Assessment—a focus on student learning outcomes
Rubrics
o Rubric generators:
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RubiStar http://rubistar.4teachers.org/
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Technology Rubric Generator http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics/
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Tools for Writing Rubrics
http://qualityrubrics.pbworks.com/w/page/44244080/Tools%20for%20Writing%20Rubrics
o Examples of rubrics:
 http://www.fcps.edu/is/worldlanguages/pals/ (tons of sample rubrics for language
classrooms)
 http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/rubrics.cfm (many sample rubrics for writing and
for alternative assessments)
 http://www.rubrician.com/writing.htm
o Resources:
 http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/assess.html
 http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/rubrics.htm
Peer assessment
Definition: students comment on and judge their colleagues work.
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Advantages
Helps students to become more
autonomous, responsible and
involved.
Encourages students to critically
analyze work done by others, rather
than simply seeing a mark.
Helps clarify assessment criteria.
Gives students a wider range of
feedback.
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Disadvantages
Students may lack the ability to
evaluate each other.
Students may not take it seriously,
allowing friendships,
entertainment value, etc. to
influence their marking.
Students may not like peer marking
because of the possibility of being
discriminated against, being
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More closely parallels possible career
situations where a group makes a
judgment.
Reduces the marking load on the
lecturer.
Several groups can be run at once as
not all groups require the lecturer's
presence.
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misunderstood, etc.
Without lecturer intervention,
students may misinform each
other.
General issues to consider
1. Tell student early—Announce rules and format on the first day.
Many instructors hand out copies of the forms used for assessment and evaluation with (or
as a part of) the syllabus.
2. Give them practice—Do assessment before (it counts) evaluation.
Students usually have no experience with assessing or evaluating the work of peers (or
often even their own work). Provide opportunities for them to assess other team
members in situations in which their assessments do not affect project grades.
3. Include feedback—Allow improvement.
Most students (given honest feedback from peers) will improve performance and are more
willing to give honest feedback to peers as they gain experience with assessment.
o Examples of peer assessments:
 http://repository.lib.polyu.edu.hk/jspui/bitstream/10397/618/1/LT_298.pdf
 http://www.mwp.hawaii.edu/resources/wm7.htm
o Resources:
 http://mams.rmit.edu.au/71ra0k9io8yzz.pdf
 http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/handbook/printable/assessment_v5.pdf
Portfolio assessment
o Definition: a systematic collection of student work and related material that depicts
a student's activities, accomplishments, and achievements in one or more school
subjects. The collection should include evidence of student reflection and selfevaluation, guidelines for selecting the portfolio contents, and criteria for judging
the quality of the work. The goal is to help students assemble portfolios that
illustrate their talents, represent their writing capabilities, and tell their stories of
achievement.
o Portfolio Overview
Advantages
• Promoting student selfevaluation, reflection, and
critical thinking.
• Measuring performance based
on genuine samples of student
work.
• Providing flexibility in
measuring how students
accomplish their learning goals.
• Enabling teachers and students
to share the responsibility for
setting learning goals and for
evaluating progress toward
meeting those goals.
• Giving students the opportunity
to have extensive input into the
learning process.
• Facilitating cooperative learning
activities, including peer
evaluation and tutoring,
cooperative learning groups,
and peer conferencing.
• Providing a process for
structuring learning in stages.
• Providing opportunities for
students and teachers to discuss
learning goals and the progress
toward those goals in
structured and unstructured
conferences.
• Enabling measurement of
multiple dimensions of student
progress by including different
types of data and materials.
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Disadvantages
Requiring extra time to plan an
assessment system and
conduct the assessment.
Gathering all of the necessary
data and work samples can
make portfolios bulky and
difficult to manage.
Developing a systematic and
deliberate management system
is difficult, but this step is
necessary in order to make
portfolios more than a random
collection of student work.
Scoring portfolios involves the
extensive use of subjective
evaluation procedures such as
rating scales and professional
judgment, and this limits
reliability.
Scheduling individual portfolio
conferences is difficulty and
the length of each conference
may interfere with other
instructional activities.
o Methods
 Reflective portfolios--To increase students' self-awareness of how their
understanding has developed requires that information about this
understanding be collected by the students as the course progresses.
 Project portfolios--The project portfolio corresponds to papers and other
completed projects a professional would include in his or her curriculum
vitae.
o Examples of portfolios in language and literature programs:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/CFLP/research/portfolio/portfolio1.html
http://www2.fcsh.unl.pt/docentes/cceia/Teaching%20TEFL/portfolio_david_mondedeu.pdf
Teaching literature in higher education
• Students make two columns on the board for a compare-and-contrast, or make a list of
possible motives for a character’s actions.
• Character Profile
Students make a Character Profile. They might need guidance for this exercise, so an
Information Form can be given them to fill out: name, date and place of birth, height,
weight, hair and eye color, distinguishing marks, general physical appearance, and so on. A
family section can also be included: parents’ names, dates and places of birth, brothers’ and
sisters’ names and their ages, and so forth. Then list a series of questions, each of which
requires a short paragraph. Here are some examples:
o Describe the character’s physical appearance, including clothing (jewelry, tattoos,
perfume, and so on).
o Describe the character’s walk, favorite postures (sitting, standing), and characteristic
gestures.
o Describe the character’s tastes in food, music, friends, books, movies, and so on.
o Describe the character’s most important childhood memory, and tell why it is
important.
o Describe character’s favorite good dream, and what it tells us about him or her.
o Describe a characteristic nightmare, and what it tells us about him or her.
o Describe the character’s values, beliefs, habits, dominant emotions—all the
important strengths and weakness of his or her Moral Character.
o Describe the character’s hopes for the future.
o Describe the character’s fears for the future.
o Describe the relationship that the main character has to the other significant figure
in the story.
• Write a scene or movie script. It should include detailed stage directions (position of actors
and actress, gestures, tone of voice and so on) so that it could be readily acted by
classmates.
• Illustration.
Student illustrates the story, creating a single image that somehow reflects either
the story as a whole or a crucial moment that implies the whole: (a) Draw your illustration;
(b) alternatively, use tableau with a few classmates to create your illustration.
• Assign each student a paragraph or section to prepare for reading aloud well and
dramatically (with accents and voices, if possible). Assign two students per section for
Comparative Performances so that students can hear different voice interpretations of the
same passage.
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Transpose the story to a modern setting.
Transpose the story to another significant figure’s point of view.
Write a poem derived from some moment or mood or sequence of feelings of the main
characters.
Write the script for a film poem that would evoke, through a sequence of images, a
moment or mood or sequence of feelings derived from the story. Students’ film script
should mention not only each image but camera angle, camera movement, pace of cutting,
and so on.
10 Resources for Teaching Reading/Literature with Technology
ReadWriteThink
Top 10 Books About Teaching Literature
http://www.englishforum.com/00/interactive/
Teaching language in higher education:
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Podcast via audacity
Voicethread
Digital storytelling by Movie Maker or iMove - Here is a comprehensive tutorial.
Glogster
Teachers can use Glogster for not only instruction, but also assessment by asking students
to make a Glogster.
Google voice
Sample blogpost of Google Voice in Mandarin Classroom is written for 1st graders, but it
applies to learners at all ages.
Poll Everywhere or Polldaddy
It can be used for interactive classroom assessment. E.g.
IT4ALL: A nice site for educators to share ideas on best practices for technology integration.