Assessment Strategies Visual Tools

1. Assessment StrategiesVisual Tools EDUC 4454 P/J Methods

3. Assessment includes a wide variety of tools & strategies .... depending on the nature of the task that are chosen selectively & purposefully ... depending on the amount & type of information required This could include: Rubrics Tests Observation surveys Checklists Exemplars Rating scales Running records Samples of writing/work Students’ records of their Direct Observation independent learning Interviews Portfolios Oral reports Anecdotal records Research projects Conferences Performance tasks

4. Assessment Tools • Tools are what a teacher uses to record and/or categorize his or her observations/assessment data gathered through the use of various strategies • Tools should provide a clear picture of what the learning should look like (e.g. criteria & indicators)

5. Types of Assessment Tools • Anecdotal Records • Checklists • Rating scales • Rubrics

6. Anecdotal Records • Capture & describe student performance • Are gathered on specific “look-fors” pre-determined by the teacher • Are systematic & planned for opportunities • Allow the teacher to view the student “in action” • Provide a rich portrait of student performance in concise language • Should be dated & recorded accurately & objectively during an event or soon after

7. Anecdotal records should be used: • To make observations which often cannot easily be obtained using other assessment strategies • To provide a rich portrait of individual students • To have written evidence of student progress, interests, strengths, and areas of needs • To build an ongoing information file on each student • To serve as the main assessment tool for primary students

8. Rating Scales • Assess performance on a several-point scale ranging from low to high, which may have as few as 3 points or as many as 10. • Rating scales may be used to record the frequency or even the degree to which a student exhibits a characteristic, to describe a performance along a continuum or to record a range of achievement in relation to specific behaviours.

9. Rating scales can be used: • To assess a single performance, such as an oral retelling or a reader’s theatre presentation • To judge the quality of a performance • To provide diagnostic information • To assess the extent to which specific skills, facts, attitudes and/or behaviours are observed in a student’s work or performance

10. Checklists • Provide a record of the presence or absence of taught/acquired concept, skill, process or attitude • Provide a list of criteria to be looked for and assessed in the completion of a task • Include a teacher-made list based on content and/or processes related to knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes

11. Checklists should be used: • To judge the process or product of a student’s performance when it can be assessed as correct/incorrect; present/absent; adequate/inadequate

12. Rubrics • Include a description of specific, observable criteria in the four categories of knowledge & skills • Use a range of levels of quality used to assess student work • Include a scale which uses brief statements based on criteria to describe the levels of achievement • Assess a wide variety of tasks or activities both holistically & analytically

13. Rubrics should be used: • When teachers want to assess complex tasks in a detailed & specific manner linked to the categories on the achievement chart of the curriculum documents

14. Rubrics are most effective: • when used selectively for appropriate tasks (complex, rich performance tasks) • When developed by the teacher & shared with students before the performance task • When examples are provided at each achievement level • When teacher & student analyze the examples together • When students use the rubric to guide their work

15. Assessment Strategies • Strategies are the means by which a teacher assesses student progress • Teacher must consider whether the strategy will allow for the demonstration of the identified expectations or behaviours • Strategies provide specific ways for students to demonstrate their learning. Students can: SAY WRITE DO

16. Tracking Sheets • A method of monitoring (keeping track) student movement through learning centres or stations • Serve as a record of what the student has accomplished • Can be used for assessment Refer to Creating the Dynamic Classroom pp. 82-89

17. Self - Assessment • the process by which students gather information about and reflect on their own learning • involves such questions as: • involves meta-cognition

18. Peer – Assessment: • A reflective activity that requires students, individually or as a group to reflect upon and make observations about the performance of one or more peers

21. Quizzes & Tests: • Assessment strategies that require students to respond to prompts in order to demonstrate their knowledge or skills • Oral ,Written, or Performance

22. A well developed teacher test is based on: instruction course content the skill and concepts in the unit of study Ensure that the tasks allow students to demonstrate their knowledge, skills and attitudes. Modify or develop alternative tasks for students with special needs.