EPISODE 3: LOG ME

       Name:   Camille Frances M. Luis                   

       Course:   Bachelor of Secondary Education                 

       Resource Teacher:   Mrs. Eliza De Leon        

       Cooperating School:   Isabela National High School      

                                           
MY TARGET

At the end of this activity, you will be informed on the principles of authentic assessment and its usefulness in the classroom.

MY TASK

          Authentic assessment is an alternative way of assessing students' learning to be able to use it; You must have a deep understanding of it. To help you reach your goal, do the following task:

1.      Visit a classroom and the teacher interview on his / her experiences in using authentic assessment.

2.      Describe how the teacher uses the authentic assessment.

3.      Write a reflective journal on the activity.

MY TOOLS

          For this learning activity, please document the information gathered from the interview with the teacher on authentic assessment. Write your activity documentation using the form provided for you.

MY INTERVIEW NOTES How do you use authentic assessments?      Different modes of assessments are conducted upon examining students' ability to use their knowledge in applying what they have learned in Mathematics in a real-world context.  Open-response questions are conducted during discussions, activities that demonstrate what they have learned and tasks like solving in groups, compilation of their works throughout the school year and other tasks that will help them assess themselves and their work objectively are administered. What are some examples of authentic assessments you have used?      Open-response questions, portfolios, group projects, and self-assessment rubrics.      What makes authentic assessment results valid and reliable?          In scoring students 'performances, a scoring rubric developed standardized guarantees an accurate, consistent and fair judgment of the students' performance. Why use authentic assessment?       Using authentic assessments directly measures students' ability to use their acquired knowledge and skills in real world situations.    It provides reliable and valid results,   monitoring students' weaknesses and strengths,   allowing them to interpret information and relate it to their own prior knowledge -reflect on their own work and judge how well they have performed in relation to the assessment criteria.

                                     
ANALYSIS

1.       What is Authentic Assessment?

             Authentic assessment moves beyond rote learning and memorization of by traditional methods and allows students to construct responses. It is an assessment in which students gets to evaluate their own work and think about their own thinking (metacognition) and develop their abilities throughout the learning process. It comes in different forms: (a) open-response questions where the teacher asks open-ended questions and students will have to answer it the way they understand it; (b) demonstration of what they have learned through complex problem solving and brainstorming of their understanding acquired individually in group activities; (c) portfolios - compilation of their works with reflections on their performance throughout the school year. It is scored through the use of standardized scoring rubrics in gathering reliable and valid results.

2.       How authentic assessment was used? Was it used to measure learning through the product?

              Assessors use authentic assessments in evaluating students' abilities upon applying what they have learned that is likened to what is encountered in real-life settings. Different modes of assessment portfolios were used and were one of them. Students' works are documented and a reflection on their improvements throughout the school year was compiled. It is used to measure progress and see how well they see their performance throughout the learning period.

REFLECTION: What are your insights and feelings about the use of authentic assessment? Authentic assessments were undeniably effective. It helps students go beyond traditional assessments, providing realistic contexts making problems more engaging and helps the assessor evaluating whether a student can assimilate what they have learned in one context to another. Students can exhibit their diverse ways of learning. They get to assess their strengths and weaknesses by setting their own learning goals and teachers get to produce fair judgments through the use of rubrics. Describe how the teacher used the authentic assessment? The teachers use authentic assessment by conducting open-response activities- letting the students give a brief written or oral answers to open-ended questions, drawing or presenting a mathematical solution inside the class; administering group activities, portfolios and other tasks which represents authenticity. Standardized criterion helps the teacher assess her students fairly. How did you feel about the teacher's experience in the use of authentic assessment? The teacher's experience in the use of authentic assessment was quite effective and engaging. It keeps the students focused and the method of assessment used willed them to participate. Student interaction was directly observable. They can easily answer the teachers' questions and whenever someone can not follow, the teacher would immediately attend to his / her needs. What could be the gains of the students and teachers in using authentic assessment? The gains of the students in using authentic assessment are: (1) they improve their problem-solving and interactive skills, and attitudes that are needed in a real world situation; (2) they become more aware of the learning process by taking part on the evaluation process and in setting learning goals; (3) they learn how to participate and reflect on what they are doing; (4) they were able to see how well they can judge their own works and; (5) they can improve their metacognitive abilities. Teachers on the other hand, gather reliable, valid and fair judgments on the students' performances. They see how well their students perform well individually or how they act together with their group mates in interactive activities. Which part of the teacher's use of authentic assessment do you feel like improving or revising? The part of the teacher's use of authentic assessment that I feel like improving or revising is on the way open-response questions are conducted. Students get to where they want to seat, making them more comfortable but without a guaranteed cooperation. Others tend to do something which has nothing to do with their subject and only those students who were willing to interact.  I think one way of making it more efficient is to prepare a list of their names so everyone would get their chance to recite during class discussions. In that case they'll all exert an effort upon paying attention because they knew they have to answer the teacher's queries. Varied and effective assessments will help students learn and perform well in the teaching-learning process.