Innovative Assessments: A step towards the future

        In my previous blog, I discussed the importance of the KDB model within the curriculum. Particularly focusing on twenty-first century skills, I mentioned how Canadian curriculums needed to address the content, skills and values students need to learn in order to be successful in the twenty-first century.

Now we need to take into consideration how to assess the KDB, in a way that helps all the kids in the classroom and not just the few who excel in the traditional model. In a course I took last year, EDUC 8P50, we learned that most teachers relate to 3.5/10 kids in the room. The real issue for teachers is addressing the losers of the game of education, the students who are not at the top of the class, and are not interested in education. These students normally show signs of resistance within the classroom. These 6.5 kids are students the teacher cannot or find a hard time to relate to, and are in most need of a form of assessment that will engage them and show their learning abilities.

http://media.tumblr.com/0ec50f9111ba59fd9390a43973651fae/tumblr_inline_muty7mLuzx1rhmk31.png

Sometimes a quiz or a test is the most appropriate way to assess knowledge acquisition, however not all learning can be assessed in this way. Many students find it hard to study for a test and get nervous the day of, or struggle memorizing and retaining information for the test and often do poorly. A better way to do a summative assessment instead of a test or quiz is creating a Rich Performance Assessment Task.

What is a Rich Performance Assessment Task you may ask? A good description of various performance tasks is highlighted in the first video found on this page: Performance Assessment Video

A Rich Performance Assessment Task is something significant that shows that they have learned the KDB. They are often complex and can be anything from doing a presentation, making a video, conducting a skit, building a community in a video game, the possibilities are endless. What is important however, is that the performance task hits the following criteria: 

• Is the task worth doing? Does it teach the KDB?
• Is it doable?
• Is the task engaging and fun?
• Does it require application of higher-order thinking skills?
• Is inquiry embedded in the task?
• Does the task provide authentic opportunities for students to explore, enact, and reflect on the values and behaviours of a learner & responsible citizen?
• Is the task grounded in a real-world scenario? 
• Are success criteria made explicit and clear to students?
• Does the task allow for diverse approaches? 
• Does the task encourage accountability & increase motivation by requiring students to demonstrate their learning to audience other than their teacher? 
• Does the task invite student voice and allow for student choice?
• Does the task value process along with product, allowing frequent opportunities for formative assessment, student revision, and reflection? 

To get an idea of various Rich Performance Assessment tasks for each grade, see here.

 When I was in grade 11 my teacher did a Performance Assessment Task for our social science class. Instead of doing an essay at the end of the term, or a unit test, we had to create a presentation on a non-profit local organization for a specific cause. At first, the assignment seemed extremely hard as we had to go out into the community and find an organization. Then we needed to interview a representative of the organization and find out the goals of the organization, who the sponsors are, what percentage of the money goes towards the illness/cause and what percent of the money goes towards running the organization, organize a tri-board about the organization, decorate the board with the events and fundraisers the organization does, explain the illness, different stages and amount of people affected by it. 

As you can tell this can be very overwhelming. This is why it is important for the students to be given a summary checklist of the components to help track their progress and better organize how to complete the assignment.

http://cdn.printabletodolist.com/thumbs/Things_To_Do_List.png

Not only does a Rich Performance Assessment task move away from the traditional model of standardized testing, it shifts the question of "Do you know it?" to "How well can you use what you have know?" which fosters learning (Hibbard, 1996). 

Furthermore performance assessments allow teachers to capture authentic samples of students' work that make thinking and reasoning visible (Pitroski & Mihakalis, 2014). 

I think it is important to move towards an assessment that uses a Rich Performance Assessment Task so that a holistic approach of assessment can be used and the teacher can really see how the student is advancing. Plus in most cases students prefer assessments like these as they are more motivated to complete these assignments than to study and memorize the content for a test. 

For a detailed example of A Rich Performance Task, along with the instructions, rubric, and learning goals, click here. 

Reference List

Hibbard, M. (1996). What is Performance Based Learning and Assessment and Why is it Important? In Teachers Guide to Performacne Based Learning and Assessment.

Petrosky, A., & Mihalakis, V. (2014, October 15). How to Develop Performance Assessments.