Concept Maps - A diagramming technique for assessing how well students see the "big picture".

ConcepTests - Conceptual multiple-choice questions that are useful in large classes. Knowledge Survey - Students answer whether they could answer a survey of course content questions. Exams - Find tips on how to make exams better assessment instruments. Oral Presentations - Tips for evaluating student presentations. Poster Presentations -Tips for evaluating poster presentations. Peer Review - Having students assess themselves and each other. Portfolios - A collection of evidence to demonstrate mastery of a given set of concepts. Rubrics - A set of evaluation criteria based on learning goals and student performance. Written Reports - Tips for assessing written reports. Conventional: 1. Multiple-choice tests are popular tests that require students to recognize correct answers from among several choices, usually three to four with all but one choice wrong. They're easy to score, but not as easy to create because answer choices must carefully balance one correct answer, one close-to-correct answer, with the remaining wrong. Some students consider multiple-choice tests easier than essay tests, and others consider them to be a greater challenge. Short-Answer Essay Tests Educators design short-answer essay tests to evaluate what can't be articulated through multiple-choice questions. The tests generally require a deeper, more detailed analysis of content that requires higher-order thinking. For this reason, many students find essay responses to be more of a challenge. Constructed-response tests require short answer or fill-in-the-blank questions, and require a blend of factual knowledge and higher-order reasoning. Students place their own information in missing spaces rather than from among several pre-prepared choices. They're much easier to create than multiple choice, and can retain control over guessing. Standardized Tests Schools use standardized tests widely on a national level, and they are part of every school district's accountability design. Many are considered "high stakes" because they're taken by large populations of students, and if they do not perform well, districts could lose valuable federal and state funding.

Read more: Conventional Types of Assessment Tools | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_7625113_conventional-types-assessment-tools.html#ixzz1pQPXsOha Selecting a Response to Performing a Task: On traditional assessments, students are typically given several choices (e.g., a,b,c or d; true or false; which of these match with those) and asked to select the right answer. In contrast, authentic assessments ask students to demonstrate understanding by performing a more complex task usually representative of more meaningful application. Contrived to Real-life: It is not very often in life outside of school that we are asked to select from four alternatives to indicate our proficiency at something. Tests offer these contrived means of assessment to increase the number of times you can be asked to demonstrate proficiency in a short period of time. More commonly in life, as in authentic assessments, we are asked to demonstrate proficiency by doing something. Recall/Recognition of Knowledge to Construction/Application of Knowledge:Well-designed traditional assessments (i.e., tests and quizzes) can effectively determine whether or not students have acquired a body of knowledge. Thus, as mentioned above, tests can serve as a nice complement to authentic assessments in a teacher's assessment portfolio. Furthermore, we are often asked to recall or recognize facts and ideas and propositions in life, so tests are somewhat authentic in that sense. However, the demonstration of recall and recognition on tests is typically much less revealing about what we really know and can do than when we are asked

to construct a product or performance out of facts, ideas and propositions. Authentic assessments often ask students to analyze, synthesize and apply what they have learned in a substantial manner, and students create new meaning in the process as well. Teacher-structured to Student-structured: When completing a traditional assessment, what a student can and will demonstrate has been carefully structured by the person(s) who developed the test. A student's attention will understandably be focused on and limited to what is on the test. In contrast, authentic assessments allow more student choice and construction in determining what is presented as evidence of proficiency. Even when students cannot choose their own topics or formats, there are usually multiple acceptable routes towards constructing a product or performance. Obviously, assessments more carefully controlled by the teachers offer advantages and disadvantages. Similarly, more student-structured tasks have strengths and weaknesses that must be considered when choosing and designing an assessment. Indirect Evidence to Direct Evidence: Even if a multiple-choice question asks a student to analyze or apply facts to a new situation rather than just recall the facts, and the student selects the correct answer, what do you now know about that student? Did that student get lucky and pick the right answer? What thinking led the student to pick that answer? We really do not know. At best, we can make some inferences about what that student might know and might be able to do with that knowledge. The evidence is very indirect, particularly for claims of meaningful application in complex, real-world situations. Authentic assessments, on the other hand, offer more direct evidence of application and construction of knowledge. As in the golf example above, putting a golf student on the golf course to play provides much more direct evidence of proficiency than giving the student a written test. Can a student effectively critique the arguments someone else has presented (an important skill often required in the real world)? Asking a student to write a critique should provide more direct evidence of that skill than asking the student a series of multiple-choice, analytical questions about a passage, although both assessments may be useful. Authentic Assessment? A form of assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills -- Jon Mueller "...Engaging and worthy problems or questions of importance, in which students must use knowledge to fashion performances effectively and creatively. The tasks are either replicas of or analogous to the kinds of problems faced by adult citizens and consumers or professionals in the field." -- Grant Wiggins -- (Wiggins, 1993, p. 229). "Performance assessments call upon the examinee to demonstrate specific skills and competencies, that is, to apply the skills and knowledge they have mastered." -- Richard J. Stiggins -- (Stiggins, 1987, p. 34). Authentic methods of assessment challenge teachers as well as students. Teachers are challenged to create meaningful assignments that are motivating and engaging. Students are challenged with authentic modes of assessment because they are required to relate the academic task to the real world. Authentic assessment combines process assessmentthe evaluation of strategies, actions, or behaviors underlying the products of student performance and product assessmentand the evaluation of the outcomes of student performance (Leu & Kinzer, 1999). Even when employing authentic assessment tools, including portfolios and documented observations, the teacher must be sure that the measure is valid and reliable. Leu and Kinzer cite Herman, Aschbacher, and Winters (1992), who have identified six characteristics common to alternative or authentic assessment in A Practical Guide to Assessment (1992). The common elements are presented as follows: 1. Authentic assessment requires students to perform, create, or produce something.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Authentic assessment focuses on higher-level thinking and problem solving. Authentic assessment requires tasks based on meaningful instructional activities. Authentic assessment is closely linked to real-world applications. Authentic assessment relies on the person to score and use human judgment over machine scoring. Authentic assessment suggests new assessment roles for teachers (Leu & Kinzer, p. 458).

Portfolio assessment is one mode of authentic assessment. Portfolios are more than a compilation of completed student work. The compilation of a portfolio engages the student in a reflective and evaluative processes. The student must carefully choose the work to be included in the portfolio. Portfolios give testimony to the student's process and progress, as well as the product. The portfolio may include evidence from all levels of writing as outlined by Tompkins (2004b): pre-writing, drafting, editing, and publishing, along with drawings, favorite reading passages, and other samples. The portfolio is a "dynamic entity that is continually modified and clearly reflects ongoing progress" (Leu & Kinzer, 1999, p. 469). What is performance-based assessment? Performance-based assessment is an approach to the monitoring of students' progress in relationship to identified learner outcomes. This method of assessment requires the student to create answers or products which demonstrate his/her knowledge or skills. This differs from traditional testing methods which require a student to select a single correct answer or to fill in the blank. What are the characteristics of an effective performance assessment task? The Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress defines performance assessment as any form of testing that requires a student to create an answer or a product that demonstrates his or her knowledge or skills. According to Stephen K. Hess, Director or Criterion Referenced Evaluation and Testing for Frederick County Public Schools, the goal of effective performance assessment is to develop important tasks that are worthwhile and engaging for student, requiring the application of skills and knowledge learned prior to the assessment. Experts in the field emphasize that any effective performance assessment task should have the following design features: Students should be active participants, not passive selectors of the single right answer." Intended outcomes should be clearly identified and should guide the design of a performance task. Students should be expected to demonstrate mastery of those intended outcomes when responding to all facets of the task. Students must demonstrate their ability to apply their knowledge and skills to reality-based situations and scenarios. A clear, logical set of performance-based activities that students are expected to follow should be evident. A clearly presented set of criteria should be available to help judge the degree of proficiency in a student response.

PROCESS-ORIENTED PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT Learning entails not only what students know but what they can do with what they know. It involves knowledge, abilities, values, attitudes and habits of mind that affect academic success and performance beyond the classroom Information about outcomes is important. To improve outcomes, we need to know about student experience along the way - about the curricula, teaching, and kind of Assessment can help us understand which students learn best under what conditions; which such knowledge comes the capacity to improve the whole of their learning.

Process-oriented performance-based assessment is concerned with the actual task performance rather than the output or product of the activitystudents that lead to particular outcomes. Specific conditions Recite the poem from memory without referring to notes; Use appropriate hand and body gestures in delivering the piece; Maintain eye contact with the audience while reciting the poem; Create ambiance of the poem through appropriate rising and falling intonation; Pronounce the words clearly and with proper diction. Product oriented activity

product oriented assessment is a kind of assessment where in the assessor views and scores the final product made and not on the actual performance of making that product. It is concern on the product alone and not on the process. It is more concern to the outcome or the performance of the learner.It also focuses on -Product oriented activities are those that expect a certain outcome at the end of theproject. Such as making an "art" activity to look exactly like a model. You want the children to make the object just as you have. This form of "art" should only be used if the goal of the activity is to follow directions, or to master another skill- such as cutting, tracing, or developing sensory tolerance. -Process oriented activities are those that focus on the process of the project- not the outcome. The children can make it any way they want, and do not have a model in front of them to show them the adult version of the activity. These are things like easel painting, collages, or playdough work. There is not an expected product at the end, it is just about working with the medium (paint, paper, glue, etc) and exploring the possibilities. This is the type of "art" you want to strive to offer continually in your classroom so that the children are not hindered by the adult version of how it "should" be made. It allows for imagination and creativity that cannot be gained from a "Product oriented" project.