Authentic Assessment in the Affective Domain and Communicating Authentic Assessment

Communicating Authentic Assessment

Several ways exist to communicate results of authentic assessment.

Portfolio as a Medium of Communication

A portfolio is a collection of one's work.
Portfolio assessment requires students to continually collect and evaluate their ongoing work to improve their skills.
Language arts portfolios (writing portfolios or journals) are common examples.
Portfolio assessment can assess a student’s evolving mastery of skills in various subjects.

Example Scenario: Mr. Miller's 5th Grade Class

Mr. Miller targets his students’ abilities to write brief multiparagraph compositions.
He sets aside a place in the classroom, like a file cabinet, for students to collect and critique their compositions in folders throughout the year.
Mr. Miller collaborates with his students to define the qualities of good compositions and creates a skill-focused rubric for self-critique.
Students evaluate compositions using the rubric and engage in peer critique.
Every month, Mr. Miller holds portfolio conferences with each student to review their work and collaboratively decide on directions for improvement, and invites parents to participate at least once per semester.
The emphasis is on improving students’ abilities to evaluate their own multiparagraph compositions in these “working” portfolios.
At the end of the year, each student selects a best-work set of compositions for a “showcase” portfolio to take home to their parents.

Benefits of Portfolio Assessment

Portfolio assessment can yield major payoffs for students by enhancing self-appraisal skills.
Teachers agree on the power of portfolios as a combined assessment and instruction strategy.

Drawbacks of Portfolio Assessment

Staying abreast of students’ portfolios and holding periodic conferences is time-consuming.
Time-consumption should be carefully considered before implementing portfolio assessment.

Characteristics of an Effective Portfolio

Clearly defined purpose aligned with learning targets, standards, and 21st-century skills
Systematically organized collection of student work products
High student engagement and motivation
Individualized student artifacts
Preestablished guidelines used to establish contents
Some student selection of contents
Student self-reflection
Clear and appropriate criteria for evaluating student products
Conferences held between students and teachers to review and evaluate

Major Types of Portfolios

Documentation or Celebration

Shows student’s best work.
Examples:
- Highest scored test
- Highest graded paper
- Best project

Competence

Shows levels of achievement in relation to learning targets.
Example: Mastery of each competency needed to do electrical work.

Project

Illustrates competence on completion of a single task.
Examples:
- History unit final presentation
- Small-group project on identifying chemicals in a water sample

Growth

Shows improvement of student competence over time.
Examples:
- Examples of writing that show differences in skill
- Drawings from the first part of the semester to the last week of the semester

Planning for Portfolio Assessment: Key Questions

Are learning targets clear?
Are uses of the portfolio clear?
Is the physical structure for holding materials in a paper portfolio adequate and easily accessed?
Are technical resources and student computer skills adequate for digital portfolios?
Are procedures for selecting the content clear?
Does the nature of the content match the purpose?
Are student self-reflective guidelines and questions clear?
Are scoring criteria established?

Designing a Portfolio: Purpose

Begin with a clear idea about the purpose of the assessment.
Involves specific learning targets and the proposed use of the portfolio contents.

Learning Targets and Standards

Portfolios are ideal for assessing product, skill, and reasoning targets, and for enhancing desired student dispositions.
This is especially true for multidimensional skills such as writing, reading, and problem-solving.
With extensive self-reflection, critical thinking is an important target.
Students also develop metacognitive and decision-making skills.
Aligning the portfolio to content-area standards is often necessary.
Contents need to be matched to the standards regarding cognitive skills and proficiency levels.
Effective portfolios are usually easily matched with many 21st-century skills and dispositions.

Uses of Portfolios

The purpose will influence the contents and the criteria used for evaluation.
If the primary purpose is to document typical student work and progress:
- The portfolio will be highly individualized.
- It will tend to be a relatively loosely organized collection of samples selected by both the teacher and the student.
- It will be accompanied by both student and teacher evaluations.
- There will be many entries, representing different levels of performance, because the goal is to show what is typical, not necessarily the student’s best work.
If the portfolios are used primarily for demonstrating competence on state standards:
- There will be greater standardization about what to include and how the portfolios are reviewed.
- Most samples are selected by the teacher.

Identifying Physical and/or Digital Structure

Consider practical aspects of the portfolio (What will it look like?).
Paper-based portfolios: content is printed and put in envelopes or folders.
Consider folder size, storage location for easy student access, and containers (cardboard boxes, file folders, file cabinets, cereal boxes, and accordion files).
Visible and accessible folders tell students they are important and should be used continuously.
Choices for containers will influence what is put in the portfolios.
Consider the arrangement of documents: chronologically, by subject area, or by type of document.
Consider needed materials to separate the documents.
Digital structure:
- Varied, depending on whether you use an established platform or program, or if you design your own.
- Typically contained in an app or software program, with links to various artifacts, and often stored in a cloud or online.
- Larger data dashboards can be integrated electronically and allow you to link the portfolio to grade reporting and other forms of assessment.
- Blogs, easily designed by teachers, can also be used for digital portfolios.
- Digital formats will continue to evolve, with increasingly sophisticated and adaptable structures that will better align portfolio assessment with standards, other assessments, and reports to parents.

Determine Nature of the Content

The content of a portfolio consists of work samples and student and teacher evaluations.
Work samples are usually derived directly from instructional activities.
The range of work samples is often extensive, determined to some extent by the subject.
- Language arts: entries from student journals, book reports, audiotapes of oral presentations, workbook assignments, and poetry.
- Science: lab reports, questions posed by students for further investigation, drawings, and solutions to problems, videos, and pictures of projects.
Select categories of samples that will allow you to meet the purpose of the portfolio.
If you need to show progress, select tasks and samples that can show improvement, such as initial drafts, rewritten drafts, and final papers.
If you need to provide feedback to students on the procedures they use in putting together a report, be sure to include a summary of that process as part of the portfolio.
Use work samples that capitalize on the advantages of portfolios, such as flexibility, individuality, and authenticity.
The categories should allow for sufficient variation so that students can show individual work.
This often means giving students choices about what they can include.

Determine Student Self-Reflective Guidelines and Scoring Criteria

Establish guidelines for student self-reflection and the scoring criteria you will use when evaluating student performance.
This should be done so that both the guidelines and criteria can be explained to students before they begin their work.
In many cases, students can be involved in the development of self-reflective guidelines and scoring criteria.
Students will develop greater ownership of the process and will have experience in working collaboratively with you.
You have ultimate responsibility to control the process to ensure integrity and high quality.

Digital Portfolios

A digital portfolio (or eportfolio) is a dynamic, changing electronic collection of evidence, typically stored and managed online or with software apps and programs.
This type of portfolio can have the same purposes as a hard-copy file, but it allows for some additional features to further extend learning and encourages individualized, engaged, self-directed learning on more authentic topics.
A digital format can be used to focus on new learning targets.
Students and teachers are able to do more with the results and relate what is stored to other learning activities and goals.
Students are encouraged to analyze information, to connect information in new ways, and to collaborate with others in ways that result in more revision of initial work.
A large amount of information can be stored efficiently and securely, organized in meaningful ways.
Students are able to add examples, reflect, draw conclusions on an ongoing basis, and use their portfolios for several years.
When used correctly, then, digital portfolios encourage students to be active participants in authentic learning, stressing individuality, creativity, and use of their own voice.
Each student can incorporate their own style and individuality.
Often portfolios become compelling stories of students’ journeys.
Digital portfolios, unlike hardcopy portfolios, are easily accessible and transportable.
Most can be accessed anytime, anywhere.
This promotes greater parental involvement in student work that can improve their understanding of learning and achievement.
Electronic portfolios are excellent in showcasing student thinking and creativity for college admissions or selection into specialty high schools.

Example: Northridge Academy High School “Senior Portfolio” (2016)

Letter of Introduction to the readers of the portfolio
My certificates, scholarships, awards, and report card copies
Resume
Brag Sheet
Letters of recommendation
Autobiographical incident essay
Post-secondary plan
UC, CSU, private, community college or post-secondary program application/s
Proof of filing FAFSA
Four pieces of my quality work with a reflection
Service learning project
Job application
“My Journey” PowerPoint

Examples of Student Projects

Is running harmful or helpful?
How films are made.
The psychosocial challenges of single-parent homes.
The effect of music on learning.
Art therapy for children.
Cybersecurity and individual rights.
The decline of religion in America.
Homelessness in America.
You are what you read and listen to.
Breaking the cycle of poverty.
Digital portfolios can take both teaching and assessment to a higher level.
Using electronic portfolios depends on having sufficient hardware and/or online access, adequate teacher and student competence in using computer-based information, and adequate technical support.
Storage could be on a network server, tablet, cloud, or on classroom computers.
There are also a number of options for electronic formats, digitizing, and platforms for presentation of results.
With the Internet, Web 2.0 tools, and social media, the possibilities for engaging, efficient, and impactful eportfolios are immense.
It is probably just a matter of time before digital formats will replace traditional physical folders.
Although there may be a learning curve for both teachers and students, electronic formats can be powerful in enhancing student engagement and learning.
Teachers who use portfolios report increased use of formative assessment, authentic assessment, greater differentiation of instruction, more individualization, and greater emphasis on 21st-century skills.