Performance Assessment Why Performance Assessment Should Be An Integral Part In Assessing Our Foreign Language Students And How We Can Begin To Implement It Into The Curriculum By Adrienne Lord

What is Performance Assessment? Performance Assessment is a way of measuring student progress by evaluating how they navigate more “real world” situations. (Popham, 2011) It is an alternative assessment in that it is authentic and more effectively demonstrates what a student has learned and how well they can use it. (Pierce & O”Malley, 1992)

Why is it useful? It does not rely on memorized facts and mimics what students will encounter in “real life”. In second language (L2) acquisition, this is imperative as the student will be using the language to communicate with others. This communication can be oral or written, it involves input and output. It helps us, as educators, to identify how much students have learned and what, if anything, needs to be re-taught.

Performance Assessment in the Foreign Language Classroom Globalteachinglearning.com says that not offering performance assessments in the foreign language (FL) classroom does not offer an accurate portrait of how our students are doing. (2007) Most of us were assessed while acquiring L2 with paper and pencil based tests. This is not how we should continue to assess our students. Our goal is teaching the student to communicate; this is not effectively measured with multiple choice, fill in the blank, or matching tests.

When Should Performance Assessments be Administered? Popham refers to the time involved in constructing, administering, and evaluating Performance Assessments (PA). He states it is very time consuming. (2011) He states we must decide what is truly worth assessing by means of performance assessment. (Popham, 2011) We can utilize other assessment methods for other learning goals. I do think informal performance assessment can also be used when observing students completing an activity in class. This is still useful to us as educators.

What to keep in mind PA can take place in the classroom or outside of the classroom. Popham states there are important factors to keep in mind when designing PA: (2011) Generalizability Authenticity Multiple foci Teachability Fairness Feasibility Scorability

How will you incorporate PA into your curriculum? Popham states that teachers should administer a handful of these a year. (2011) I personally think this is a good idea for formal PA. You must consider the evaluative criteria explained on the previous slide. (Popham, 2011) Ensure the concept you are assessing is one of the most significant concepts of the year. It is a good idea to evaluate a few concepts at a time. (Popham, 2011)

Helpful Scoring Procedures Evaluative Criteria Descriptions of qualitative differences for the evaluative criteria An indication of whether a holistic or analytic scoring approach is to be used.

Skill Focused Rubrics Popham touts Skill Focused Rubrics as the type of rubric to employ when constructing a PA. He has five rules for employing a skill focused rubric. (2011) Make sure the skill to be assessed is significant. Make certain all of the rubric’s evaluative criteria can be addressed instructionally. Employ as few evaluative criteria as possible. Provide a concrete label for each evaluative criterion. Match the length of the rubric to your own tolerance for detail.

What the Research Says Sugita conducted a research study that aimed to discover whether written PA could be truly objectively rated and he questions the overall reliability and validity of assessment tasks and rating scales. (2009) Their results indicated that the use of a TWBT scoring guide reduced the amount of bias found amongst the raters of the written PA. I think this research is interesting to look at in terms of PA in L2 acquisition. The subjects were Japanese Students learning English, but this is still L2 acquisition.

More Research… Pierce & O’Malley wanted to find out how effective PA and Portfolio Assessment were in determining progress amongst ESL students. They define PA as a type of alternative assessment; an exercise in which a student is able to model specific skills and abilities, and demonstrates competence based on a previously designed rubric and standards. They state that PA should be the way to assess language minority students and ESL students. (1992)

How do you determine what tasks you should use for PA? An effective PA should have high generalizability. It should be authentic. It measures various concepts. Can you teach your students to be more proficient at the particular task? It should be a fair task. It should be a realistic task. How effectively it can be scored.

What Will It Look Like? General – SWBAT demonstrate a task that is transferrable to other aspects of communication. (Popham, 2011) Authentic – The learner should be able to communicate effectively in the chosen media. (Ferro & Sanchez, et. al, 2004) Think about incorporating various criterion such as; grammatical concepts, verb conjugations and vocabulary on which you will evaluate their performance. Some of my examples: Letters to pen pals Conversing with native speakers in real life situations Speaking with students in another country via Skype or some other program Presentations on aspects of the culture while speaking in the target language Examples given by Ferro & Sanchez, et. al: Essays Narrations Oral Interviews Role Playing (2004)

Writing Based PA This demonstrates how well students communicate in the written form of the target language. Pierce & O’Malley also suggest you provide a choice of topics. Give clear instructions to students, detailing expectations, time constraints, etc. It is interesting to note Pierce & O’Malley say you should score a few separately from another teacher and then collectively decide on criteria on how students will be scored. This ensures more objectivity according to them. (1992)

Oral PA Pierce & O’Malley say that oral activities should mimic authentic activities one would encounter in the classroom or in the real world. (1992) I think it is more authentic if it is something that is useful outside of the classroom. To save time, consider assessing students in pairs or in small groups. (Pierce & O’Malley, 1992)

Reading PA Pierce & O’Malley used ESL students as their research subjects but I think the fact they suggest reading comprehension be assessed in place of specific skills translates to L2 students as well. (1992) Use questions to determine their understanding of the text. (Pierce & O’Malley, 1992) Use authentic texts such as letters, newspaper and magazine articles, blogs, literature, etc.

Ways to Evaluate Student Progress One way to consider, is to use the ACTFL standards of novice, beginner, intermediate and advanced. The ACTFL website offers guidelines for speaking, reading, and writing. These are a good start in determining what level you think your student(s) are at and what level you would like them to be exhibiting. (actfl.org) Create your scoring rubric before you begin assessing; even better, before you begin teaching the material to be assessed. Utilize the information contained in Chapter 8 of Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need To Know by W. James Popham. He lists good ideas for writing scoring rubrics for PA. (2011)

Scoring Performance Assessments You must determine what you want to evaluate before you begin the scoring process. You must identify how you will qualitatively evaluate the criteria you have chosen to assess. You must choose whether you are going to use a holistic or analytic approach to scoring. Popham states that skill-focused rubrics are the only effective way to assess PA. (2011)

In conclusion…. Performance Assessments are a much more effective way to measure student progress in L2 acquisition. Formal PA should only be used when a task is one of the most significant to be measured. (Popham, 2011) It should be a truly authentic task that will be useful outside of the classroom.

References American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages. (1999). ACTFL Proficiency on Speaking retrieved from http://actfl.org/files/public/Guidelinesspeak.pdf American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages. (2001). Preliminary Proficiency on Writing retrieved from http://actfl.org/files/public/writingguidelines.pdf Ferro, M., Sanchez, C., et. al. (December 2, 2004). Alternative Assessment For The Foreign Language Classroom retrieved from http://gse.gmu.edu/assets/docs/forms/mirs/assessment_brochure.pdf Central Jersey World Languages Professional Development Institute 2000. (2000). World Languages Assessment Tasks World Languages Resources for K-12 Teachers and Parents. Retrieved from http://globalteachinglearning.com/cjwlpdi/assessment/assess.shtml Pierce, L. V., & O’Malley, J. M. (Spring 1992). Performance and Portfolio Assessment for Language Minority Students. NCBE Program Information Guide Series, Number 9. Retrieved from http://www.ode.state.or.us/opportunities/grants/nclb/title_iii/22performance-and-portfolio-assessments-for-language-minority-students.pdf Popham, W. J., (2011). Classroom Assessment: What teachers need to know. Boston: Pearson Education. Sugita, Y. (2009). The Development and Implementation of Task-based Writing Performance Assessment for Japanese Learners of English. Pan –Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics 13(2), 77-103.