Assessment methods and their applications

¶ … Student Learning

Requiring students to produce compositions or essays in a standard five-paragraph format is one of most popular methods of assessing student performance, especially in English, History, and Social Studies classes. The essay format does indeed have many points in its favor as a method of assessment. Its presentational format encourages children to be clear and logical in their thought processes. A traditional essay requires an introduction with several main ideas to support a thesis, topic development throughout the various body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

This form of focused and concentrated method of idea presentation is also demanded of students throughout their educational lifetime, regardless of whether teachers think it is the most effective way to write, or its value as a true gage of student ability. An essay is included on the new format of the SAT and ACT, the major standardized tests required to apply to most colleges. Also, essays allow for an assessment of grammar mechanics tested on standardized tests even in elementary, middle, and secondary schools. Today, we are in the era of high-stakes testing. "High stakes come in many forms, including tangible rewards, sanctions, or public comparisons of students or schools" ("What the research says about student assessment," 1996, Improving America's School: A Newsletter on Issues in School Reform). If a school's funding is contingent upon student performance on standardized tests, teachers may feel added pressure from administrators and parents to ensure student mechanics are sound.

One problem with using essays and tests alone as a method of assessment, some might allege, is that they only pinpoints student achievement at one point in academic time. Learning about writing as a process, not producing a finished product, is more important for developing learners. Hence, many teachers also use a portfolio, in which students may select their best works or show how they have developed an essay or research project over a series of revisions. The portfolio method is also an excellent way to encourage students to work on a piece of writing, and to craft it into a work that they are proud of as authors. Requiring students to build up a portfolio forces students not to wait to the last minute to produce a finished product, and encourages good work habits. It also shows teachers how different students have improved over time, which assessing a single, finished essay does not allow. Incorporating one-on-one critiques and conferences as part of the portfolio review can help foster higher standards for students and "provide specific feedback to the individual on strengths and weaknesses. In addition, they are useful for motivating students and allow for a more relevant method of reporting progress for students with special needs" ("Chapter 4: specific student assessment techniques," 1991, From Student Evaluation: A Teacher Handbook). Students with special needs may show marked improvement through effort over time, even if they are still 'below standard' in technical mechanics.

Requiring students to keep journals is also a useful way to encourage writing to become a habit, rather than to see written products as something that are always produced for a single assignment. Journals are a good source of rough drafts and ideas, without the pressure of formal grades and assignment structure, although some directed entries can be suggested or required as part of the assignment on the part of the instructor. Even required or directed journal assignments, if creatively deployed by the teacher, can also draw forth under-utilized skills from students with visual abilities. For example, a teacher can give a directed journaling assignment like making a mind map, where a student "starts in the center of the page with the main idea, and works outward in all directions, producing a growing and organized structure composed of key words and key images"("Mind maps, 2007, Creativity Web). Because they are not formal and have more of the quality of brainstorming, however it would be rare for a class to only require journals as a method of assessment.

While essays, portfolios, and journals are useful methods of assessment to grade the writing process and product and all develop the student's ability in the English language, for other subjects more interactive presentations may be useful to enhance the learning process as a whole. In science classes, science fair projects are often one of the most popular methods of teaching the scientific method. The students must formulate a hypothesis, and test and prove and disprove that hypothesis by creating an experimental design in a hands-on fashion. This gives them a sense of how science can be applied to 'real life,' and how 'real' scientists operate in the world. Science projects teach skills that writing and examinations cannot convey.