Assessment

Student Assessment

Authentic assessment refers to assessment tasks that resemble reading, writing and thinking in the real world.

Working on authentic tasks is a useful, engaging activity in itself; it becomes an episode of learning for the student as opposed to simply an isolated “test” from which they forget all material minutes later! (Remember those from school? I sure do! “Is this going to be on the test?”)From the teacher’s perspective, teaching to such tasks guarantees that we are concentrating on worthwhile skills and strategies. Performance assessment is a term that is commonly used in place of, or with, authentic assessment. Performance assessment requires students to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and strategies by creating a response or a product. Rather than choosing from several multiple-choice options, students might demonstrate their literacy abilities by conducting research and writing a report, developing a character analysis, debating a character’s motives, creating a mobile of important information they learned, dramatizing a favorite story, drawing and writing about a story, or reading aloud a personally meaningful section of a story. For example, after completing a grade one theme on families in which students learned about being part of a family and about the structure and sequence of stories, students might illustrate and write their own flap stories with several parts, telling a story about how a family member or friend helped them when they were feeling sad. Just as the instruction process is differentiated, the product with which the student may demonstrate their learning is also often differentiated. This may be according to their choice, according to their strengths or even according to their weaknesses if we’re working on strengthening abilities in a certain area.

That said, I feel that it is very important to assess students regularly and in varied ways. It is certainly not possible to use authentic assessment in all situations in all subjects. However, I try to utilize authentic assessment strategies whenever possible.  I also use assessment FOR learning all day, every day, and not just assessment OF learning.  I use regular & often informal assessment to guide my teaching. Anne Davies is one of the foremost experts in Assessment for Learning so check out her website if you’re interested in more information.

At the bottom of this page, you will (eventually…I hope) find some examples of basic (perhaps non-authentic) assessment tools I have used. Feel free to take them and use or edit them any way you wish! Thanks to all of my grade one colleagues across Canada who worked on these materials.

When Do I Assess?

How do I find the time in my busy day?
Often assessment is done as a class or in small groups such as guided reading groups, but there is still a need for a lot of individual face-to-face assessment in grade one. I have found that by assessing one child at a time, you can squeeze it in during:

• SQUIRT (sustained quiet uninterrupted reading time)
• Power Writing (sustained silent writing)
• Reading or Writing Workshop
• Conferences
• Literature Circles
• Author’s Chair
• Reader’s Chair
• Discussions
• Guided Reading (running records)
• Reading and Writing (in a content area)

You’ll be surprised at how much you can get done. Your other students will learn to respect your assessment time and won’t interrupt. My students are not to interrupt one on one time with another student unless it’s one of the “3 B’s” – bathroom, blood or barf!

I have also used parents and student teachers as assessors (objective assessment only, of course, such as testing counting, sight word knowledge etc.) and they feel great completing tasks that aren’t just photocopying, cutting and colouring!