Authentic Assessment and Building Powerful Portfolios

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Authentic Assessment and Building Powerful
Portfolios

• Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and School
  Leadership
• August 21, 2007
• District-Wide Professional Development
• Johnny E. Brown, Ph.D.
• Superintendent

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What is Authentic Assessment?

• A student is asked to perform real-world tasks
  that demonstrate meaningful application of
  essential knowledge and skills.
• Student performance on a task is typically scored
  on a rubric to determine how successfully the
  student has met specific standards.

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• Authentic Assessment aims to evaluate a students
  ability in real-world contexts.
• A student learns how to apply his/her skills to
  authentic tasks and projects.
• Authentic Assessment does not encourage rote
  learning and passive test-taking. These does not
  lead to real-world success.
• Authentic Assessment has clearly defined
  standards and expectations.

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Authentic Assessment focuses on a students

• analytical skills
• ability to integrate what he/she learns
• creativity
• ability to work collaboratively
• written and oral expression skills

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Authentic Assessment values the learning process
as much as the finished product.

• Its the journey not the destination!

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Traditional (TA) vs. Authentic Assessment (AA)

• TA Selection/recall to forced-choice measures of
  
• Multiple-choice tests
• Fill-in-the-blanks
• True-false
• Matching
• TA The curriculum drives assessment
• The body of knowledge is determined first and
  becomes the curriculum that is delivered
• TA Assessments determine if acquisition of the
  curriculum
• occurred

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• AA A student performs meaningful tasks that
  replicate
• real-world challenges to demonstrate
  understanding.
• Research, develop, and present science/social
  studies experiments
• Read and interpret literature
• Solve math problems that have real-world
  application
• Diagrams, charts, or graphs to show understanding
  
• Student notes and outlines
• Group reports
• Conducting an experiment
• Peer Reviews
• Debates
• Artwork, musical, dance, or dramatic performances
• Journal entries and reflective writing
• Self-assessment to evaluate ones product and/or
  performance

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Why is AA Important?

• Assessment drives the curriculum.
• AA tasks are predetermined to demonstrate
  mastery, then the curriculum is developed to
  enable students to perform well.
• AA offers more direct evidence of application and
  construction of knowledge.

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Authentic Assessment Complements Traditional
Assessments

• An appropriate use of AA and TA best meets the
• needs of the students.
• Traditional ----------------------- Authentic
• Selecting a Response Performing a Task
• Contrived Real-life
• Recall/Recognition
  Construction/Application
• Teacher-structured
  Student-structured
• Indirect Evidence Direct
  Evidence

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Three Types of Standards

• Content statements that describe what students
  
• should know and be able to do
  within the
• content of a specific
  discipline.
• Process statements that describe skills
  students
• should develop to enhance the
  process of
• learning. Generic skills
  applicable to any
• discipline.
• Value statements that describe attitudes
  teachers
• would like students to develop
  towards
• learning.

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How do we reach them and teach them?
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Authentic Assessment and Building Powerful
Portfolios

• One form of authentic assessment being widely
  adapted in schools today is portfolio assessment.
  
• A portfolio is "a container that holds evidence
  of an individual's skills, ideas, interests, and
  accomplishments."
• The ultimate aim in the use of portfolios is to
  develop independent, self-directed learners.
• Long-term portfolios provide a more accurate
  picture of students' specific achievements and
  progress and the areas of needed attention.

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Authentic Assessment and Building Powerful
Portfolios

• Most effective portfolios contain a reflective
  element, where the student has, in some form,
  contemplated his or her own strengths and
  weaknesses as a learner.
• Portfolios can be divided into two groups
  process-oriented or product-oriented portfolios.

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Authentic Assessment and Building Powerful
Portfolios

• Process-oriented portfolios tell a story about
  the growth of a learner.
• They document the processes of learning and
  creating, including earlier drafts, reflections
  on the process, and obstacles encountered along
  the way.
• They may be organized into skill areas or themes,
  yet each contains a student's work from the
  beginning, middle, and end of a learning unit.

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Authentic Assessment and Building Powerful
Portfolios

• Product-oriented portfolios are collections of
  work a student considers his or her best.
• The aim is to document and reflect on the quality
  and range of accomplishments rather than the
  process that produced them.
• It generally requires a student to collect all of
  his/her work until the end, at which time he/she
  must choose artifacts that represent work of the
  highest quality.

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Authentic Assessment and Building Powerful

• Both kinds of portfolios are used at all grade
  levels.
• Process portfolios are more common at the
  elementary level.
• Product oriented portfolios are more common at
  the secondary level.

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Building Vocabulary Using Context Clues to Learn
Word Meaning

• When authors write, they often include context
  clues to explain the meaning of words they use,
  but think some of their readers may not know.
• The context clue is usually presented in the
  sentence or paragraph in which the word occurs.

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Building Vocabulary Using Context Clues to Learn
Word Meaning

• Six types of context clues
• 1. Definition context clue
• The author includes a definition to help the
  reader understand the meaning of a word.
• In the following example, tainted is defined
  as having a disease.
• The people of the town were warned not to eat
  the tainted fish. The local newspaper published a
  bulletin in which readers were clearly told that
  eating fish that had a disease could be very
  dangerous. This was especially true for fish
  caught in Lake Jean.

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Building Vocabulary Using Context Clues to Learn
Word Meaning

• 2. Synonym context clue
• The author includes a synonym to help the reader
  understand the meaning of a word.
• A synonym is a word that means the same as or
  nearly the same as another word.
• In the following example, the synonym pity
  helps the reader understand the meaning of
  compassion.
• After seeing the picture of the starving
  children, we all felt compassion or pity for
  their suffering.

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Building Vocabulary Using Context Clues to Learn
Word Meaning

• 3. Antonym context clue
• The author includes an antonym to help the
  reader understand the meaning of a word.
• An antonym is a word that means the opposite of
  another word.
• In the following example, the antonym eager
  helps the reader understand the meaning of
  reluctant.
• Joe was reluctant to take on the position of
  captain of the basketball team. He was afraid
  that the time it would take would hurt his
  grades. On the other hand, Billy was eager for
  the chance to be captain. He thought that being
  captain of the team would make him very popular
  in school.

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Building Vocabulary Using Context Clues to Learn
Word Meaning

• 4. Description context clue
• The author includes one or more descriptions to
  help the reader understand the meaning of a word.
  
• In the following example, descriptions of
  President Kennedy as having charm, enthusiasm,
  and a magnetic personality help the reader
  understand the meaning of charismatic.
• John Fitzgerald Kennedy, our 35th president,
  improved human rights and equal rights for all
  people. He was a very charismatic president.
  People were attracted to his charm and
  enthusiasm. His personality was described as
  magnetic.

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Building Vocabulary Using Context Clues to Learn
Word Meaning

• 5. Summary context clue
• The author makes a number of statements that
  help the reader understand the meaning of a word.
  
• In the following example, statements about being
  rude, showing no respect, having poor manners,
  and being impolite help the reader understand the
  meaning of impertinent.
• Andrea was a very impertinent young lady. She
  was so rude that she talked while her teacher was
  explaining a lesson. She showed no respect for
  other students. Her manners were very poor. Even
  her parents thought that Andrea was impolite.

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Building Vocabulary Using Context Clues to Learn
Word Meaning

• 6. Visual context clue
• The author includes a picture, drawing, chart,
  graph, or other type of visual to help the reader
  understand the meaning of a word.
• In the following example, the picture and its
  caption that is close to the sentence helps the
  reader understand that jubilant means great
  joy.
• Peggy had a jubilant look on her face.

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Make no mistake about itwhen we teach a child
to read,we change the world.
- Dr. Donald Leu