Moving the Needle - Saying Goodbye to T/F

Purpose:

Throughout this module, we've identified a strong rationale for the use of authentic assessments. In order to accurately measure student learning our activities and assessments need to match the order of thinking we are hoping to achieve in the curriculum. Higher order thinking skills, like reasoning, discussion, application, creation, etc, are more better facilitated through the use of an assessment that is consistent with the goals of the course and instruction. The purpose of this activity is to provide an opportunity to reflect on activities in your courses to see if they are appropriate to the goals you have for your students and the course. 

Task:

You have two choices. 

Option 1)

Identify an assessment that uses a more traditional format (exam, quiz, essay,) that you aren't thrilled about in regards to student performance. Briefly describe the assessment and develop a plan to replace it with an authentic assessment. List the learning objective you are hoping to achieve with the activity and identify an alternative assessment that would help you meet that learning objective.  Jon Mueller's Authentic Assessment Toolbox Links to an external site. is a great resource to help you think about different examples you could utilize. 

Option 2)

This option is for those who currently do use authentic assessments in your course. We'd like you to describe your assessments. What specifically works about the activity, how do your students engage with it, and what is still a struggle with the assessment?

Criteria:

Your submission should thoroughly answer the prompts to one of the options above. 

Here's an example from an English Language Learning Course who chose option 1 for their response:

In my level two ESL course, my students take a lot of short and fairly easy quizzes. I felt these quizzes allow me to quickly see how the students are doing with certain concepts on grammar and vocabulary. However, in reflection, I realize that these quizzes have taken a considerable amount of time in my classes when you add them all up. They account for a high percentage of the course grade as well. I'd like to see more performative assessments built into the course and the gradebook. For now, I plan on alternating weeks with one week having a short quiz on grammar and vocabulary, while the other week's assessments will include performative activities, group problem solving, and real world language situations. The first authentic assessment, I'm thinking about will build off our prior week's unit on shopping and will include an activity where students create their own shopping scenario in small groups and then will perform them to the class.