QUICK RESOURCE SHEET #29

Alternative assessment

This edition of the QUICK RESOURCE SHEET is an initial look at the question of alternative assessment. Today’s links provide an extended summary of why teachers are looking for new and different ways of measuring student achievement, and the wide range of forms this measurement may take. Over the next few weeks, we will offer practical links directed to these different types of assessment, with hints for creating your own assessment tools, as well as samples of assessment tools designed by other teachers.

http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/hancoc01.html

This article gives a brief overview of alternative assessment, and “discusses some of the practical implications of assessing language students differently.” It juxtaposes alternative assessment with more traditional forms of testing. Ample references are provided.

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2/content_storage_01/0000000b/80/26/b4/68.pdf

This collection of detailed essays, each by a different author – 130 pages in total - examines the topic of alternative assessment from a variety of perspectives, with an intriguing look at theoretical considerations, as well as the sociocultural, historical, and political climate in which changes in assessment practice have taken place. (See page 4 for the Table of Contents.)

http://www.homeedsa.com/Articles/Multiple%20Intelligences.asp

No discussion of alternative assessment would be complete without a look at the work of Howard Gardner. “This digest discusses the origins of Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, his definition of intelligence, the incorporation of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences into the classroom, and its role in alternative assessment practices.”