Performance Assessments: Checklists, Scales, Rubrics, Portfolios

1. Performance Assessments: Checklists, Rating Scales, Rubrics and Portfolios Elizabeth Howard University of Connecticut

2. What is Performance Assessment? • A type of formative assessment used by teachers to inform instruction; • Students are actively involved; • Assessments are connected to classroom activities; • Part of the learning cycle • Documentation typically includes checklists, rating scales, rubrics, and/or portfolios

3. Checklists • Gottlieb (2006) sees checklists as a form of a rating scale or rubric – i.e. checklists are dichotomous scales, the simplest form of a rating scale. • Advantage is simplicity and ease of use; disadvantage is lack of detailed information. • See example p. 117 Gottlieb

4. Rating Scales • Gottlieb (2006) sees rating scales as in between checklists and rubrics – sort of an advanced checklist that allows for a range of frequency or quality. • Provides more information than a checklist, but may be less reliable – need for more training, consensus-building • See example of needs assessment survey Gottlieb p. 118

5. Rubrics • Clear benchmarks of student performance and shared expectations for teachers, students, and parents • Criteria for each performance level build from criteria for the previous one • Allow for teacher collaboration and comparison of student work within and across grades, also over time • Two main types: holistic and analytic

6. Holistic Rubrics • The entire product is viewed as a whole and receives a single score • Generally faster to use than analytic rubrics; inter-rater reliability is also frequently higher. • Typically used for summative assessments because of limited feedback to students. • See examples p. 122, 124 Gottlieb

7. Analytic Rubrics • The parts of the product are viewed and scored separately – multidimensional assessment • The scoring process is typically much slower than for holistic rubrics, and the need for training to promote inter-rater reliability is greater • Analytic rubrics allow for much more detailed feedback to be provided to students – useful for formative assessment • See example p. 120 Gottlieb; also Colorín Colorado reading rubric; APS TWI rubrics http://www.cal.org/twi/Rubrics/index.html

8. Literacy Squared • A bilingual approach to writing instruction and assessment developed by Kathy Escamilla and colleagues at University of Colorado, Boulder. • Book forthcoming from Caslon Publishing

9. Activity: Assess Student Writing using the Literacy-Squared Analytic Rubric • English: !Party! Unse my family uent to a party in Santa Rosa for cinco de mayo and my Grandmom came with us and we had tomales and thare was a lot of music and I played with my cousins. Soccer and futball. • Spanish: Un dia yo y mis amigos estban jugando futbol americano y yo hizo 2 tuchdowns y 2 intorsep sons y Chuey hizo 1 intorspson y 1 tuchdown.

10. Portfolios • Provide a multidimensional profile of student abilities and interests; • Contents can be teacher selected or student selected; • Contents may be accompanied by checklists, rating scales, rubrics, or written annotations; • Contents may focus on a single topic or multiple topics; • See Gottlieb (2006) appendix 9.1 p. 183 for guidance on using portfolios with second language learners.

11. References • Gottlieb, M. (2006). Assessing English Language Learners: Bridges from Language Proficiency to Academic Achievement. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press. • Gottlieb, M. & Nguyen, D. (2007). Assessment and Accountability in Language Education Programs. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing.

12. Useful resources on the CAL website – www.cal.org/twi • TWI toolkit (especially inclusion of special education students) • Spanish language assessments • TWIOP

13. Other Dual Language Instructional Resources • www.dlenm.org • Instruction and Assessment http://www.dlenm.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=8&Itemid=10 • Soleado Newsletter http://www.dlenm.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=7&Itemid=36 • www.thecenterweb.org • Beeman, K. & Urow, C. (2013). Teaching for Biliteracy: Strengthening Bridges between Languages. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing http://caslonpublishing.com/titles/2/teaching-biliteracy-strengthening-bridges-between-/ • Dual Language on Demand Newsletter: http://www.thecenterweb.org/irc/pages/f_duallanguage-news.html