how alternative are these alternatives

Hello!

I came across a couple of lists of alternative assessments for literature from various websites (I have placed the links at the end of this post!) and have chosen 3 activities to elaborate on how it can be done in our classes. Also, I would like to know about about the different types of assessments done in different schools, whether schools mostly use the CA/SA exam-style of assessment or whether they have incorporated non-traditional ones. It'd be interesting to know the effects of their differing approaches too.  

 

1) Dramatic Performance

Using Macbeth as a sample text, students are to form groups and select scenes from Macbeth that they would be performing. Students will be tasked to perform their scene selections complete with props and costumes. Groups will then perform in front of the class and the teacher will assess everyone's performance. The best group will advance to the finals to compete with other classes.

On a personal note, both schools that I had my teaching stints at, use this idea of dramatic performance as a mode of alternative assessment. In my first school, students act out and perform parts of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart as it is. However, my second school took it a step further by including a criteria that students' performances must be a modern interpretation of Macbeth. So, I had a fun time watching modern versions of Macbeth in various forms such as a "Batman" version where the Joker now plays the role of the witches and Bruce Wayne is now the tortured Macbeth. There was also another one that uses the modern-day school setting with Banquo as the good student and Macbeth as the "paikia" bad student. It was refreshing to watch students perform and the experience left me with the reminder that we should never underestimate our students' abilities.

Pros: This is a fun way for students to exhibit their understanding of the play because students must ensure that their modern interpretation is coherent  both in the modern way while staying true to the actual storyline of Macbeth

Cons: Staging the performance is a time-consuming process yet the percentage for assessment may not be proportionate because schools may feel more comfortable awarding greater weightage to the more traditional forms of assessments. Because of this, I look forward to learning more varied forms of assessment and how different assessments demand different skills from students.

2)  Write yourself as a character

Students are to keep a portfolio of their journal entries as they are to take on a character role and write a journal entry as their chosen character. The journal-writing can be input into the curriculum as a regular activity e.g. every fortnightly or monthly as students progress further into the text.  A student can be Macbeth and write in her/his journal about her/his regrets after killing Duncan or her/his thoughts after hearing the prophecies. Other characters can be adopted too such as Duncan and Lady Macbeth so long as their entries are substantiated with evidence from the text. Additionally, the journal-writing can also involve other writing options such as to get students to write a letter to Shakespeare detailing on one theme or issue raised that they have strong feelings for.

Pros: This activity is a good form of assessing students' understanding of the various characters in the text as the activity becomes a site for students to perform character studies. The teacher can carry out a regular check-up on students' understanding by collecting their portfolios. Students too can see their development when they receive their feedback and can compare their present and past journal entries.

Cons: I cannot think of any.... other than the possibility that the activity may bring about greater marking load for teachers as they must now monitor and keep track of students' understanding through these journal entries on top of the usual formal assessment approach. But I think that this is possible though if you specify a page/word limit to the students to ensure that it is viable for us in terms of marking.

3) Conduct debates about issues relating to the text

Students are to form groups and build an argument pertaining to the topic that they have selected. An example of a topic may be something like "Macbeth deserves sympathy. Discuss." Students will then present their case to the opposing team and attempt to persuade everyone else to take on their position.

Pros: The debate is almost an oral presentation of an argumentative essay so students will be engaging in the same critical-thinking process that writing an essay would entail, except that this activity is more interactive and the groupwork will allow students to exchange and build on each others' ideas as opposed to working on the essay alone. The issues brought up allows for more class discussion as students can jump into the discussion to support or refute the team's argument. This activity also ensures that students are familiar with the text as they have to substantiate their argument with well-selected evidence.

Cons: Maybe this activity will present a similar challenge when it comes to awarding the assessment weightage.

Here are the links that contain various ideas for alternative assessments. They are more like lists of ideas so we can consider and modify the idea to best fit our assessment objectives!

(a) http://www.mcconnellms.org/pdf/summer_projects.pdf
(b) http://archive.csustan.edu/TeacherEd/FacultyStaff/betts/Handouts/PDFs/101CreatLitProj.pdf
(c) http://www.ereadingworksheets.com/e-reading-worksheets/school-project-ideas/
(d) http://www.angelfire.com/ok/freshenglish/bookreportideas.html

Thanks for reading! (: