Authentic Assessment

Authentic Assessment

Authentic assessment was described in the Edutopia video as relating to real-life or having relevancy, being engaging/interesting to students, and requiring synthesis of a product along with critical thinking. Examples provided by the staff at the School of the Future were projects, models, presentations, papers, and more. Authentic assessment is not a "fixed-form" assessment on which all students answer the same questions. Students should have flexibility in how they display their content knowledge.

Below is a diagram I created as a self-reflection on the authenticity level of assessment strategies I have used during this school year.

Student Engagement in Authentic Assessment

The Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning at Indiana University Bloomington has published a helpful list of authentic assessment examples. The example listed for biology is "[d]raw a diagram of how a process works." In the particular example shown towards the bottom of this webpage, many students incorporated diagrams of photosynthesis and respiration within their artifacts, especially those who chose to create a video or picture book.

Choice
Below is the project requirement checklist and the rubric for an adaptive assessment used in my Biology classes. When students engage in authentic assessment, they have a choice in their modality of expression. Their artifact is self-directed. Personally, I scaffold with a list of options to shorten the time students take to pick an artifact, but I do allow students to propose an alternate artifact.

Co-Planning
During an ongoing authentic assessment, it is important to monitor student progress and allow opportunities for students to ask questions. During the particular project outlined below, students had multiple days to work on their artifacts in class. I required each student to have two "check-ins" with me during the process. This allowed them to communicate their plans with me, but also allowed me to provide verbal and written feedback to them. When I am not having a check-in with a student, I circulate the room to answer questions, provide help, or redirect off-task students.

Self-Assessment and Reflection
Self-assessment and reflection can be incorporated at multiple points during the authentic assessment process. Students might be asked to assess their progress at intervals, to reflect on their completion of the learning goal afterward, or even to participate in a grade conference with the teacher where they assign themselves a grade they can justify with evidence. In the example of the cellular energy summative I have used in the past, I ask students to rate their level of readiness 1-5 in the first check-in, and in the second check-in, I ask them to reflect on what they have done so far and identify what, if anything, needs to be changed to ensure that they meet the goal. Students will know that they have reached their learning goal based on their completion of the checklist, aided by the rubric.

Sources

Authentic assessment. Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching-resources/assessing-student-learning/authentic-assessment/index.html

"Authentic" assessment at School of the Future. (2012). YouTube. Retrieved February 5, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l5m66Y607U&t=1s.