Introduction
Examples of authentic assessments include writing one’s autobiography after reading an excerpt from the biography of a famous person. This assignment may be done in pairs with one student interviewing another about a specific period of his or her life. English language learners are expected to show their communication and vocabulary skills. This authentic assessment of writing and speaking develops students’ ability to interpret and convey meanings for an authentic purpose.
Main body
Another example of an authentic assessment is a simple story retelling when a student has to retell main ideas after reading or listening to the text. This assignment requires a learner to demonstrate skills of effective oral communication in summarizing a piece of work. The authentic assessment effectively measures the capabilities of ELLs who are usually unable to show their learning using traditional assessment methods due to language barriers (Rukmini & Saputri, 2017). Not only does authentic assessment emphasizes what students know rather than what they do not know but it also elicits higher-order thinking.
One example of performance assessment is conducting research on a student’s topic of interest. An English language learner will have to read literature in the English language and extract meaningful information to write an essay. The main advantage of this task is that it allows for keeping students interested and thus engaged in the process. When searching for information, a student not only expands his or her vocabulary but also learns to compare and analyze data in the English language.
Conclusion
Another good example of performance assessment is dramatic enactment which students may do collaboratively or on their own. Dramatic enactment may include prose or poetry interpretation, and learning outcomes of such tasks can hardly be overestimated. Since the activity is engaging, students are motivated to attain high levels of learning. This is especially important for English language learners who need constant support and motivation in their academic endeavors.
Reference
Rukmini, D., & Saputri, L. A. (2017). The authentic assessment to measure students’ English productive skills based on 2013 curriculum. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7(2), 263-273. Web.