Assessment Strategies

Assessment Strategies

• Performance-based Assessment

• Authentic Assessment

• Feedback

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Success Criteria

By the end of this topic, I will be able to:

• Analyse the assessment strategies and its suitability for Malaysian primary ESL learners

• Apply the assessment strategies in the design and implementation of a phonics-based activity

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10 Common Causes of Failure (Blevins, 2016)

1. Inadequate or Nonexistent Review and Repetition

2. Lack of Application to Real Reading and Writing Experiences

3. Inappropriate Reading Materials to Practice Skills

4. Ineffective Use of the Gradual Release Model

5. Too Much Time Lost During Transitions

6. Limited Teacher Knowledge of Research-Based
   Phonics Routines and Linguistics

7. Inappropriate Pacing of Lessons

8. No Comprehensive or Cumulative Mastery Assessment Tools

9. Transitioning to Multisyllabic Words Too Late

10. Overdoing It (Especially Isolated Skill Work)

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The Problem with Assessment of Phonics Skills (Blevins, 2016)

• Must be done over an extended period of time to ensure mastery

• Weekly assessments focusing on one skill often give “false positives” - indicate learning, but not mastery

• If the skill is not worked on for subsequent weeks, learning can decay.

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Open Ended

How do you think we can fix this problem?

How to Fix It: Create Cumulative Assessment (Blevins, 2016)

• Help teachers determine which skills have truly been mastered

• All skills should be evaluated based on two factors:

  • accuracy

  • speed

• Mastery = those that the student can automatically and accurately decode over an extended period of time

• Assessment will change each week.

• Over 30 weekly assessments for the year, each with skills from previous assessments plus the new target skill for that week

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How to Conduct Cumulative Assessment (Blevins, 2016)

• Select three or four words from each week of instruction to create your cumulative word list.

• Choose words that are less common (e.g., vat instead of cat) to avoid sight word issues. Nonsense words can also be used if your students are comfortable reading them.

• Make a separate list for each week of instruction. This list should include the words from the current week and the previous five weeks.

• Assess six to eight students per week so that each student is assessed at least once per month. This test should be administered one-on-one.

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How to Use Cumulative Assessment Results (Blevins, 2016)

• Form differentiated instructional groups based on assessment results.

• Also address large issues, such as skills many students are struggling with, during whole group lessons.

• Add review and maintenance lessons and practice for these skills.

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Multiple Choice

The weekly assessment of phonics skills is a/an ...

• diagnostic assessment

• formative assessment / assessment for learning

• summative assessment / assessment of learning

• assessment as learning

Optional Cumulative Assessment (Blevins, 2016)

• Pull together the words for each week to create a large, cumulative assessment for the year.

• Administer the entire Cumulative Phonics Mastery Assessment at the beginning of the year and after each quarter or semester to check students’ mastery of all the grade-level skills.

• Adjust instruction and reorganize small groups based on these results.

• Stop the assessment if a student misreads more than four words in a row (to avoid frustration).

• Take note of those skills further in the sequence that students have an awareness of or can easily decode. Form differentiated instruction groups accordingly.

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Multiple Choice

• Administering the entire Cumulative Phonics Mastery Assessment at the beginning of the year so that the teacher can form differentiated instruction groups accordingly is a/an ...

• diagnostic assessment

• formative assessment / assessment for learning

• summative assessment / assessment of learning

• assessment as learning

Multiple Choice

• Administering the entire Cumulative Phonics Mastery Assessment after each semester is a/an ...

• diagnostic assessment

• formative assessment / assessment for learning

• summative assessment / assessment of learning

• assessment as learning

Examples of Phonics Assessment

• https://cdnsm5-ss10.sharpschool.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_19566293/File/Academics/Exceptional%20Children%27s%20Services/CORE%20Phonics%20Survey.pdf

• https://phonicshero.com/phonics-assessment/

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Open Ended

What is the similarity among the examples of phonics assessment in the previous slide?

Performance-based Assessment (Brown, 2013)

• Standardized tests do not elicit actual performance of the students.

• PBA requires students to demonstrate or apply their knowledge, skills, and strategies by creating a response or product or doing a task

• Systematically evaluated through direct observation by a teacher and/or possibly by self and peers

• Implies productive, observable skills of content-valid tasks

• Is usually, but not always, authenticity-real-world tasks

• Implies an integration of language skills

• The tasks that students perform are consistent with course goals and curriculum

• Likely to be more motivated to perform them, vs standardised test

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Performance-based Assessment

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​(New York State Education Department, 2023)

Performance-based Assessment

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​(New York State Education Department, 2023)

Performance-based Assessment (Brown, 2013)

• Characteristics of PBA

  • Students make a constructed response.

  • Engage in higher-order thinking, with open-ended tasks

  • Meaningful, engaging, and authentic

  • Integration of language skills

  • Both process and product are assessed

  • Depth of a student's mastery is emphasized over breadth.

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Performance-based Assessment (Brown, 2013)

• Teachers should

  • state the overall goal of the performance

  • specify the objectives (criteria) of the performance in detail

  • prepare students for performance in stepwise progressions

  • use a reliable evaluation form, checklist; or rating sheet

  • treat performances as opportunities for giving feedback and provide that feedback systematically

  • if possible, utilize self- and peer-assessments judiciously

• a subset of authentic assessment (O'Malley & Pierce, 1996)

• a primary trait of the many available alternatives to assessment

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Open Ended

Briefly explain how you can use performance-based assessment for assessing students' phonics skills.

Multiple Choice

• PBA = assessment that requires students to perform or produce something for evaluation that is intended to assess skill or ability

• AA = Assessment that aligns with real-world tasks and expectations

• Is authentic assessment the same as performance-based assessment?

• Yes

• No

Authentic Assessment (Frey, 2014)

• In response to criticisms of the artificially low level of task complexity and lack of teacher control in large-scale objectively scored testing

• Result of the movement to return classroom assessment to a more realistic, student-centered approach that measured more complex and deeper student thinking

• Assessment is authentic when the tasks, content, expectations, and evaluation methods of the assessment are similar to the meaningful tasks, content, expectations, and evaluation methods outside the classroom in the real world.

• The real world for students depends on their age; it could be playing and socializing with others, engaging in higher education, or performing on the job, now or in the future.

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Authentic Assessment (Frey, 2014)

• Characteristics:

  • The context of the assessment

    • Realistic activity or context.

    • The task is performance-based.

    • The task is cognitively complex.

  • The role of the student

    • A defense of the answer or product is required.

    • The assessment is formative.

    • Students collaborate with each other or with the teacher.

  • The scoring

    • The scoring criteria are known or student developed.

    • Multiple indicators or portfolios are used for scoring.

    • The performance expectation is mastery.

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Open Ended

Can you conduct authentic assessment for young children? How?

Authentic Assessment (Frey, 2014)

• Authenticity is viewed somewhat differently when teaching young children.

• A young child’s “job” as growing, learning, and being a student.

• The emphasis should be on the developmental skills supportive of future learning.

• Viewed as obtaining information that truly reflects how a child pursues knowledge and skills and the outcomes of the child’s efforts.

• Should be teacher-mediated, child-centered and based on multiple theories and knowledge about child growth and development

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Authentic Assessment (Frey, 2014)

• Examples:

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Authentic Assessment (Frey, 2014)

• Strategies on conducting authentic assessment for young children:

  • The teacher assumes the role of mentor, with the child as novice.

  • Student and teacher share experiences from outside the classroom.

  • The teacher incorporates children’s interests into classroom activities and

    assessments.

  • Learning is understood as being partly social and emotional.

  • The teacher encourages children’s natural eagerness to learn and prove how “smart” they are using empathic interactions.

  • Assessment tasks are representative of the “field.”

  • Students play a role in evaluating their own work.

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Open Ended

Briefly explain how you can conduct an authentic assessment for phonics skills.

Feedback

• Strategies

  • Be as specific as possible

  • The sooner the better

  • Address the student's progress towards the goal

  • Present feedback carefully. Avoid making them feel:

    • too strictly monitored

    • that feedback is an attempt to control them

    • an uncomfortable sense of competition

  • Involve students in the process of collecting and analysing assessment data

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q6U-jyPZZk

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e-Learning Task (2 hours)

• In groups, create a performance-based and/or authentic assessment that is aligned with the phonics-based activities that you have designed in Topic 6.

• When conducting the simulated lesson on the phonics-based activities, include the assessment that you have created and provide suitable feedback to the "learners".

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