Assessment of Student Work

Traditional Assessment and Evaluation
Traditional forms of assessment and evaluation are characterized by pencil and paper tasks, often in the form of mulitiple choice and fill in the blank tests that are restricted by time. This teacher directed model, leaves the evaluation solely to the teacher who decides how close a child has come to meeting goals.

Portfolio Assessment and Evaluation
Portfolio assessment can be a more authentic means of measuring student progress and achievement as it offers information about an individual's reasoning process. Promoting a more student centered environment, students are encouraged to examine their work over time and select samples that show change. Futhermore, students are encouraged to take a more active role in their learning as they reflect on their growth.

"Portfolio assessment is more than just a means of assessing children's work. It is actually an entire approach to organizing a child centered classroom which you and your students are partners in learning." Kranz, 1994
How do I assess a portfolio?
1. Work with students to identify the criteria that makes the work effective. Help the students identify what constitutes successful learning by showing them how to develop criteria for their work. Help students to understand that criteria are standards we use to evaluate our own work and that of others. Be sure to identify appropriate assessment criteria for each of the categories of documentation (products, processes and perceptions). Below are a few examples of the areas of assessment from an intermediate poetry portfolio.
selects and uses words with increasing sophistication and effectiveness;
revises and edits his/her work, focusing on content and on more complex elements of style (imagery), independently or using feedback from others;
identifies stylistic devices used in literary works (e.g. metaphors, simile, personification, etc.) and explains their use;
proofreads and corrects his/her final drafts, focusing on grammar, punctuation, spelling, and conventions of style;
expresses and responds to a range of ideas and opinions concisely, clearly, and appropriately.


2. Further involve the students in the assessment process by having them develop rubric descriptors for the criteria selected. (see old lesson - junior newsletter).   Encourage and set time aside when student can self-evaluate. Help students work back and forth between their own selected work samples and the criteria to determine how to evaluate their own work. Invite students to suggest strategies for meeting their goals.

3. Devote a class period for students to select and review the work they have done over a period of time. Ask them to write themselves a gradeless report card of what they think they learned, didn't quite learn yet, and what they want to work on next.

4. Near the end of the time period you have set aside for portfolio assessment, whether it be the end of a lesson or term, schedule time with individual students to evaluate the contents of their portfolios. You will find that portfolio assessment affords you valuable one to one contact with your students. Have a page prepared (create the page) where you can record information from the conference. Remember that your comments should focus on student strengths and provide a few suggestions on how students can make improvements. You may also want to record key ideas about self evaluation that the student puts forth during the conference. This page can be photocopied and shared with students so that they have a written record of the conference.