Activity 1.9

Going to School

Here's My Best Work

Purposes:

  1. To understand the importance of clearly defined and well thought-out performance criteria

  2. To understand different types of performance criteria

  3. To discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of different types of performance criteria

Uses:

Part A of this activity can be used in Chapters 1 or 2 to illustrate the importance of performance criteria as one of two parts of an alternative assessment. Part A is an intermediate level activity. Prerequisites might be: Activities 1.1—Changing Assessment Practices, What Difference Does it Make For Students? or 1.12—Assessment Principles; and Activity 1.5—Clapping Hands.

In Chapter 3, Parts B and C can be used to illustrate types of performance criteria and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each kind. Parts B and C address advanced topics. Prerequisites, in addition to those listed above, might be: Chapter 2 text and Activity 2.1—Sorting Student Work.

Rationale:

Participants frequently need help in defining "performance criteria," understanding why they are important, seeing the difference between tasks and criteria, understanding the role of performance criteria in instruction and assessment, and understanding the differences between types of criteria and their advantages and disadvantages. This activity is designed as a hands-on way to explore these topics.

Materials:

Time Required:

1¼ to 2 hours

Facilitator's Notes:

Use Overhead A1.9,O1 to describe the purposes of the activity.

  1. Importance of Performance Criteria (30-45 minutes)

    1. (10 minutes) Hand out the Going to School (A1.9,H1) problem and have participants solve it in small groups

      Use A1.9,O2—Overhead of Graph to elicit and show the right answer.

      (Note: If participants come up with odd answers or say they couldn't figure it out because the problem was incomplete or confusing, use this as an opportunity to critique the task. Reinforce the notion of "sources of bias and distortion" (Chapter 1, Key 4) by pointing out that confusing tasks may mask student ability to demonstrate that they can problem solve. Ask participants how they would make the task better.)

    2. (5-10 minutes) Hand out the two student solutions (A1.9,H2) and ask participants to "grade them" or "score them" individually. Participants might ask questions like, "Do you want us to use A-F?" "Do we use a four-point scale?" "Do we take spelling into account?" etc. Just tell them to use their usual procedure. When individuals are done, ask small groups to discuss the various procedures used and any problems they ran into.

    3. (5-10 minutes). Reconvene the whole group and ask 4-5 individuals from various small groups to discuss the difficulties they encountered. Their comments will illustrate: (a) the random noise or error that can affect scoring when clear criteria are not in place, and (b) without a definition of how and what to score, it is hard to interpret what the grades or scores mean.

    4. (5 minutes) Pass out the criteria packet (A1.9,H3; A1.9,H4; A1.9,H5; plus two samples from Appendix A). Ask the participants to score the student response with A1.9,H3 and one sample from Appendix A.

    5. (5-10 minutes) Ask small groups to discuss the extent to which scoring was easier and more consistent when they had performance criteria to use. Make sure the following points are made. Rubrics are needed to do the following:

      1. Make it clear to students what it takes to be successful

      2. Make it clear to raters how to assign scores in a consistent manner

  2. Optional Activity—Different Types of Performance Criteria (45-60 minutes)

    1. (5-10 minutes) Ask participants to score the student responses with the various rubrics in this activity and those chosen from Appendix A. Begin with "holistic, skimpy" and progress to "analytical trait, detailed." Otherwise, experience with more detailed schemes will influence the skimpier versions. This procedure also illustrates how more detail in a rubric can lead to more accurate scoring.

    2. (15 minutes) For each rubric, have participants identify the following.

      1. Task-specific or general (they should get this right—it's stated on the top of each rubric); A1.9,H3 and H4 are "task-specific." The others are general. Ask participants to describe to each other the difference between task-specific and general criteria.

      2. Analytical trait (more than 1 score) or holistic (1 score). A1.9,H3 and A1.9,H5 are holistic; A1.9,H4 is analytical trait. One of your examples from Appendix A is holistic; the other is analytical trait. Ask participants to describe to each other the differences.

      3. Detailed or skimpy. A1.9,H5 is skimpy—terms are not defined well. Discuss the impact of skimpiness on consistency in scoring between raters and the ability of criteria to communicate to students what it takes to be successful. Both samples from Appendix A are detailed. Ask participants if detail would help students self-assess.

    3. (20-30 minutes) Ask participants to find examples in Appendix A—Sampler of the following types of performance criteria (a single sample may illustrate several features):
      • Holistic
      • Analytical trait
      • General
      • Task specific
      • Skimpy
      • Detailed

    Participants can use the "Rubrics Cube" (Overhead A1.9,O6) to classify the samples they find.

  3. Optional Activity—Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Types of Performance Criteria (20-30 minutes)

    Note: Don't do this part of the exercise if you don’t feel you can explain when to use each type of rubric/criteria.

    1. (20-30 minutes) Discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of the different types—small group and then large group. Advantages and disadvantages of each method are summarized on A1.9,O3 and A1.9,O4. Ask participants to add to or clarify what's on the overheads. Participants can also use the "Rubrics Cube" (Overhead A1.9,O6) to list the strengths and weaknesses of each type of rubric.

    2. (5-10 minutes) Bottom line—analytical trait, general criteria are better for instruction. The quote on A1.9,O5 is from a major national study of the impact of performance assessment on teaching and learning. Ask participants to explain to each other why general criteria are better instructionally.