Alaska Department of Education & Early Development

A Collection of Assessment Strategies

Each portion of this section describes and analyzes a particular type of assessment strategy,

then lists sources of further information. Following those discussions, samples show how

each type of strategy might be used at various grade levels.

The following assessment strategies are examples of classroom-based assessment. Most of

the examples are embedded assessment (that is, the assessment is part of instruction and

informs the teacher how to adjust instruction during the teaching process). They may also

provide ongoing documentation of a student's ability relative to the Alaska Content

Standards. These examples are not designed to be used as final assessment rubrics to

quantify whether or not the students have achieved the Alaska Content Standards.

Performance tasks addressing the content standards and related assessment rubrics for those

tasks will be developed at a later date.

Index to Assessment Strategies and Samples

A. Graphic Organizers Hypercard Stack

Flow Chart

Webbing

Right Angle Chart

Venn Diagram

KWL Chart (What We Know Chart or Prior Knowledge Chart)

B. Interviews Susitna Elementary Think/Talk Project

Primary Math Interview

Primary Science Interview

Project Interview

Questioning Suggestions

High School Problem Solving Interview

C. Observation Observation Checklist

Problem Solving Observation Checklist

Observational Inventory of Scientific Attitudes

Detachable Labels

3x5 Card Notes

Cooperative Groupwork--Checklist

Cooperative Groupwork--Likert Scale

Cooperative Performance Indicators--Holistic Scale

D. Performance Tasks Fishing Formulas

Stop That Bicycle Task

Mystery Powders

Sink/Float Performance Task

E. Creative Performances and Exhibitions Use of Drama During Animal Observations

Use of Dance in Teaching About Air

Presentation Assessment Guide

Pictorial Math Problem Solving

Musical Concept Task

Oral Contributions

F. Self- and Peer-Evaluations Problem Solving Rating Scale

Portfolio Reflection Items

Questions for Reflective Feedback

Student Reflective Focus Questions: Problem Solving

Observation Checklist for Peer- and Self-Evaluations

Experimental Design Feedback

Cooperative Groupwork Self Assessment Checklist

G. Journals and Learning Logs Reflective Log

Fractions Journal Entry

Learning Log

Math Log

Note Taking/Note Making

H. Contracts Elementary Contract

Contract Likert Scale

Learning Contract

Sample Contract for a Project

Contract Worksheet

I. Familiar Assessment Tools: Tests Fill in the Blank

Matching Example

True/False

Short Response

Essay

J. Scoring Guides Analytical Trait Scale for Multiplication

Checklist

Habitat Concept Checklist

Habitat Concept Likert Scale

Habitat Concept Analytical Trait Scale

Habitat Concept Holistic Scale

K. Portfolios Science Portfolio Content Guide

Math and Science Autobiographies

Portfolio Entries for Young Children

NCTM Draft Rubric Standards for Evaluating Math Portfolios For Young Children

L. Reporting: Report Cards, Grades, Student-Led Conferences

Graphic Organizers

Webbing, Content/Concept Maps, What We Know/Want

to Know/Learned (KWL) Charts, Hypercard, Outlines,

Timelines, Flow Charts, Venn Diagrams

Graphic Organizers are maps that represent student thinking. They involve students in skills

like sequencing, comparing and classifying to create representations of concepts and

processes. These mental maps depict complex relationships and can become "blue prints"

that make abstract ideas more visible and concrete

Evaluation Purposes:

They permit the visual

comparison of student

understanding to expert

knowledge.

They illuminate preconceptions.

They help students make their

thinking visible (developing and

supporting visual learning

modalities).

They can be used as advanced

organizers for students since they

help students self-assess their

Webbing:

current knowledge.

Thoughts:

Graphic organizers would be

more creative, challenging, and

fun than traditional essay or

objective style questions on tests.

Graphic organizers could also be

required within presentations and

projects.

Assessment Comments:

Categories/Hierarchies____________

Content Accuracy____________

Flow Chart:

Assessment Feedback:

Flowchart Sequencing____________

Factual Accuracy____________

Hypercard Stack: (A computer application that allows students to link

information in non-linear, visual formats)

Assessment Criteria:

____Functional Categories/Hierarchies

____Content Accuracy

Graphic Organizers

Right Angle Chart:

Students complete the diagram by listing facts

about the topic on the right and feelings and

associations on the left.

Venn Diagram:

Set A is the set of quadrilaterals that are

equilateral.

Set B is the set of quadrilaterals that

have two pair of parallel sides.

Assessment Feedback (Pre- vs. Post- Charts):

Set C is the set of quadrilaterals that are

equal-angular.

Assessment Checklist:

___Are the circle attributes described

correctly?

___Are overlapping subsets identified

correctly?

___Is the content accurate?

KWL Charts:

what we Know, what we Want to learn, what we

Learned.

These provide the teacher with information on

the students' preconceptions and interests. They

document the progress of the class as a whole

but not individual attainment.

For More Information:

Burke, K. (1993). The Mindful

School: How to Assess

Thoughtful Outcomes. Palatine,

Illinois: IRI/Skylight Publishing,

Inc. Pgs. 117-126.

Murphy, N. (1994). Authentic

Assessment for the Learning

Cycle Model in Schafer, L (ed.)

(1994). Columbus Ohio: ERIC

Clearinghouse for Science,

Mathematics, and Environmental

Education. Pgs. 18-20.

Interviews

Interviews involve observing and questioning students to get a better idea of their attitudes,

thinking processes, level of understanding, ability to make connections, or ability to

communicate or apply concepts.

Evaluation Purposes:

They are effective at

diagnosing both strengths and

needs.

They encourage students to

reflect upon their own

thinking.

They provide additional

information on exceptional

students.

Thoughts:

Interviews can occur formally

or informally. Use tools or

manipulatives

Ask the student to do a task

and to explain what they are

doing and why as they work,

or you can do the task yourself

and have the student tell what

s/he thinks you are doing and

why (valuable for at-risk

students).

Keep records with either a

Structured Interview:

video/audio recorder, rubric or

anecdotal notes.

Not all students need to be

interviewed on a given set of

tasks.

Allow plenty of wait time so

that the student can give

thoughtful responses. Refrain

from teaching or asking

leading questions.

Ask students to describe their

thought processes while they

are solving problems (use

think/talk techniques). Susitna

Elementary in Anchorage has

piloted a Think/Talk Project.

Susitna Elementary Think/Talk

Project:

Discuss your strategy for solving this

problem:

(Solve the problem then explain how

you solved the problem.)

Performance Task Interview: Collecting Data

Materials: 10 colored flower

pictures

4 red, 5 blue, 1 green

Data sheet:

Interview Questions: Comments

1) Sort the flowers by color

2) Place them on the chart paper in

line above the same flower (model if

necessary)

3) Which flower color is most

common?

Interviews

Project Interview:

What question are you trying to answer with your

graphing project:

Why some carts go faster than others.

How will your graph answer that question?

Because it will show if heavier carts tend to go

down my ramp faster or slower than light carts.

Does that answer your question 'why'?

It tells me whether or not extra weight improves

their speed, but not other things.

How would you rephrase your question?

How does weight affect the speed of my cart?

Questioning Suggestions:

Ask questions that will help you better

understand student behavior and

understanding:

What did you do first?

Why?

Can you describe your

solution?

Will you explain what you are

doing?

What should you do next?

Can you describe any patterns

you see?

Problem Solving Interview Questions:

Please describe your problem to me.

There might be many ways to solve it.

Can you describe several possibilities?

What problems can you think of that are

similar to your original problem?

Evaluation

Feedback:_____self_____peer__x__teacher

yes/not yet ____Can you explain the problem?

____Can you brainstorm ways to solve it?

____Can you relate this problem to others like it?

For More Information:

Ann Arbor Public Schools.

(1993). Alternative Assessment:

Evaluating Student

Performance in Elementary

Mathematics. Palo Alto, CA:

Dale Seymour Publications. Pg.

12-27.

Stenmark, J. K. (ed). (1991).

Mathematics Assessment:

Myths, Models, Good

Questions . Reston, VA:

NCTM Pg. 28-33.

Observation

Anecdotal Notes, Video, Audio, Photos

Observations are a commonly used method to informally assess student behaviors,

attitudes, skills, concepts or processes. Anecdotal notes, checklists, video, audio recordings,

or photos may be used to formalize and document the observations made.

Evaluation Purposes:

Use observations to collect

data on behaviors that are

difficult to assess by other

methods (e.g., attitude toward

problem solving, selection

and usage of a specific

strategy, modeling a concept

with a manipulative, ability

to work effectively in a

group, persistence,

concentration).

Observe and record the way

students solve problems and

complete tasks.

Ascertain whether students

(individually or in a group)

are attaining the intended

objectives with observational

tools. (Do I need to reteach?

Are students ready to move

on?).

Thoughts:

Record and date your

observations during or soon

after the observation.

Develop a shorthand system.

Distinguish from inferences.

Observe students in a natural

classroom setting so you can

see how they respond under

normal conditions. It is easier

to observe students' behavior

if they are working in small

groups rather than alone.

Checklist Format: Science Process Skills

students

Have an observation plan, but

be flexible enough to note

other significant behavior.

You may find it helpful to

record either many behaviors

for one student or one

behavior for many students.

Use technology like Newton

or bar code readers.

3x5 Card Notes

Student: Larry Week: 1/19/94

Objectives: Demonstrates

understanding of place value

concepts.

Observations:

Regroups and trades up with 2 digit

addition.

Still has difficulty trading down for 2

digit subtraction with numbers, but is

successful doing it with

manipulatives on a place-value chart

"If students have internalized the underlying

concepts of problem solving, we should hear them

asking such questions as these:

What's this problem really about?

Why is this true (or not true)?

What's a good next step?

What do we still need to know?

Is there another explanation?

What if we changed this part?"

(Stenmark, 1991 p. 28)

Observation

Problem Solving Checklist:

Observational Inventory of

Scientific Attitudes:

Student's Name: Cherry

Detachable Labels:

Keep a clipboard with sheets of

computer labels attached.

Keep a 3-ringed notebook with

pages for each student. Create

sections for the skills and concepts

you are targeting.

As you observe the students, record

anecdotes on a label. Include the

student's name and the date.

At the end of each day, peel the

labels and attach them to the

student's page in the ring binder.

For More Information:

Ann Arbor Public Schools. (1993).

Alternative Assessment: Evaluating

Student Performance in Elementary

Mathematics. Palo Alto, CA: Dale

Seymour Publications. Pgs. 28-29.

Burke, K. (1993). The Mindful

School: How to Assess Thoughtful

Outcomes. Palatine, Illinois:

IRI/Skylight Publishing, Inc. Pgs.

110-116.

Murphy, N. (1994). Authentic

Assessment for the Learning Cycle

Model in Schafer, L (ed) (1994).

Behind The Methods Class Door:

Educating Elementary And Middle

School Science Teachers. Columbus

Ohio: ERIC Clearinghouse for

Science, Mathematics, and

Environmental Education. Pg. 28.

Ostlund, K. (1992). Science Process

Skills: Assessing Hands-On Student

Performance. NY: Addison-Wesley

(all chapters).

Performance Tasks

Performance tasks are learning activities that are scored according to specified criteria.

These may vary from brief, on-demand tasks to long term, complex projects.

Evaluation Purposes:

Use performance tasks to assess students' ability

to demonstrate and apply skills and concepts.

They simultaneously enhance and evaluate

students' ability to use appropriate mathematical

and science representations.

Performance tasks may involve explaining one's

work or the process used, formulating hypotheses,

explaining mathematical or scientific situations,

writing procedures, creating new related

problems, making generalizations, describing

patterns or solutions, and so on.

Scoring is often accomplished through

performance task cards, analytical trait scales,

checklists, or holistic scales.

Thoughts:

Criteria for performance tasks: (these will be in a

web in final product)

Engaging (thought provoking)

Equitable

Open Ended -vs.- one correct response

Feasible

Actively engages the student

Rich (many possibilities)

Authentic/rich/meaningful/relevant/real world

Essential to core of curriculum

Varying degrees of structure

Complete-able

Performance tasks allow the examination of the

process used as well as the answer or finished

project.

They can be used with groups as well as

individuals.

Fishing Formulas:

Your task is to help a fish-

loving Fairbanks couple decide

how to gather their winter's

supply of salmon. Whole

salmon costs $3 per pound at

the store. Do they have a

chance at catching enough fish

in one dip-netting trip to

Chitina to make the trip cost-

effective (i.e. to beat the cost

of $3/LB).

List the costs of the

dip-netting trip that

they will have to

consider. (If you know

that a cost will be

important but you do

not know the exact

value of that item, ask

your teacher for the

information.)

Use a spreadsheet and

graph your results to

determine how many

pounds of fish they will

have to catch to break

even with the cost of

purchasing that much

salmon.

Answer the question:

Will it be more or less

cost effective to fish for

salmon at Chitina than

to buy them in

Fairbanks? Explain

your answer.

Assessment Criteria:

Identified the cost categories:

____salmon price/LB

____ave. weight of salmon

____travel expenses

____cost of fishing licenses

____gear/dipnet costs

____cooler/ice costs

____salary lost for vacation

Used an effective formula in

the spreadsheet to determine

how the fixed costs of the trip

become variable costs/LB of

caught salmon.

____sum of fixed costs / lbs

caught = cost/lb

____other effective formula?

Correctly graphed the data to

answer the question.

____graphed the linear

horizontal slope of the costs/lb

of purchased salmon.

____graphed negative non-

linear slope of costs/lb caught

fish.

Correctly interpreted graph and

answered the question.

____determined break-even

point in terms of cost per lb

____translated to ave. wt of

fish and considered catch

limits.

Performance Tasks

Mystery Powders: Laboratory Instruction

Participate with the entire class to learn about

the tests that identify the following powders.

Take careful notes about the tests and your

Sink/Float Performance Task:

The teacher says:

Draw and design 2 different boats using

the materials in your bag. Predict whether

or not they will float. Build them. Test

observations.

them. Circle the picture of your best boat.

Assessment Comments:

spatial visualization:

prediction skills:

observation skills:

Assessment Checklist:

For More Information:

Ann Arbor Public Schools. (1993).

Alternative Assessment: Evaluating

Student Performance in Elementary

mathematics. Palo Alto, CA: Dale

Seymour Publications. Pg. 49

Shavelson, R.J. (1994). Laboratory

Notebook: Performance

Assessment in Science. Santa

Barbara, CA: University of

California. (In Reference Kit

Resource Notebook. Pgs. 60-61)

Stenmark, J. K. (ed). (1991).

Mathematics Assessment: Myths,

Models, Good Questions Reston,

VA: NCTM. Pgs. 12-25.

Creative Performances and Exhibitions

Drama, Dance, Songs, Oral Presentations, Artworks,

Authentic Products

Allow many opportunities for students to use kinesthetic, artistic, musical, spatial, media,

and other modalities to demonstrate their understanding of concepts and application of

skills.

Evaluation Purposes:

Use creative performance as a

way for students to

communicate their

understanding of concepts that

require difficult terminology.

Develop collaborative creative

performances to assess

students' use of group problem

solving and collaboration.

Encourage your students to

demonstrate their mastery of

technology while creating

performances.

Use performances as a means

to assess attitudes and

awareness.

Allow students with different

learning and communication

styles to express their

knowledge through

performances.

Thoughts:

Performances and exhibitions

motivate students to get

Drama:

Often animal observations do not occur as planned

or predicted. For example, when students observe

snails and meal worms for positive, negative or

neutral reactions to stimuli, the animals do not

always respond consistently. Teachers can

augment the effectiveness of the activity by having

the students pretend to be food snails and acting

out negative, positive, and neutral reactions. They

can observe whether or not the students can

operationalize these three kinds of reactions, and

they simultaneously keep the students

productively active while still watching for the

responses of the actual animals (Murphy, 1994, p

25).

Dance

After exploring "air as matter" the teacher asks the

students to pretend that they are each an individual

molecule of air. They are to pantomime the action

of the molecules of air as the teacher pretends to

control the temperature. Some students spread

their arms and bask in the heat, and they say that

they are expanding with the heat. Others coil up

from fear of being burned. Others begin to move

more actively around the room, bouncing off each

involved and have ownership

in their own learning.

These may be done

individually or with a group.

Ask students to create

assessment rubrics to help

them plan their performances.

other. These demonstrations provide the teacher

with important knowledge about the current

schema of these students (Murphy, 1994, p 25).

For More Information:

Burke, K. (1993). The Mindful

School: How to Assess

Thoughtful Outcomes.

Palatine, Illinois: IRI/Skylight

Publishing, Inc.

Presentation Assessment Checklist:

____Does the presentation demonstrate

knowledge of the concept?

Comments:

____Did the student use an effective process to

plan the performance (visualize, preplan, practice,

edit, perform)?

Comments:

Creative Performances and Exhibitions

Pictorial Math Problem Solving:

Draw a comic strip of this word problem. In the 5th

frame draw a solution to the problem:

Frame 1: Three moose swam across the river to the

sand bar.

Frame 2: One bear swam to the sand bar.

Frame 3: Two moose swam back from the sand bar to

the river bank.

Frame 4: The bear watched them swim.

Frame 5: How many animals remain on the sand bar?

Frame 6: What happens next?

Musical Concept Task:

Write a song about the aurora

that explains the reasons for the

different colors.

Assessment Scoring Guide:

____ 5 pt The correct colors are

identified.

____ 5 pt The correct

explanations are included.

____ 5 pt The song is engaging,

melodic, & rhythmic.

Assessment Checklist:

____Correctly sequences the comic frames

____Includes the correct # of animals in each frame

____Solves the problem

Oral Contributions Holistic Scale:

Self and Peer-Evaluations

Students are asked to reflect on, make a judgment about, and then report on their own or a

peer's behavior and performance. The responses may be used to evaluate both performance

and attitude. Typical evaluation tools could include sentence completion, Likert scales,

checklists, or holistic scales.

Evaluation Purposes:

Self and peer evaluations help us gain

information on how students view

their own performance and/or how

peers view their performance.

They provide data on student or group

attitudes, feelings, opinions, and

views.

Problem Solving Rating Scale

They encourage reflection and

communication about desirable

performance criteria.

Thoughts:

It is common for students to have

difficulty when they are first asked to

report their feelings, beliefs,

intentions, or thinking processes. It is

even more difficult to report on their

peers' performance. Make the process

safer by using it for formative rather

than summative purposes.

Model evaluating your own

performance, or provide examples.

Another strategy is to introduce

constructive feedback. Models help

students develop their sense of

standards for their own performance.

Work on constructive feedback

between students. Do a lot of

modeling first, and then make one

positive statement and one area for

improvement. The students then will

pick another classmate to make a

positive and an improvement

comment as well.

Let students do a private self-

assessment that no one else sees. This

allows for an honest sense of their

own level of understanding and

performance.

Self-assessment and peer assessment

can sometimes be combined onto one

checklist format; however, one set of

responses may influence the other.

Portfolio Reflection Items:

Choose two sentences to complete for each

item in your portfolio:

Reflective Feedback:

How did you feel about this activity?

I chose this piece to be in my portfolio

because:

If I could continue working on this piece, I

would:

While working on this piece I learned:

Would you like to do this activity again?

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Last modified on: Sun, Jun 16, 1996.