Authentic Assessment: Family Work History

Authentic Assessment
Family Work History

Assessing family work history may be difficult today because of many factors. Care must be taken when assessing family history as not to make students and parents suspicious of ulterior motives. All questions about family history should be answered only to the families comfort level. Remember, we are trying to assess funds of knowledge as a way to better educate our students, not to make them feel uncomfortable in our classroom.

Possible assessment activities:

1- Ask direct questions about family work history on a “History of my Family” worksheet. Possible questions on work history may include;
a- My grandfather’s job was/is:
b- My grandmother’s job was/is:
c- My father works doing:
d- My mother works doing:
e- My older siblings work doing:
These types of questions ask what they do for work but not where. If a student supplies this information that is fine but it is not required

2- What do I (the student) want to do as a career after I finish my education? And, what level of education will I need to obtain to do this type of work?
This could be done as a ‘getting acquainted’ activity or as a possible assessment for an upcoming unit.

An additional question for both of these activities could be to ask the students’ how they think these questions apply to an upcoming unit. Another possibility could be a statement from you, the teacher, stating how these questions will apply to the unit. This should reduce any fears or apprehensions about answering the questions.

Learning Styles

Learning Style Quizzes
As we have learned, learning styles are directly linked to Multiple Intelligences. There are literally dozens of learning style quizzes on line and all you need to do is Google search them. I looked and looked to find one that I could download and supply here but I couldn’t find one that I could do this with. Here are some links to what I thought were several of the best and easiest to use.
• This one is one of the shortest quizzes I found with just 16 questions.
http://people.usd.edu/~bwjames/tut/learning-style/stylest.html

• This one is found on a site for people with LD (learning disabilities). There are some good insights into LD’s and learning styles and how to best use learning styles to reach those with a learning disability.
http://www.ldpride.net/learning-style-test.html

• This quiz is from Ithaca College in Ithaca , New York and has been used in their research on learning styles
http://www.ithaca.edu/mathcs/LearnStyle/LearningStyleQuiz.shtml

• This one is from North Carolina State University that is used in their Engineering Department
http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

Hopefully you will find these sites helpful!

Prior Subject Matter Knowledge, Example Sheet 2

Additional ideas for authentically assessing prior subject matter knowledge.
The second of two example sheets:

This sheet was adapted from the article "8 Lessons Learned on Differentiating Instruction", by Kechia Williams (http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3747932).

Prior Subject Matter Knowledge, Example Sheet 1

The first of two example sheets:

Keep in mind that there is not one 'best' way to assess for prior subject matter knowledge - it depends on the teacher, the subject matter, and the students.

Prior Subject Matter Knowledge, 'Expert' Sheet

Strength & Weakness Expert Handout

General Family - What did you do last summer?

This homework assignment is a creative way to learn more about your students. They have "choice" by using the method of presentation that they prefer and it allows them to utilize story telling skills. This can be tweaked for subject matter area by requiring inclusions of specific content in the story. The information gained from this assessment is more subtle about their family, but most students will include events that indicate family involvement or not. For example if they mention a vacation, the details of that vacation could clue you in to elements of their family life. Where did they go? How long were they on the trip? Who did they go with? Etc.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Learn about your students strengths and weaknesses with this simple questionnaire. This can be tweaked for subject matter specific responses or questions. This can be done in class or at home and shouldn't take more than 5-8 minutes for students to fill out. From this you will gain knowledge of the student's perception of their strengths and weaknesses along with goals for your class or the year.