Advantages of alternative assessment in teaching English

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O'ZBEKISTON RESPUBLIKASI

OLIY VA O'RTA MAXSUS TA'LIM VAZIRLIGI

NAMANGAN DAVLAT UNIVERSITETI

Advantages of alternative assessment in teaching English

Bitiruv Malakaviy Ishi

Namangan 2015

CONTENT

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I. ADVANTAGES OF ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT IN TEACHING ENGLISH

1.1 Brief introduction to alternative assessment

1.2 Features of alternative assessment

1.3 Types of alternative assessment

CHAPTER II. METHODS OF ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT.

2.1 The strategies of alternative assessment

2.2 The techniques of alternative assessment

CHAPTER III. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ASSESSMENT IN PRACTICE

3.1 Introduction to alternative assessment into the classroom.

3.2 The results of using alternative assessment in the classroom

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDIX

INTRODUCTION

Actuality of the theme. It is known for everybody that nowadays a worldwide and religious knowledge is very important for humanity. In our republic it is more being attention to education especially teaching and learning foreign language by President of Uzbekistan. As we know, we are future teachers and up-to-date pedagogical system demands that every both young and experienced teacher should be skillful specialists of his or her profession and be aware of the latest new rules of his/her subject. According to our presidential decree which was signed on December 10, 2012 named “On measures to further improve foreign language learning system” by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, starting from 2013/2014 school year foreign languages, mainly English, gradually throughout the country will be taught from the first year of schooling in the form of lesson-games and speaking games, continuing to learning the alphabet, reading and spelling in the second year (grade).

It is noted that in the framework of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On education” and the National Programme for Training in the country, a comprehensive foreign languages' teaching system, aimed at creating harmoniously developed, highly educated, modern-thinking young generation, further integration of the country to the world community, has been created. In order to increase teaching standards in distant rural areas, the higher educational institutions are allowed targeted admission of people living in distant areas to foreign language programs on the condition that they will oblige themselves to work in the acquired specialty at their residence area for at least 5 years after graduation. The decree also envisages 30% salary increase for foreign language teachers in rural areas, 15% increase for those in other areas.

So that, as a teacher we have to work on our knowledge without stopping. In my point of view, while teaching foreign language alternative assessment has so vital role. Because if you are a good experienced teacher but you are not a good assessor your students will be fed up with you and the learners will not be interested in your subject, that's why, it is very important.

If it is spoken about alternative assessment (AA) it represents a direct evaluation of learners' performance by using contexts and tasks similar to those in real life while traditional testing measures performance indirectly by checking knowledge and abilities outside their real context of usage.

Teachers have the freedom to use alternative evaluation permanently during the academic year while conventional tests are scheduled on certain dates, students' learning process will be therefore changing. Alternative assessment has the clear advantages of emphasizing the student's strong point while minimizing their weak points. Moreover, it gives teacher the opportunity not to compare levels and knowledge but to follow a student's development individually.

Investigation level of the theme. There are lots of world scientists who investigated the facts about advantages of alternative assessment in teaching English such as Zainab Abbas, Bailey, Heaton, Grant Wiggins, Brown, McKay, Cohen, Spenciner, Arter and Spandel, Jamol Jalolov, Maslov and so on. Moreover, it is said that alternative assessment is the most important thing while teaching pupils in the classroom. Actually, the pupil should be evaluated correctly in order to be interested to the subject. This gradual qualification work is based on the researches of evaluating especially advantages of alternative assessment in teaching English in the classroom.

The aim of the theme. The basic aim of the gradual qualification work is to discover theoretical researches related to alternative assessment in teaching English and to determine advantages of using from it while teaching process.

Tasks of the work:

· To define advantages of alternative assessment;

· To explain the features of assessment;

· To make clear the strategies of alternative assessment;

· To express the types of assessment in teaching;

· To describe the methods of alternative assessment in teaching English.

Objective and subject of the work. The objective of this work is to make more precise advantages of alternative assessment in teaching especially English language. alternative assessment teaching english

The subject of the work is the students who should be correctly evaluated during English lessons.

Novelty and practical significance of the work. Investigating on the advantages of alternative assessment in teaching EFL is the main novelty of the work. Today's pedagogical technology demands to know how to evaluate in a correct way. So helping teachers to understand advantages of alternative assessment is also novelty of the gradual work.

As the practical significance of the work, all gathered information was taken from theoretical books and internet and we can say that my gradual qualification work will be the most important and useful thing to teachers while teaching EFL.

Articles published on the gradual qualification work

There has been an article on this gradual qualification work which was named “Advantages of alternative assessment in teaching English”. It was published in the collection of articles “Problems of Language and Translation” published by the Department of philology of Namangan State University.

Literature overview of the work

As it is mentioned above, I took the main information from the internet because there is no enough material related to my work, in addition to this, I got information Zainab Abbas, Bailey, Heaton, Grant Wiggins, Jamol Jalolov's books.

Content of the gradual qualification work

Our gradual qualification work consists of introduction, three chapters all of which have three or two items, conclusion, tables, appendix, and bibliography.

At the end of the gradual qualification work there is given the general conclusion of the work, appendix and the bibliography.

CHAPTER I. ADVANTAGES OF ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT IN TEACHING ENGLISH

1.1 Brief introduction to alternative assessment

Today there is much talk about the significance to evaluate student achievement and current knowledge during or after teaching and learning process as it plays a very important role in education. Alternative assessment is a form of student performance grading that allows for a more holistic approach to student assessment. The traditional form of student assessment involves the average grading of a cumulative set of work for a given time period. With alternative assessments, students are enabled to provide their own responses rather than simply selecting from a given list of options. Alternative assessment can also encompass a portfolio of work to represent an entire use of concepts, similar to the way a traditional final examination is intended to be a cumulative demonstration of material learned over a given time period. But there is no one sole way to assess in EFL courses. EFL is an approach; as a result, there is no particular kind of language, teaching material or methodology which defines these languages. The focus is definitely placed on what the students know and can do and on what they do not know. Alternative assessment can be thought as performance assessment since it emphasizes processes and competencies, while it de-emphasizes theoretical scoring outcomes.

Alternative testing is a strategy based on the permanent assessment of students' linguistic level, which is why it is also called formative assessment. There are however methods of alternative assessment such as the portfolio or the project which, due to the amount and the complexity of information involve to share the characteristics of formative and summative evaluation, especially if their deadline is the final of the semester or of the academic year.

Learning the very names of the concepts used to define the new type of assessment, there are two characteristics, two terms that are repeated: performance

and authentic, which concentrate in themselves the most important characteristics of AA(alternative assessment): performance - that is, the student has to produce a directly or indirectly observable response by means of a product - and authentic, which means that the nature of the task and the context in which the assessment made are relevant and represent aspects of real life.

The purposes of the alternative testing methods are considerably wider than those of traditional tests for the very reason that they are themselves much richer and offer a wide range of possibilities. Alternative testing may contain the demonstration of certain abilities by the student, the writing of specific papers, the formulation of answers to open questions.

It is not only the final product that can be evaluated and graded, but also the very process of reaching the result, which demonstrate the quality and complexity of the learners' process of thinking. The teaching-learning process moves thus to a superior, richer and more reflexive level of critical thinking and reflection. From the point of view of the communicative approach, conventional or traditional testing is neither authentic nor communicative. And as far as the teaching and learning of foreign languages are concerned this phenomenon is more visible and stronger than in the case of any other academic subject.

AA (alternative assessment) methods are competence concerned and they are based on cognitive abilities and affective learning. The interactive nature of modern teaching extends to the assessment stage of learning, turning it into a valuable tool of practicing communication abilities and competences. These alternative evaluation methods are best considered as complementing rather than replacing more traditional test and assessment formats.

Alternative assessments are used to encourage student involvement in their assessment, their interaction with other students, teachers, parents and the larger community. Alternative assessments measure performance in forms other than conventional paper-and-pencil, short answer tests. Often because of class size or as a method for saving time in grading, traditional testing has been utilized.

Alternative assessment gives the student the opportunity to demonstrate the depth and scope of what they have learned rather than being limited to just a few responses on a traditional test or exam. The compression of an entire semester of work into a single hour of testing that can account for a major portion of a grade can often be a misrepresentation of the efforts of students.

A portfolio of work is an example of alternative assessments where a student has selected or developed the work they think best depicts their study skills and understanding of concepts. It is also an overall great teacher resource for showing what lesson plans were effective and which were not. In the same way that traditional assessments can show the flaws of poorly understood concepts when viewed at a holistic classroom level, the same can be true with alternative assessments.

The teacher resources available to assist with the deployment of alternative assessments in the classroom setting should include more than simply testing options. The study skills required to ensure sufficient supporting information prior to an actual alternative assessment event are critical to the success of students. Worksheets can help a student with the overall development of their responses, but overall, lesson plans should ensure ample time to help students become familiar with the alternative assessment model.

There are teacher worksheets available to assist with improving the study skills of students who are learning the alternative assessment methods. Just as many students feel they have an inherent inability to successfully complete multiple choices or traditional testing, there will be students who find the alternative method difficult. By continuing to foster a sense of ownership and student accountability for their contributions to their own assessment, many of these students will become more effective with their overall assessments. Alternate assessments provide a mechanism for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, and for other students with disabilities who may need alternate ways to access assessments, to be included in an educational accountability system.

According to data that was taken from the August 1993 issue of Visions, the newsletter of the Education for the Future Initiative, which was sponsored by Pacific Telesis.

Alternative Assessment

The utilization of non-traditional approaches in judging student performance.

Assessment

The act or result of judging the worth or value of something or someone.

Authentic Assessment

The multidimensional process of judging students' acceptable performance behaviors in life-like role applications.

Culminating Outcome

An ultimate synthesis and application of prior learning in significant performance contexts.

Descriptor

A set of signs for determining the student's level of achievement in a performance or product.

Exhibition

An authentic assessment activity by which students demonstrate or perform what they have learned. An exhibition might be a project, an essay, an oral or written report or performance, a portfolio, or piece of artwork. Effective exhibitions define essential learning and focus the curriculum, teacher and students.

Goal

Achievement toward which effort is directed. Concerned with ultimate outcomes and usually phrased in general or global terms.

Holistic Scoring

Score based on an over-all impression as opposed to conventional test scoring which counts up performance on parts to make a total score.

Model

A standard or example for imitation or comparison.

Needs Assessment

The process by which one identifies needs and decides upon priorities among them. A need may be defined as a condition in which there is a discrepancy between and acceptable state of affairs and an observed state of affairs.

Objective

Statement of short-term behavior that taken together with goals are thought to contribute to the envisioned final goal.

Open-Ended Thinking

When one is presented with a problem or question with no “right” answer or

the best answers can be obtained by an almost infinite variety of solution paths. Typical writing prompts are open-ended; by contrast, multiple-choice tests

are not open-ended.

Outcome

Culminating demonstration of learning that really matters.

Performance Assessment

To "act upon and bring to completion." Involves displaying one's knowledge effectively to bring to fruition a complex product or event. Performance assessments typically involve the creation of products.

Portfolio

A purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student's efforts, progress and achievements in one or more areas. The collection must include student participation in selecting the contents, the criteria for selection, the criteria for judging merit and evidence of student self-reflection.

Process

Refers to intermediate steps students take to reach the final performance or end-product. It thus includes all strategies, decisions, rough drafts and rehearsals - whether deliberate or not - used to complete the task.

Product

The tangible and stable result of a performance or task. An artifact from which we can infer a good deal about both a student's ability to perform and the processes that led to the product.

Rubrics

The quality criteria and standards by which a product, performance or outcome demonstration of significance will be developed and or assessed.

The details of alternative assessment are often reviewed when pre-service teachers take assessment courses. After that, however, it is up to the individual, the school, and the district to decide whether or not to use it in the classroom. Alternative assessment requires students to demonstrate the skills and knowledge that cannot be assessed using a timed multiple-choice or true-false test. It seeks to reveal students' critical-thinking and evaluation skills by asking students to complete open-ended tasks that often knowledge take more than one class period to complete. While fact-based is still a component of the learning that is assessed, its measurement is not the sole purpose of the assessment.

Alternative assessment is almost always teacher-created and is inextricably tied to the curriculum studied in class. The form of assessment is usually customized to the students and to the subject matter itself.

Alternative assessment takes many different forms, according to the nature of the skills and knowledge being assessed. Students are usually asked to demonstrate learning by creating a product, such as an exhibition or oral presentation, or performing a skill, such as conducting an experiment or demonstration.

Many people attribute the move toward alternative assessment to changes that have occurred in the workplace. In the past, public schools prepared students for manufacturing jobs that were the backbone of the economy. Schools focused on base skill sets and fact-based knowledge. Paper-and-pencil tests adequately measured the fact-based knowledge used in the old economy.

Alternative assessments help schools prepare students for the complex tasks that will be required of them when they become adults by focusing on thinking skills rather than memorization. Alternative assessment, often called authentic, comprehensive, or performance assessment, is usually designed by the teacher to gauge students' understanding of material. Examples of these measurements are open-ended questions, written compositions, oral presentations, projects, experiments, and portfolios of student work. Alternative assessments are designed so that the content of the assessment matches the content of the instruction.

Effective assessments give students feedback on how well they understand the information and on what they need to improve, while helping teachers better design instruction. Assessment becomes even more relevant when students become involved in their own assessment. Students taking an active role in developing the scoring criteria, self-evaluation, and goal setting, more readily accept that the assessment is adequately measuring their learning. In ELT, research indicates that the portfolio process is beneficial when compared to traditional assessment, because its emphasis is on learners' strengths as opposed to their weaknesses. The portfolio process is considered a more holistic and equitable approach than traditional quantitative testing methods, which receive criticism as the sole criterion for evaluating performance, in that it encourages self-esteem and the motivation to continue developing. Learners are evaluated based on observing performance of activities that demonstrate essential skills or knowledge. In other words, there is a practical point to evaluating the extent to which a learner can do the task. Methods such as utilizing learner portfolios rely on direct observation, using checklists and rubrics. This can, therefore, be thought of as authentic assessment, in that this is a more individual evaluation approach that replicates the real world. Furthermore, we, in our role as the assessors, are able to avoid communication problems that arise in traditional testing modes. Alternative assessment methods such as portfolios by and large necessitate the active participation of learners in the evaluation process. This naturally translates into greater interaction between learners and teachers. Another benefit is that learners become more engaged in the learning process, as well as building up a more intimate understanding of the particular skills and critical knowledge being appraised. By increasing the involvement of learners in the evaluation process, they gain a better understanding of their personal strengths and weakness. Alternative assessment offers a broad spectrum of assessment possibilities to address the different learning styles. Assessment can be used to adapt instruction and to provide feedback for monitoring students' learning. Assessment for learning provides both students and teachers with understandable information in a form they can use immediately to improve performance. Principally, through evaluation, both teachers and learners can get positive and negative output in teaching.

1.2 Feature of alternative assessment

Alternative assessment uses activities that reveal what students can do with language, emphasizing their strengths instead of their weaknesses. Alternative assessment instruments are not only designed and structured differently from traditional tests, but are also graded or scored differently. Because alternative assessment is performance based, it helps instructors emphasize that the point of language learning is communication for meaningful purposes.

Alternative assessment methods work well in learner-centered classrooms because they are based on the idea that students can evaluate their own learning and learn from the evaluation process. These methods give learners opportunities to reflect on both their linguistic development and their learning processes (what helps them learn and what might help them learn better). Alternative assessment thus gives instructors a way to connect assessment with review of learning strategies.

Features of alternative assessment:

Assessment is based on authentic tasks that demonstrate learners' ability to accomplish communication goals

Instructor and learners focus on communication, not on right and wrong answers

Learners help to set the criteria for successful completion of communication tasks

Learners have opportunities to assess themselves and their peers

Successful use of alternative assessment depends on using performance tasks that let students demonstrate what they can actually do with language. Fortunately, many of the activities that take place in communicative classrooms lend themselves to this type of assessment. These activities replicate the kinds of challenges, and allow for the kinds of solutions, that learners would encounter in communication outside the classroom.

The following criteria define authentic assessment activities:

They are built around topics or issues of interest to the students

They replicate real-world communication contexts and situations

They involve multi-stage tasks and real problems that require creative use of language rather than simple repetition

They require learners to produce a quality product or performance

Their evaluation criteria and standards are known to the student

They involve interaction between assessor (instructor, peers, self) and person assessed

They allow for self-evaluation and self-correction as they proceed

With alternative assessment, students are expected to participate actively in evaluating themselves and one another. Learners who are used to traditional teacher-centered classrooms have not been expected to take responsibility for assessment before and may need time to adjust to this new role. They also may be skeptical that peers can provide them with feedback that will enhance their learning.

Instructors need to prepare students for the use of alternative assessments and allow time to teach them how to use them, so that alternative assessment will make an effective contribution to the learning process. Introduce alternative assessment gradually while continuing to use more traditional forms of assessment. Begin by using checklists and rubrics yourself; move to self and peer evaluation later.

Create a supportive classroom environment in which students feel comfortable with one another.

Explain the rationale for alternative assessment.

Engage students in a discussion of assessment. Elicit their thoughts on the values and limitations of traditional forms of assessment and help them see ways that alternative assessment can enhance evaluation of what learners can do with language.

Give students guidance on how to reflect on and evaluate their own performance and that of others (see specifics in sections on peer and self evaluation).

As students find they benefit from evaluating themselves and their peers, the instructor can expand the amount of alternative assessment used in the classroom. Alternative assessment methods generally require the active involvement of students in the evaluation process. This translates into greater interaction between students and teachers. It also means that students become more engaged in the educational process and develop a more intimate understanding of the specific skills and critical knowledge being evaluated. By participating in the assessment process, students are also able to gain a greater understanding of their individual strengths and weakness by virtue of participating in the performance review. In addition, by evaluating student performance, teachers can evaluate the weak or strong points of the method or materials that they use in the learning-teaching process, reconsider their way of teaching, and make necessary adjustments. Alternative assessment is a non-traditional approach to judging performance. It is frequently used in the education industry to evaluate students based on objectives uniquely tailored to their individual needs. In contrast, traditional assessments are machine-graded, multiple-choice exams that estimate a person's progress in content knowledge against other exam takers. As the sole criterion of improvement and/or competence, traditional testing used alone has been found to create faulty comparisons and to overlook achievements. The nature of assessment is central to everything that students `do' - it governs how they study and learn. One of the primary purposes of assessment is to be summative. In its summative role, the purpose of assessment is to judge the quality and characteristics of the student and summarize these in a clear and widely acceptable format.

Traditionally, the principal mechanism for summative assessment is the end-of-module examination. Summative assessment is assumed to help employers by providing `costless' information on the productive potential of job applicants. It is also a mechanism for selecting students for post-compulsory education, and may be a factor in the reputation and financial security of institutions in higher education. Students care most about the results of summative assessment, as these impacts on their employability and prospective earnings. Assessment also has a formative function. In this role, assessment is intimately linked with students' learning processes, helping to guide them in their studies, motivating them, providing feedback on areas of learning requiring further work, and generally promoting the desired learning outcome. While the most assessment is both summative and formative, it is argued that the summative function increasingly predominates in a way that adversely affects student learning. Assessment also contributes to evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of modules and improving the quality of learning delivery

Purpose of summative assessment

* To pass or fail a student.

* To grade or rank a student.

* To allow progress to further study.

* To assure suitability for work.

* To predict success in future study and work.

* To signal employability and selection for employment.

Purpose of formative assessment

* To provide feedback to students.

* To motivate students.

* To diagnose students' strengths and weaknesses.

* To help students to develop self-awareness.

Lately alternative assessment has become important part of learning and teaching foreign languages. Methods of alternative assessment are based on learners' evaluation of their own learning and allow students to reflect on their linguistic development. The importance and relevance of alternative assessment is demonstrated by a multitude of publications in this area. Portfolio assessment as one of the ways of alternative assessment has become widely used in educational settings. The key features of portfolio are: an alternative to traditional testing, ways to self-assess one`s knowledge and skills, active participation of learners in the evaluation and development of reflective thinking. Learners' perception of usefulness of various class activities has not been sufficiently explored so far. There seems to be a discrepancy between teachers' and learners' views on usefulness - often currently unpopular activities among teachers perceived by learners as beneficial to learning. Alternative assessment has been widely used in evaluating the effectiveness of education at tertiary level. The key features of alternative assessment are active participation of learners in evaluation of their own performance and the development of reflective thinking. Success of alternative assessment depends on performance tasks that demonstrate what learners can do with language in communicative classrooms. Evaluating oneself is important part of alternative assessment which is normally presented in the form of reflections on one's performance.

The introduction of learning portfolios aims to measure student learning, just like any other evaluators. The pros and cons of assessing students through portfolios can include but are not limited to the following: Portfolios provide for comprehensive illustration of student performance. Its evaluation will enable one to see the overall picture of what a student is capable of doing and can also highlight strengths and areas for improvement. Identifying weaknesses allows the student to focus on specific areas and seek effective measures to progress. Since it is an ongoing process that requires timely monitoring and review, student-teacher collaboration is heightened.

With portfolio assessment, there is conscious effort by a student to generate quality output, thus developing sense of responsibility. Critical thinking skills, creative assessment, selectivity and reflective analysis are also enhanced. Student anxiety on taking examinations is also allayed. Additionally, specific information on student experiences, work participation and work satisfaction can also be gathered through production of portfolios. This, in turn, allows for the different components of the curriculum to be evaluated en masse. Moreover, individual learning styles are acknowledged with use of learning portfolios. Through this, an individualistic approach to learning commensurate with a student's style can be instituted, providing for more effective learning. Furthermore, curriculum objectives and goals, faculty enhancement, and development of feedbacks are enriched with review of learning portfolios since timely evaluation of student learning and effectiveness of the learning process is measured. Nevertheless, portfolios as an evaluative measure of student learning pose drawbacks. One is that it can be very demanding for students, parents, teachers and/or policymakers to execute. Additional time is imperative for planning, identifying instructional goals, developing strategies, identifying suitable instructional approaches, conferring with involved parties, assisting students' generation of portfolios, and evaluating outputs. The creation of portfolios in itself is time consuming and requires utmost dedication and discipline to carry out. Additionally, no valid grading criteria as of yet have been established to evaluate quality of generated portfolios. Since outcomes are very personal, contents varying from one student to another, it would be very difficult to objectively assess the contents of portfolios. Overall, dynamism in the education system is an affirmative response to the ever growing stack of information that needs to be learned by students. The pros and cons of assessing students through portfolios enumerated above are guides as to making smart choices with regard to the most suitable teaching and learning techniques that can be used to enhance student learning. Furthermore, the pros and cons of assessing students through portfolios, being an evaluative tool, also help for the improvement of the current proposed system that ultimately will improve acquisition of learning. Student portfolios, grading with rubrics, and other alternative assessment strategies can help you determine how well learning outcomes have been achieved. Alternative assessments are used to determine what students can and cannot do, in contrast to what they do or do not know. Alternative assessments, also referred to as performance tests or authentic assessments, are used to determine what students can and cannot do, in contrast to what they do or do not know. In other words, an alternative assessment measures applied proficiency more than it measures knowledge. Typical examples of alternative assessments include portfolios, project work, and other activities requiring some type of rubric. The essence of a performance assessment is that students are given the opportunity to do one or more of the following:

· Demonstrate their ability

· Perform a meaningful task

Receive feedback by a qualified person in terms of relevant and defensible criteria

In short, the purpose for using alternative assessments is to assess students' proficiency in performing complex tasks that are directly associated with learning outcomes.

Advantages of Alternative Assessments

They provide a means of assessing valued skills that cannot be directly assessed with traditional tests.

They provide a more realistic setting for student performance than traditional tests. They focus on student performance and the quality of work performed by students.

They can be easily aligned with established learning outcomes.

Process can be costly in terms of time, effort, equipment, materials, facilities, or funds.

Disadvantages of Alternative Assessments

Process can be costly in terms of time, effort, equipment, materials, facilities, or funds.

Rating process is sometimes more subjective than traditional exams.

1.3 Types of alternative assessment

Today, we know learning requires that the learner engage in problem-solving to actively build mental models. Knowledge is attained not just by receiving information, but also by interpreting the information and relating it to the learner's knowledge base. What is important, and therefore should be assessed, is the learner's ability to organize, structure, and use information in context to solve complex problems.

"Assessment should be deliberately designed to improve and educate student performance, not merely to audit as most school tests currently do."(Grant Wiggins, EdD., president and director of programs, Relearning by Design, Ewing, New Jersey).

It is clear that different kinds of information must be gathered about students by using different types of assessments. The types of assessments that are used will measure a variety of aspects of student learning, conceptual development, and skill acquisition and application. The use of a diverse set of data-collection formats will yield a deeper and more meaningful understanding of what children know and are able to do, which is, after all, the primary purpose of assessment.

Alternative assessment takes many different forms, according to the nature of the skills and knowledge being assessed. Students are usually asked to demonstrate learning by creating a product, such as an exhibition or oral presentation, or performing a skill, such as conducting an experiment or demonstration. Three variations of alternative assessment are performance-based assessment, authentic assessment, and portfolio assessment. In any given situation, more than one form may be involved. A brief description of each is the following:

Performance-based assessment

This term refers to the range of assessment activities that give the teacher the opportunity to observe students completing tasks using the skills being assessed. For example, in a science class, rather than take a multiple-choice test about scientific experiments, students actually conduct a lab experiment and write about their process and choices in a lab report.

Authentic assessment

This approach attempts to connect assessment with the real world. It requires students to apply skills and knowledge to the creation of a product or performance that applies to situations outside the school environment.

Portfolio assessment

Portfolios usually are comprised of work that has been completed over an entire grading period or semester. Teachers using portfolios require students to review their work and select items that best demonstrate that learning objectives have been met. Often students also write an essay reflecting on what they have learned, including the processes they have used to meet their goals. Portfolios can be paper-based, computer-based, or a combination of both. Ultimately, they should be judged against a predetermined set of criteria and will provide evidence of the learning that has occurred over time.

To my point of view, if we speak about types of assessment in a fully way, Neiman (cited in Serhani 2007) defines portfolio assessment as a selected collection of work that shows not only the best work, but also the development of the individual's work over a period of time. The students are expected to be independent thinkers or produce individual solutions to problems they face.

Ramazan (2012) asserts that a portfolio, in education, stands for a kind of student-centered assessment. Unlike the traditional assessment processes, portfolio assessments enable learners to participate in the evaluation of their own works because students can decide the content of the portfolio through the given directions of the instructor.

In practical terms, a student portfolio for assessment purposes is a “library” of reports, papers, and other materials, together with the student's reflection on his or her learning and on strengths and weaknesses. The assessment portfolio is prepared by an individual student either at the direction of the teacher or as uniquely planned by the student. It may also contain reports of grades, evaluations, and examinations, and it is usually held together in some appropriate binder (Lynch & Shaw cited in Huang, 2012). As portfolios can provide a rich view of learning process, a portfolio is often seen as a highly valid instrument for assessment. However, the data in a portfolio, being often descriptive, context-bound and personal, ask for much interpretation before they can be scored (Moss, cited in Schaaf 2005). This view is supported by Wolf and Dietz (cited in Schaaf 2005) who conclude that portfolios normally contain selected evidence of performance and products in various contexts accompanied by a teacher's comments and reflections. Generally speaking, for some a portfolio is a folder containing all the student work; others see it as a collection of the student best work. The literature reviewed on portfolios reveals that there are many types of portfolios in use. According to Columba & Dolgos (cited in Ramazan 2012), there are basically three types of portfolios to consider for classroom use. This type of portfolio focuses on the student's best and most representative work.

This type of portfolio is similar to an artist's portfolio where a variety of work is selected to reflect breadth of talent. Therefore, in this portfolio the student selects what he or she thinks is representative work. This folder is most often seen at open houses and parent visitations.

Teacher-Student Portfolio is often called the “working portfolio” or a “working folder”. This is an interactive teacher-student portfolio that aids in communication between teacher and student. All the items in this type of portfolio are scored, rated, ranked, or evaluated. Teachers can keep individual student portfolios that are solely for the teacher's use as an assessment tool. This is a focused type of portfolio and is a model of the holistic approach to assessment.

The portfolio, as an element of authentic assessment, has captured the interest of many instructors who want a more comprehensive way to assess their students' knowledge and skills, to have students actively participate in the evaluation process, and to simultaneously develop students' skills of reflective thinking. Five key characteristics of portfolio are: an alternative to traditional testing, comprehensive ways to assess students' knowledge and skills, authenticity of assessment, students' active participation in the evaluation process, simultaneous development of students' reflective thinking (Banta, online). A range of definitions of the portfolio has been developed, illustrating the growth and diversity of its use. For some teachers, the portfolio is part of an alternative assessment program, and it can either include a record of students' achievements or simply document their best work. For other teachers, the portfolio documents the students' learning process, and can be used as a means of promoting learner reflection. The definition of the portfolio can shift from product to process according to the context and design of its development (Nunes, 2004).

Portfolios can consist of a wide variety of materials: teacher notes, teacher completed checklists, students' self-reflections, written summaries, reading logs,

audiotapes of student talks, etc. An important dimension of portfolio assessment is

active student involvement in the process of assessment. Portfolios provide teachers with a wealth of information upon which to base instructional decision and to evaluate student progress. Portfolios can serve to motivate students and promote students self-assessment and self-understanding.

Portfolios display a variety of students' work produced under diverse conditions and collected during a specified period of time.

A brief overview of authentic assessment was found in Svinicki (2004). According to Svinicki, authentic assessment is based on student activities that replicate real world performances as closely as possible. She also listed several criteria for assessments to be authentic, from Wiggins (1998):

1. The assessment is realistic; it reflects the way the information or skills would be used in the “real world.”

2. The assessment requires judgment and innovation; it is based on solving unstructured problems that could easily have more than one right answer and, as such, requires the learner to make informed choices.

3. The assessment asks the student to “do” the subject, that is, to go through the procedures that are typical to the discipline under study.

4. The assessment is done in situations as similar to the contexts in which the related skills are performed as possible.

5. The assessment requires the student to demonstrate a wide range of skills that are related to the complex problem, including some that involve judgment.

6. The assessment allows for feedback, practice, and second chances to solve the problem being addressed.

From the point of view, Svincki added some information from Wiggins' ideas about authentic assessment to hers because of it is very helpful and needful.

Authentic assessment attempts to create a real-world environment for students to exhibit their skills and knowledge.

The concept of authentic assessment is similar to performance assessment. Meyer (1992) notes that performance and authentic assessments are not the same and that a performance is “authentic” to the extent it is based on challenging and engaging tasks which resemble the context in which adults do their work. In practical terms, this means that an authentic task or assessment is one in which students are allowed adequate time to plan, to complete the work, to self-assess, to revise, and to consult with others. Meyer also contends that authentic assessments must be judged by the same kinds of criteria (standards) which are used to judge adult performance on similar tasks.

A more elaborate definition of authenticity is offered by Wiggins (1990, CLASS), who suggests that three factors determine the authenticity of an assessment: the task, the context, and the evaluation criteria. An authentic task is one which requires the student to use knowledge or skills to produce a product or complete a performance. Based on this definition, memorizing a formula would not be an authentic task; however, using the formula to solve a practical problem would be.

Finally, Wiggins states that an authentic assessment should be judged using criteria which are similar to those used to judge adults who perform or produce.

Authentic assessment can include many of the following:

Observation

Essays

Interviews

Performance tasks

Exhibitions and demonstrations

Portfolios

Journals

Teacher-created tests

Rubrics

Self- and peer-evaluation

Moreover, an authentic assessment usually includes a task for students to perform and a rubric by which their performance on the task will be evaluated.

It is sufficient to use authentic assessment while teaching foreign language for teachers. Because every student especially applicant likes reality in order to know what their level is.

Performance assessments are designed to judge student abilities to use specific knowledge and research skills. Most performance assessments require the student to manipulate equipment to solve a problem or make an analysis. Rich performance assessments reveal a variety of problem-solving approaches, thus providing insight into a student's level of conceptual and procedural knowledge. There are generally two kinds of data used in educational assessment or evaluation, quantitative and qualitative. A quantitative measurement uses values from an instrument based on a standardized system that intentionally limits data collection to a selected or predetermined set of possible responses. Qualitative measurement is more concerned with detailed descriptions of situations or performance, hence it can be much more subjective but can also be much more valuable in the hands of an experienced teacher. Tasks used in performance-based assessment include essays, oral presentations, open-ended problems, hands-on problems, real-world simulations and other authentic tasks. Such tasks are concerned with problem solving and understanding. Just like standardized achievement tests, some performance-based assessments also have norms, but the approach and philosophy are much different than traditional standardized tests. Performance-based assessment is sometimes characterized as assessing real life, with students assuming responsibility for self-evaluation. Testing is "done" to a student, while performance assessment is done by the student as a form of self-reflection and self-assessment. The overriding philosophy of performance-based assessment is that teachers should have access to information that can provide ways to improve achievement, demonstrate exactly what a student does or does not understand, relate learning experiences to instruction, and combine assessment with teaching. Performance assessment is one alternative to traditional methods of testing student achievement. While traditional testing requires students to answer questions correctly, performance assessment requires students to demonstrate knowledge and skills, including the process by which they solve problems. Performance assessments measure skills such as the ability to integrate knowledge across disciplines, contribute to the work of a group, and develop a plan of action when confronted with a new situation. Performance assessments are also appropriate for determining if students are achieving the higher standards set by states for all students.

This brochure explains features of this assessment alternative, suggests ways to evaluate it, and offers exploratory questions you might ask your child's teacher about this subject. Performance assessments closely tied to this new way of teaching provide teachers with more information about the learning needs of their students and enable them to modify their methods to meet these needs.

They also allow students to assess their own progress and, therefore, be more responsible for their education.

CHAPTER II. METHODS OF ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT

2.1 The strategies of alternative assessment

Initially, if we explain the word of strategy, it is a plan or method for achieving something, especially over a long period of time. As it is seen, to know how to evaluate student to teacher is very important. Because, when the student recognize to have been evaluated correctly by the teacher he/she strive to get knowledge from the teacher.

Assessment need not take time away from learning; assessments can be learning experiences in themselves. Active assessment strategies enhance student content understanding and promote skills that will be beneficial to students throughout their lives. The ability to see the big picture, develop effective oral and written reports and the ability to work cooperatively with their peers are skills that are promoted by active assessment.

A classroom presentation is an assessment strategy that requires students to verbalize their knowledge, select and present samples of finished work, and organize their thoughts about a topic in order to present a summary of their learning. It may provide the basis for assessment upon completion of a student's project or essay.

There are many ways to assess students' mastery of material besides multiple choice examinations. What follows are some examples of alternative assessments that you might consider.