Module 11 - Completing Your Project
Activity 11.2
Step 3: Planning an Assessment
Create or adapt an existing assessment based upon your current Assessment Plan. Regardless of the type of assessment you choose to build, be sure to include the following elements for a quality assessment.
Foundation of an Assessment
- Language that clearly communicates the quality required
- Higher-order thinking skills (view your “Habits of Learning Taxonomy” for ideas)
- Criteria that are content-specific to your project
- Instructions to the learner (if a learner self- or peer-assessment)
- Room for comments/feedback
Previewing the Steps for Creating an Assessment
- Choose the assessment tool you want to create.
- Rubric: If you want to build a rubric to assess a product or performance, decide the following:
| i. Choose the traits to be assessed. | • Categories
specific to an assessment that are located in the column on the far
left side of the assessments. Example: In an oral
presentation—eye contact, pace, expression, and so forth.
• Define 6–8 traits or aspects of the product or performance that have a clear definition of quality. • Incorporate higher-order thinking skills. |
| ii. Decide the number of scoring levels. | • In a rubric, different levels of performance or product expectations are noted by 4, 3, 2, 1 or excellent, good, fair, poor. • The default number of levels created by the Assessing Projects application is four. |
| iii. Develop criteria for each trait at each scoring level. | • Criteria are directly related to assessment standards or parts thereof, measures, or expectations on which a judgement or decision can be based.
• The more specific the criteria, the easier learners can determine the quality of their work. • Criteria should support targeted higher-order thinking skills. |
Another Assessment: If you want to create a different type of assessment than a rubric, be sure to still include the elements listed at the top of the page, identified as the foundation of an assessment.
- To help focus on your assessment purpose, think about the following questions:
- What concepts, skills, and knowledge will be assessed?
- How will the Curriculum-Framing Questions be assessed?
- What higher-order thinking skills will be assessed?
- What 21st century skills will be assessed?
- At what level should your learners be performing all of the identified learning goals?
- What kind of assessment will best suit you and your learners' needs?
- Checklist
- Rubric
- Scoring guide
