6.+Best+Practices+for+Classroom+Assessments

What is authentic assessment for ELL students in the classroom? Generally this means that the activities that the students are engaged in are performance based and can include things like activities, tasks, and projects. Authentic assessments of ELLs are important because they give the students multiple ways to demonstrate knowledge and progress. Performance based assessment often uses oral language or visuals and manipulatives to show understanding. Students can create and complete an experiment, use technology and they can also have the opportunity to self-assess. These types of assessments are also successful because they often involve the use of rubrics or other scoring guides. In this manner the students have a record of what is expected of them before beginning a project which can help the students stay on task and complete a project that is relevant to the expectations of the teacher. As I learned in the teacher interviews that I conducted these types of assessments are often enjoyed by students because they allow the students to show their own creativity and take ownership of their learning. Additionally other students often enjoy the performances of their peers and learn from those presentations (as we have demonstrated in class!). Finally performance based assessments take some of the pressure off of teachers because they are not as time consuming to create as some of the more traditional paper and pencil assessments that often need multiple modifications for students with differing abilities.

These are some of the authentic assessments that I learned how to use during my student teaching experience (teaching 8th grade Spanish): **Skits** – For each unit that we studied the students were assigned groups and give a topic to create a skit from. We talked about the possibilities and brainstormed ideas on the day the assignment was given. Students were given a list of items that needed to be incorporated into the skit (e.g. how many vocabulary words, what grammar examples we were looking for, how many props were needed). The best set of skits that occurred while I was there were for a unit about driving directions and places around town. The students were asked to create a skit using a taxi. We had some great creative examples! **Song with motions** - One of the first examples of authentic assessment that I saw when I started my student teaching experience is an excellent example of TPR and authentic assessment. The students were learning words to describe the position of items (e.g. above, below, behind, in front, next to). For the final assessment the students were paired up and practiced saying the different words, in a singsong voice or to the tune of a song, while using a prop and their bodies to demonstrate the meaning of the words at the same time. This came in handy later on in the year whenever we had to come back to any of those words. **Vocabulary Card Games –** There were two different types of vocabulary card games that I saw while student teaching, each from a different teacher. In the classroom that I worked in it wasn’t as much of a game, but I had several students who chose to see it as such and for them it seemed to help. For each unit the students created vocabulary cards with colored pictures of the word on the front of a note card and the word in Spanish on the back. The teacher also had larger versions of the cards. In the beginning the teacher would show a card and say the word, the students would then repeat the word while holding up the card. The more time went on the teacher would say the word without showing the card, allowing the students time to remember the word before seeing the correct answer. In each class there was a group that would compete against each other to see who held up the correct card first. The final assessment was the teacher calling out words and the students holding up the cards as the teacher went around to check and mark a seating chart if the student held up the incorrect card. The second card game was also a practice assessment. In this game the students worked in pairs with both sets of the vocabulary cards. The teacher called a word and the students had to race each other to find the correct word. The first student to grab the correct card keeps it and then at the end of the game the person with the highest number wins. The object here is to not only find your own vocabulary card but the other person’s as well. The students loved this game! The teacher told me that they asked to play it often. **Shop ‘Til You Drop** - I saw this while visiting another classroom. The teacher set up the tables in the room to create isles. Each isle contained a specific category of vocabulary words, when I saw the game they were studying food words so there was a dairy isle, meat isle, vegetable isle. The words were spread out on the tables. The class was split into teams and each team had a shopping cart. The teams were given a grocery list and two members were allowed out at one time but they had to stay together and one person had to be touching the cart the whole time. Also they could only speak in Spanish while looking for their groceries! The object was to get all of the items on the list correctly before time ran out. The students LOVED this game/assessment as well. The vocabulary card games and shop ‘til you drop really allow the teacher to observe how the students are working with words in a fun environment. The last game is also a close simulation to using the words in a real-life setting. Here are some other sample authentic assessments **Properties of a geometric figure** – after studying the properties of geometric figures as a unit the students choose an object from home to bring into class. The student then uses his or her knowledge to explain the geometric properties of that figure. This is an activity that was explained to me by Dalia during our interview. I like it because the students really have to know the information to explain an object not directly studied in class. **How to Demonstration** – The student prepares a short speech/demonstration on how to do something that he or she is familiar with (e.g. make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich). This allows the student with practice using words like first, second, and then, next, etc. It also allows the students to use props to help get their point across and gives them an opportunity to practice a real-world application of their language skills. **Newscast, Newspaper, or Brochure** - To show you how much students have learned about a specific topic students can organize the information into a newscast if they like to act or create a newspaper if they prefer art and writing. The newscast allows for the practice of verbal skills and taking in front of people – or if a camera is available students can record their newscasts. The option of recording allows the students to create more ambience in their scene and use more costumes and props. While I was student teaching the students created weather broadcasts to practice their weather vocabulary. While substituting I saw a class that was working on creating a newspaper from the time that the book they were reading was released. The students researched current events from that time and also created ads for the book that included drawings and summaries. Finally, when doing research about a specific place, students can present the information in a travel brochure that includes pictures. This could be completed on a computer or by hand.

References Gottlieb, M. (2006). //Assessing English Language Learners: Bridges From Language Proficiency to Academic Achievement//. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/tasks.htm#types