Moving Toward Authentic Assessment--O'Malley

This chapter talks about how obviously multiple choice tests aren't going to cut it for language assessments. The author talks about the trend of moving towards "alternative assessments."

important tidbit: pg.1: Alternative Assessments consists of any method of finding out what a student knows or can do that is intended to show growth and inform instruction, and is an alternative to traditional forms of testing (ie. Multiple choice tests).

The Author goes on to say that alternative assessments are often authentic because they are based on classroom activities and real life setting (and by def are criterion referenced)

The chapter goes on to discuss the need for authentic assessments. The 2 main reasons are 1) to really assess the proficiency of a student, and 2) to be able to plan learning activities according to what the students know/don't know.

The chapter also briefly discusses the purposes of testing ELL students, and also some difficulties ELL test takers face. I have already learned a considerable amount this week because I asked the SPED director from my district to provide me with information regarding support teachers are allowed to provide to ELL Students. Even though I answered this for the other part of the assignment I will go ahead and post a list of some of the things we can do to support our students during standardized testing:

Accommodations that are permissible (According to Alaska EED)

-allowing frequent breaks
-allowing additional time
-administering the test over several days completing on or before the last day of the test window
-administering the test individually or to small groups in a separate location
-administering the test by ESL or native language teacher
-allowing students to ask for clarifications of directions
-clarifying test directions in the native language
-Reading directions in the native language
-simplifying or repeating directions in English
-providing written instructions
-writing helpful verbs from the directions on the board or a separate piece of paper in English or the native language
-repeating or re-reading embedded directions
-proctor or test administrator asking student questions about directions to check for understanding


I feel sort of gipped that no one told me these things before (or maybe I wasn't paying good attention??lol)

So even if the state never does give some "alternative assessments" for EL students, there are some steps we can take to give them a better chance of doing well.

I wonder how many times the word assessment is in this book??? I bet it's A LOT. :)

Language Testing, McNamara Chapter 1

I actually liked the beginning of this chapter because the author starts talking big picture stuff---which really made me think "I have never really thought about how many flippin tests we have in our society." And then I started thinking...well maybe if we have to pass a test to operate a vehicle, maybe we should have to take tests to see if we are fit to be a parent, or other things that a lot of people do poorly, lol. Anyway, it's been a long day and my mind is going in weird directions.

Most of the chapter talked about the design of language tests, including the method and purpose for the test. I think it is clear to most people these days that regular old pen and paper tests are way too restricting to measure whether someone is proficient in a language or not. I, for one, think I would personally do much better on a Yupik pen and paper test than I would on an oral or performance test because 1) I can be good at bs-ing, and 2) I can figure stuff out that is written that I'm not so good at hearing or speaking. There is no way that it would be a valid assessment of my skills in the Yup'ik Language.

I think the chapter actually helped me to understand better what a criterion referenced test is when it comes to language testing. My understanding is that the criterion is the "target performance" or what you would expect competent language speaking/communicating to sound like in real life. The test would be chances for students to demonstrate these criterion.

The author makes the point that in language testing, as with all testing, even "authentic" assessments can never be 100% authentic because they are staged, and or created to test the student. He goes on to talk about the Observer paradox, which I think we can all relate to---when you are observing students do something it almost always changes the way they would normally do it (whether for the better or worse).

I think there are several types of assessments that can be used to effectively test language proficiency, and the important factor becomes the purpose of the test---Why are we testing? Is it to see if the student is proficient in English for Educational reasons? Is it to see if they can get into a secondary school? Is it to be functional in a workplace setting? All of these reasons might warrant different assessments.

The next thing I need to determine is how do I use this information...

Assessment by Pierce

I'm not sure how exactly to react to this article---it's all about the stuff we have to deal with every day as teachers. I don't think any teacher in rural Alaska would say that education is removed from Politics. All of us feel the stresses placed upon us by NCLB. This isn't new information---NCLB creates a lot of problmes with rural Alaskan districts. Schools that don't meet AYP are placed on a level system that supposedly determines whether a school is in "crisis." Schools in crisis are forced to spend time, and money on creating plans for improvement (which isn't a bad idea for all schools), and if they don't improve they are threatened to be taken over by the state (as if that will really happne--I doubt it). Honestly, I'm tired of hearing about NCLB, who knows maybe the next administration in the White House will do something about this flawed act. Until then we just have to do the best we can for our students. Local/District assesments help studnets to be more successful on state tests and can serve as indicators to areas a child might need additional support.
This post is really random, but it's because I have a headache from reading tiny font most likely. K, have a good evening class!!!!!!!!

Em

Teacher Suspended for Refusing to Give State Test

What if every teacher in the whole U.S. refused to administer the State tests--they couldn't fire all of us?? Right?
Seriously though, I had mixed feelings about the article. I agree with the teacher that the tests are often not fair and don't produce a lot of positive things for our students, but I think most teachers would agree with that, but yet we have willingly chosen to work for state run (and funded) public education system, and unfortunately it's not always for us to decide a lot of things we might like to decide.

side note: I can't believe that guy only loses $1000 bucks after not working for 9 days!

I had questions to whether the teacher did his part in preparing his students for the mandated testing--I know a lot of districts use data from said tests to determine placement for different things for students. Not to mention that these tests are probably not going to go away soon, and the more exposure students are given the more likely they are to succeed--soooo...did this teacher make his point at the expense of the students?

One other good thing about this article was that it is written in at least size 12 font--made my eyes happy!!

Maori Approaches to Assessment

I needed some inspiration for this post---it's hard to read an article about something that you have no connection with (mental note for teaching my own class). It's also hard to get in the groove of reading when you have to stop and re-read words every so often, but I did get the author's purpose of including the language in her article to emphasize the importance of the Maori values and understandings in this approach to assessment.

My first reaction was I think it's awesome that they developed this method of assessing the students based around the cultural values and important world views of the Maori people. Can you imagine if we were able to develop these sort of authentic assessments for the Yup'ik culture/region/communities we live in, and these were used to determine whether the student would be a contributing member to the society they live in? Instead we are up against state and federal mandated assessments that are so restricting, we have to be very creative in our teaching to embed all the required standards into our lesson plans. We have to get students prepared to test--which is a whole other can of worms.

One quote from the article that I particularly agree with is "Assessment of children should encompass all dimensions of children's learning and development and should see the child as a whole" This is the Maori idea of "Kotahitanga." I've always felt that this is very important, which is another reason high stakes testing is irritating, because it doesn't look at the child as a whole, it is one-dimensional. I think classroom assessments should give students a variety of ways to demonstrate their knowledge/skill/learning so that the teacher does get a complete view of the student.

I think there is much that can be learned from the Maori people in this study, and how we might go about incorporating some of their approaches into developing authentic assessments for our region.

P.S. hi to my class!!! I miss you all :)
p.p.s. Erin--the picture is mainly for you.