Observations:
Generally this is an informal assessment type because there isn’t a specific moment of performance. It lends itself well to formative assessment because you will have an overall sense of how each student is doing, but not specifically enough to grade or award points to. I think this is an essential part of judging students mastery. Walking around the classroom and seeing how well the students accomplish tasks and assignments is very valid and will often tell you more about how much they know than the papers they turn in. Because you are examining the information the students know, it is criterion-reference, unless you are trying to judge which students know the most and the least, which would only be appropriate if you are looking to divide the class into groups that need additional review and groups that can move on to other subjects. It also give them a chance to ask question and fill in any information gaps. If it is used as a formative assessment it is both fair and reliable because the students aren’t being penalized for what they don’t know, but the purpose it to see the gaps and fix them in your lesson plans. It certainly isn’t a complicated process, so I think it is a very practical type. If it was summative I don’t believe it would be very valid, reliable, or fair, because so much would depend on the moment that you interact with that student. The only time this seems like it could be used a a good summative assessment would be if you were watching only that student, with no other distractions and they had a very specific task to accomplish. This would usually fall under the performance assessment heading.
Self-assessments:
This would be an informal assessment type. It gives the student an opportunity to reflect what he or she does and doesn’t know. If it is used as a summative assessment it is not dependable or fair because the temptation to “fix” answers would be too strong. The honest students would actually be penalized over the dishonest ones. It needs to be just a chance to check progress. I do think it is valid if it demonstrates the holes in the students’ knowledge base. Like all assessments, it needs to be well constructed so it is a valid reflection of a students understanding. This can be practical, but it does take some work to make it meaningful.
Peer-assessments:
Peer-assessment has to be an informal formative assessment because fellow students aren’t qualified to judge how well an entire concept has been learned. It also leads to students being “graded” by how popular they are or how many friends they have in class. Even with formative assessment that can happen. In those cases it isn’t fair, dependable, or valid. It is possible to make this a relevant formative assessment, but the teacher needs to be extremely clear on how to rate a project or paper and model what type of comments are helpful and appropriate. I really don’t love peer-assessment because I think kids with special challenges are humiliated and most often the comments have nothing to do with the quality of the work. This type should be criterion based, but I think its weakness is that it becomes norm based as the kids compare each work to another. If there is a handout with very specific questions that aren’t about the assignment being good or bad, but about how clear the details are or questions that the audience may be left with, that can work.
Projects (things students make ABOUT the topic - e.g., posters, research papers, etc.):
This work really well as summative projects. If the project is constructed to incorporate research, analysis, and reflection, it is a great way to see how a student understands a subject. It is a formal assessment because the students are aware this it is being graded and are working with a list of requirements or a rubric. It also can be formative if it is used as a way for the students to take the information they have been given so far and then lead to other paths their interests may follow. The key to making projects valid assessments of what a student knows is by being very clear with what the expectations are. The teacher needs to include a rubric and an example of what the expected quality is. Its weakness is that there can be students who really know their stuff, but aren’t willing to put any effort into the project. Their grade now reflects effort instead of knowledge. This also can turn from criterion based to norm based if you judge each work against the best project. A good rubric can prevent this. It can be practical if your rubric is easy to use, but often it does take more time to grade than a straight pencil-and-paper test.
Performances (things students do WITH the topic - e.g., conducting a debate, running a mile, creating a meal plan, analyzing a poem, etc.):
This is very similar to project assessment. The uses, strengths, and weaknesses are very much the same. The only additional concern is that very shy students often do poorly in performance or even refuse to participate. A teacher needs to be sensitive to the fact that performance anxiety can be crippling for some students. If that affects a student’s grade, the performance assessment is no longer fair, valid, or reliable.
Portfolios:
Porfolios are by their nature a formal summative assessment. Its purpose is to show the students work in many different forms. I really like the idea of portfolios for the same reason I like projects. I think students can really tailor their portfolios to the way the most enjoy expressing themselves. It also shows a student’s development over a period of time. Just like projects, the portfolios have the problem of being driven by a student’s effort, rather than his or her knowledge-base. A good rubric will also help this type stay criterion based, instead of morphing into a norm based assessment. Some students also have organizational issues and have a very hard time keeping track of past work. This issue could make the grading less valid and fair. Portfolios are less practical than other methods because it takes a lot of effort to review and grade. Like projects and performances, it is essential to have a well-written rubric for the students to reference and the teacher to grade with.
Tests:
Tests are a formal formative and summative assessment. The students have no questions about what the purpose of the exercise is and know they will be graded in some way. This can be either criterion based, if the grade is based on how many right out of a total number of answers, or norm based if it is graded by a bell-curve or if the purpose of the test is to show how the students compared against the rest of their age-group. I don’t like giving test very often because there is a definite “process” to taking tests. Often the kids who do best on tests aren’t the ones who know the most, but are the ones who know how to play the game better. There are a lot of students who have test anxiety and the stress makes their brain go into flight or fight mode and shut down. If a student doesn’t naturally communicate through writing, they can have real difficulty in traditional testing. These three issues can affect the validity, fairness, and reliability of this type of assessment. It is hard to completely eliminate testing from a class, and it can be one of the ways a student can show what they know, but it shouldn’t be the only means of assessment.
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