Other methods

to assess!! Photo by José

By: Gloria G. Carrasco Alejandro Cuffia on
Unsplash

July
2019
The following alternative
assessments can be
implemented during the school
year to motivate your students
to become life-long learners.
According to James McMillan (2014), Alternative
assessments are assessments that are better aligned
with important outcomes. Those outcomes can
include portfolios, exhibitions, demonstrations, and
other forms of assessment that require the active
construction of meaning.

McMillan, J. (2014). Classroom assessment: Principles and practice for effective

standards-based instruction(6th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
 [ISTE-Student Standard 6a]

A rubric is an assessment
instrument that has
established clear criteria to
determine a grade attained by
students.
• Rubistar: Free online rubric maker
that has options to customize to any
subject.

• Rubric Maker by Theme Spark: A

Google add-on to create rubrics that
are aligned with common core
Photo by Jennifer standards.
Gonzalez on Cult of
Pedagogy
• Expectations from students are defined on the
rubric.
• Able to place student’s work in a range of doing well
to needs improvement.
• Focus is on the student’s performance, thus
facilitates notes used for feedback.
• Scoring guide rubrics facilitate grading as well as
maintaining consistentency.
(Pineda, 2014)
 [ISTE-Student Standard 1]

E-Portfolios is a collection of
student work represented by
reflecting on different
assessments.
The following links will display student
portfolio apps and websites that can
be used to get your class started:
 Common Sense Top Picks Photo by You X
Ventures on Unsplash

 Getting Smart Tools to Create

Online Portfolios
 Advantages
• Exchange of ideas and
feedback between the author
and those who view it (Bala,
Mansor, Stapa, and Zakaria,
2012).
• Motivates and makes use of
multimedia elements (McMillan,
2014).
• Encourages student ownership
that builds on self-efficacy and
pride (McMillan, 2014)
Disadvantages
• Unreliable internet connection
to update information (Bala,
Mansor, Stapa, and Zakaria,
2012).
• Showing growth may be
difficult since completed
assignments are collected
(McMillan, 2014).
 Project Based Learning (PBL) [ISTE-Student Standard 7]

Project Based Learning (PBL) prepares students for academic, personal, and
career success, and readies young people to rise to the challenges of their
lives and the world they will inherit (PBLworks, 2001).
 Journals [ISTE-Student Standard 1a]

Enhance student understanding through journals with writing,

drawing, video, or voice record. Seesaw allows an ongoing journal in
which students could go back and check on their reflections.
Bala, S. S., Mansor, W. F. A. W., Stapa, M., & Zakaria, M. H. (2012). Digital portfolio
and professional development of language teachers. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 66, 176-186.

Edcourage. (2014). Themespark rubric maker. Retrieved from

https://www.themespark.net/

Edutopia. (2014, July 16). Embedding assessment throughout the project (Keys to PBL
series part 5). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/JBK4C6agqAA

Gonzalez, J. (2014, May 1). Know your terms: Holistic, analytic, and single-point rubrics.
[Image]. Retrieved from https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/holistic-analytic-single-point-
rubrics/
ISTE. (2016). Student standards. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-
students

McMillan, J. (2014). Classroom assessment: Principles and practice for effective

standards-based instruction(6th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

PBLworks. (2001). Project based learning for all. Retrieved from

https://www.pblworks.org/what-is-pbl

Pineda, D. (2014). The feasibility of assessing teenagers’ oral English language

performance with a rubric/La viabilidad de evaluar el desempeno oral de los
adolescents en ingles con una rubrica. Revista PROFILE: Issues in Teachers’
Professional Development, (1), 181.

Rubistar. (2000). Retrieved from http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

Seesaw. (2018, August 10). Student journal posts in Seesaw. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5QZ9de0_xc

Yoder, L. (2016, April 28). Rubric maker by theme spark. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmMBO98Pt9Q
Gloria G. Carrasco
Email: Photo by Amy
gcarrasco@muhsd.org Shamblen on
Unsplash