"If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse gift will find a fitting place."
-- Margaret Mead
"If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse gift will find a fitting place."
-- Margaret Mead
"If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse gift will find a fitting place."
-- Margaret Mead
"If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse gift will find a fitting place."
-- Margaret Mead
By Teachers for Teachers
Sharing the wisdom of practice
Authentic Assessment Design
Introduction: This lesson is designed to follow the introductory lesson on Authentic Assessments. It is strongly recommended that you complete the introductory lesson before diving into the design of a new authentic assessment. That being said, if you already have a solid foundation on the features and value of authentic assessments, feel free to dive right in to this lesson and begin a redesign or a brand new design.
Learning Objectives: After completing this module, you will be able to:
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Adjust an existing assessment that you already have to make it more authentic. OR
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Design a new authentic assessment for your class.
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Provide targeted feedback to an authentic assessments designed by a colleague.
You can scroll or use the following links to navigate to sections of the lesson.
1.0 Redesign of an existing assessment (Approximately 1-2 hours)
2.0 Providing Feedback to Colleagues (Approximately 15 minutes)
3.0 Creation of an entirely new authentic assessment (Approximately 1-2 hours)
1.0 Redesign of an existing assessment (Approximately 1-2 hours)
In this section of the lesson, you will take an existing assessment that you have used before or have been given by your school that you think is a pretty good example of an authentic assessment (or as good a one as you have) and improve upon/expand/extend it to be more authentic. There is no one way to design authentic assessments and there are lots of resources out there that you may already be familiar with that can walk you through the process. We would like you to use one of the following sites to guide you through the process. Which one you use is up to you but you may find one model more to your liking than the other. Take a few minutes to scan each of the following sites and decide which one "speaks to you."
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Authentic Assessment Toolbox is a website developed by Jon Mueller. Jon Mueller is Professor of Psychology at North Central College in Naperville, IL. For more than 20 years he has taught a graduate course entitled "Assessment Strategies for the Classroom" as part of North Central's Master's of Education program. Jon has also consulted with teachers, schools and districts, colleges and universities, on the development, review and revision of assessments and standards/outcomes
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Performance Task PD with Jay McTighe is a series of blog posts on the rationale behind and design of authentic performance assessments by Jay, the author of Understanding by Design.
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Locate an existing assessment that you want to work on and all of the supporting materials. Proceed through the following checklist of items with respect to your assessment. If items/elements are missing or inadequate, refer to the two resources from above for background information on the specific aspects as you modify your assessment.
- The standards the assessment is designed to evaluate are written out and clearly articulate what students should be able to do and know.
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Does the assessment actually involve a task that students need to perform?
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Does the task students need to perform address the standards?
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Does the task call for understanding (and you thought we were done with understanding!) and transfer, not simply recall or a formulaic response?
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Does the task have characteristics that qualify it as being authentic? For example: realistic purpose, a defined target audience, multiple correct “answers”, integrates two or more topics/disciplines, a contextualized situation that involves real-world application, includes student choice.
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Are the directions for students clearly written and include links to all of the relevant supporting material?
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Do you have clearly articulated criteria targeting distinct traits of understanding and what a successful performance looks like? Are the criteria observable and written in language that students can understand?
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Do you have a rubric based on the criteria to measure student performance on the task and provide feedback to the student? The lesson on rubric design and feedback will help you here in addition to the information provided in the resources for this lesson. You may decide to modify your rubric once you complete the rubric design lesson...no worries!
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Now that you have modified an existing assessment to make it more authentic, have designed a rubric for evaluating student performance and have incorporated effective feedback for the students into the process, it is time to share the assessment with your colleagues for feedback. Post your modified assessment on the Authentic Assessment discussion board with links to the supporting materials - directions, rubric, etc.
2.0 Providing Feedback to Colleagues (Approximately 15 minutes)
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Select and read a redesigned assessment from a colleague. Provide feedback on the discussion board in a reply to their post.
3.0 Creation of an entirely new authentic assessment (Approximately 1-2 hours)
In this section of the lesson, you will design an entirely new authentic assessment for your course. The starting point for this new assessment should be the “end”, or your learning objectives, as you know from your reading on UbD and the session on lesson design. From your specific learning objectives, you will work backwards to create the authentic assessment.
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Identify a specific learning objective or standard that you do not already have an assessment for.
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Select an authentic task that will anchor your assessment. For help with this step CLICK HERE.
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Does the task students need to perform address the standards?
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Does the task call for understanding and transfer, not simply recall or a formulaic response?
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Does the task have characteristics that qualify it as being authentic? For example: realistic purpose, a defined target audience, multiple correct “answers”, integrates two or more topics/disciplines, a contextualized situation that involves real-world application, includes student choice.
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Are the directions for students clearly written and include links to all of the relevant supporting material?
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Do you have clearly articulated criteria targeting distinct traits of understanding and what a successful performance looks like? Are the criteria observable and written in language that students can understand?
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Do you have a rubric based on the criteria to measure student performance on the task and provide feedback to the student? The lesson on rubric design and feedback will help you here in addition to the information provided in the resources for this lesson. You may decide to modify your rubric once you complete the rubric design lesson...no worries!
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Now that you have designed a brand new authentic assessment, you might want to get some feedback from colleagues. Feel free to post this novel authentic assessment on the Authentic Assessment discussion board with links to the supporting materials - directions, rubric, etc. Include “NEW” in the title of your post so that folks will know that this is a brand new, never used before assessment.
4.0 Additional Resources
Leading Remote Learning: The Future of Assessment - a 1 hour webinar led by Jay McTighe on the topic of authentic assessment tasks. “Is your school ready to reimagine assessment and grading now that you’ve shifted to distance learning? Are you looking for ways to more holistically capture students’ knowledge and abilities? In this NAIS webinar recording, learn about various strategies to rethink the traditional test with Jay McTighe, author of Designing Authentic Performance Tasks and Projects: Tools for Meaningful Learning and Assessment, including how authentic performance tasks and projects serve as vehicles for meaningful learning, for integrating 21st century skills with academic content, and for providing evidence of students’ abilities to apply their learning in genuine contexts. McTighe presents examples and showcases tools and web-based planning resources.”
Wisconsin Education Association page on Performance Assessments provides an introduction to some of the important ideas associated with the concepts of performance assessment, authentic assessment, authentic instruction, performance criteria, and portfolios. It first summarizes the criticisms made of standardized achievement tests and of curriculum and instruction organized for the purpose of teaching subject matter content. Following that is a discussion of performance assessment, authentic assessment, and authentic instruction and learning. Attention then is directed to performance criteria and portfolios. The paper concludes by suggesting some ideas for getting started and by offering an example of a performance task.
Summative assessment strategy card, Eric Hudson from GOA addresses the question “How might students show what they have learned in a way that feels authentic and important?” (3:39 minute video)
Passion Projects Fuel Student-Driven Learning (May 2020) from ASCD Express magazine
Authentic tasks vs typical tests A table comparing the two from Grant Wiggins book Educative Assessment (1998)
A True Test: Toward More Authentic and Equitable Assessment by Grant Wiggins in the Phi Delta Kappa Magazine (1989)
Blog post by Grant Wiggins in 2014 in response to the article from Phi Delta Kappa that re-defines authenticity in assessment and addresses some confusion on the topic
Assessment: Authenticity, Context and Validity by Grant Wiggins in the Phi Delta Kappa Magazine (1993)
Three Keys Questions on Measuring Learning by Jay McTighe that appeared in the 2018 edition of Educational Leadership Magazine published by ASCD.
5.0 Connection to DEI
Authentic assessments, by opening up the ways in which students can demonstrate their understanding, provide a wonderful opportunity to intentionally incorporate DEI related issues or topics into your curriculum.
For an analysis of the relationship between equity and assessment, we recommend the following paper from the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment.
Equity and Assessment: Moving Towards Culturally Responsive Assessment