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.