By Dr. Si Chen
When I was an English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom teacher, I often thought about my use of assessments. Was I using them to judge learning and unintentionally pressure students or to help students learn more deeply? I always felt a strong pull toward using assessment to strengthen student learning. That meant for most assessments I could control and assign, that I focused on creating learning opportunities through which students were actively engaged and required them to create products or performances to demonstrate their learning (e.g., a presentation after a case study, an essay after a short literature search). Later, during my doctoral studies, I discovered I was actually conducting performance assessment, which is an effective way to teach, learn, and assess in classrooms. In this blog, I introduce how to design a manageable and tailored performance assessment for classroom implementation.
How Does Performance Assessment Support Learning?
A performance assessment (PA) requires students to demonstrate their learning by creating a product or demonstrating a skill through performance rather than merely selecting a correct answer from options on a multiple-choice assessment. To complete a PA, students must learn first and then show what they learned. As a teacher, I can engage students in practicing for the learning competencies while completing the PA and provide feedback to students throughout the process. Then, I could see the extent to which my students had learned against the learning objectives based on the products they submitted. In short, I could infuse teaching, learning, and assessment simultaneously and organically by implementing a PA, as shown in Figure 1.
Is PA Too Much Work? Not Necessarily!
One reason why PA may sound daunting is that it is sometimes referred to as an “authentic assessment,” which emphasizes the authentic nature and essential advantage of differentiating from multiple-choice assessments. Even though PA can be designed to be highly authentic (e.g., reflecting students’ real-life situations relevant to a subject matter) and target complex and deeper learning, this does not mean all PAs should serve that purpose. PAs can—and should—range from small to medium to large scale, depending on their particular needs (see Table 1).
Additionally, among the full range of intended learning objectives (LOs), there are not only LOs that require higher-level thinking (e.g., Level 4—extensive thinking in the Depth of Knowledge Framework) but also LOs that fall under lower thinking levels, for which small-scale PAs are more suitable.
Small-scale PAs are valuable for helping students gain all LOs. A constructed-response item requiring students to write three sentences to express their understanding of a subject during class is a PA and can be very effective if well-designed and implemented. Therefore, PAs do not always have to require significant time and effort; we should wisely choose the type of PA we use.
How to Design a Manageable and Tailored PA?
When I was teaching ESL, I sometimes had over 40 students in one class. It was not possible to design and implement highly authentic PAs by myself for each class or module; neither the students nor I had the capacity for that. Therefore, I usually incorporated only two highly authentic large-scale PAs each semester, one as the mid-term and another as part of the final-term assessment. I also designed and implemented multiple small-scale PAs throughout the semester to minimize the use of multiple-choice assessments.
Being small-scale does not mean being of lower quality. Instead, all PAs should be well-designed. Based on suggestions offered by multiple researchers and practitioners on components of high-quality PAs (Chen & Gareis, 2024; Envision Learning Partners, n.d.; McTighe et al., 2020; Wren & Gareis, 2019), I’ve outlined seven essential steps (see Table 2) for tailoring a small-scale, manageable PA that can be completed within a 40-minute class session. While these steps could also be essential and applicable for all types of PAs, they are insufficient for designing larger-scale PAs, which might require more steps (e.g., consideration of authenticity).
Table 2. Steps for Designing a Manageable and Tailored PA
As mentioned earlier, students should learn first and then demonstrate what they have learned to complete a PA. Therefore, Step 1 is to know what students should learn (i.e., the LOs) to determine the appropriate type of PA, including its size and format. For instance, a small-scale PA could be an open-ended question that requires students to write a few sentences in 5 minutes, a short performance task that requires students to draw a visual in 30 minutes, or a short in-class role-play through which students demonstrate their understanding of how a professional should behave and interact in real life situations.
Steps 2–5 involve tailoring the PA to align with the LOs. Then, Step 6 focuses on infusing the PA into classroom teaching. Compared to medium- and large-scale PAs, most small-scale PAs can be completed within one class session; therefore, they are highly suitable to be incorporated as part of the classroom teaching process. In other words, implementing small-scale PAs can be incorporated into teaching time.
Step 7 is essential because it is what makes a PA activity an assessment and not merely a classroom teaching and learning activity. PAs require teachers to have a plan for how they will use the results after collecting and grading students’ performance (e.g., providing feedback to students, using the results to identify new practice opportunities); otherwise, the PA activity will only serve teaching and learning purposes without assessing students’ learning.
Although each step requires consideration of teaching, learning, and assessment, the primary focus is listed in the last column of Table 2, which shows that the PA process infuses teaching, learning, and assessment in both a simultaneous and organic manner.
Start with Small-Scale PAs
Designing high-quality PAs requires extensive expertise and experience, which can only be enhanced through continuous practice. By starting with small-scale PAs, both students and teachers grow and benefit. During the process, teachers can practice and reflect on the PA being designed and implemented, collect evidence of students’ learning, and use this evidence to inform sequential teaching and learning. Once teachers gain more experience tailoring small-scale PAs, the next step may be to build larger-scale PAs to diversify the assessments to assess a range of LOs, including higher-level thinking skills. Moreover, trying something new does not have to be a lonely practice and should be supported with resources. Therefore, it would be highly beneficial to initially reach out to colleagues to exchange experiences and examples of PAs, as well as request resources from the school and district for PA implementation.
In summary, using the seven steps as a guide to design and implement small-scale PAs in classrooms and seeking resources and support throughout the process would benefit students’ learning in the classroom.
Dr. Si Chen is a research associate at McREL International. Before joining McREL, he taught English as a Second Language in undergraduate classrooms for five years. Si completed his Ph.D. in Educational Policy, Planning & Leadership with a concentration in Curriculum & Learning Design at William & Mary.