection of student’s work over time, such as

homework, exercises, test scores, essays, audio recordings, etc.

 A portfolio is used for future evaluation.

 By looking at a student’s portfolio over a period of time, the

teacher can see how he is performing, identify which area is
improving and which needs some extra work.
 2.2 Portfolios:
 The goals behind any portfolio assignment, and what materials to
include have to be clear for the teacher as well as for the students from
the beginning.
 It should focus on the process as well as the product in order to reflect
the students’ efforts, abilities, skills, knowledge achievements.
 Different people can participate in portfolio assessment such as the
student, the parents, peers, etc.
 Conferences should be held regularly for the students and the teacher to
discuss the contents of the portfolios and the strengths as well as the
weaknesses of the works. This enables the active involvement of the
learners in assessment and learning.
2.3 Journals:
 Journals are writing practices which focus on the expression of a
student's opinions, felling, viewpoints, ideas, etc. with little
attention to structure, form or correctness.

 The topics of journals would be determined by the teacher.

 For example: Students can write about their favorite subject at

school, what they want to be when you grow up, Choose and
describe jobs that they enjoy, etc.

 Student’s journals should be responded by the teacher to carry on

the conversation, and the teacher will understand the student
better.
2.3 Journals:
 The advantages of journals:

 Students will be actively engaged to the learning process and

course materials. If students actively engage to their study,
they will learn more, remember, enjoy it, and appreciate more
what they have learned rather than students who passively
receive what teacher has taught.

 To increase students’ interests, empower students to be more

responsible to their own learning and more reflective in their
study.

 Encourage students to be more speak up what is on their mind.

Teacher should give build-up feedbacks on students’ writings
for their the betterment. 11
2.4 Conferences and Interviews:

 Teacher – Student talk

 The teacher is a guide, not an administrator, a tester. In this

atmosphere, the teacher should be encouraging performance and
improvement.

 Formative, not summative, with the purpose of offering students

positive washback.

 Interview is a kind of conference, interaction between teacher and

student, but it is more specific.
2.4 Conferences and Interviews:

 Conferences have multiple purposes, such as:

 Commenting on drafts of essays, reports

 Reviewing portfolios

 Responding to journals

 Assessing general process in a course

 Etc.
2.4 Conferences and Interviews:
 The goals of the interview are for:

 Assess the student’s oral production

 Ascertain a student’s needs before designing a course or

curriculum

 Seek to discover a student’s learning styles and preferences

 Ask a student to assess his or her own performance, and

 Requests an evaluation of a course

2.5 Observation

 Teacher assess students through daily classroom observation.

 Every question, response, done exercises, homework, etc. is noticed

and stored. Over time, teachers (especially experienced ones) know a
lot about each and every one of their students without any tests.

 The main purpose of observation is to access students without their

awareness, so everything is natural, and students linguistic
performance is maximized.
2.5 Observation
 Things to consider when observing students:

 Determine the specific objectives of the observation.

 How many students will be observed at a time.

 Design a system for recording performance (ex: checklist, rating scales,

etc.)

 Limit the number of different elements you are observing at a time.

 Be specific on how much observation you need, and how you will use
the results.
2.5 Self and peer assessment:

 Students are involved in the assessment process. This may

motivate them.

 Group work can be more successful when students are involved

in developing the assessment process. This may include
establishing their own assessment criteria through consultation
with the teacher.

 You can provide students with sample self and/or peer assessment
criteria
2.5 Self and peer assessment:
 The main aims of self and peer assessment are to:

 Increase student responsibility and autonomy

 Strive for a more advanced and deeper understanding of the

subject matter, skills and processes

 Lift the role and status of the student from passive learner to
active leaner and assessor (this also encourages a deeper approach
to learning)

 Involve students in critical reflection

 Develop in students a better understanding of their own

subjectivity and judgement.
2.5 Self and peer assessment:
 Peer assessment:

 Students individually assess each other's contribution using a

predetermined list of criteria.

 Grading is based on a predetermined process.

 Self assessment:

 This is similar to peer evaluation but students assess their own

contribution as well as their

 peers using an established set of criteria.