Three Alternative Methods of Assessment

When I studied Macbeth in Upper Secondary, the one of the alternative methods of assessment I remember having was a newspaper article that we were supposed to write about Macbeth becoming King. Not all of us came up with really creative articles, but it was fun to think of various ways in which to engage with the text outside of essay writing.
In Secondary 2, I remember having 2D puppets of the characters of Merchant of Venice. My group designed the puppets and came up with script for the last scene of the play as part of our class presentation. These alternative modes of assessment not only provided my friends and I with a break from essay writing, it also gave us an opportunity to express ourselves in alternative ways.
I chose the following alternative modes of assessment because I feel that these are pretty interesting ways in which I could possibly excite students about Literature. While the first method relies heavily on writing tasks, the other two methods give students other ways of engaging with the text. :D 

1.Literacy Letter [Taken from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/v36n2/frey.html ]

What does it consist of?

i.                    an essential question to encourage convergent thinking;

The students write their responses to these questions in their letters. These questions can be general questions that are used to elicit responses, and stimulate their interest in the compulsory text that the class has to study. It activates their prior knowledge and helps the students draw connections between the texts and their personal experiences.  

In your letter this week start with “I didn’t agree with . . .” or “I don’t understand . . .” Explain why you feel this way or what you didn’t understand

But they can also be questions structured to assess the students’ understanding on the concepts covered during class. The students can be asked to respond and do a close reading on a specific section of the text.

In this week’s literacy letter, please write about the theme of your book. What is the dominant idea the author is trying to convey? Stick to this prompt! Support your answer with specific quotations from the book. Be sure to write the page number. For example, on page 72, the author writes “She wept uncontrollably at the sight of the limp, bloody, dog. The thought of this loss in her life was too much to bear.” This is one example of how the author is writing about death.

ii.                  a common text to use as a platform for instruction; 

iii.                a range of student- selected texts to differentiate and to broaden their perspectives across cultures and experiences;

These texts are determined by the teacher, and aligned with the students’ interests as well as its compatibility for comparisons with the compulsory text that they would need to study. This allows the students to draw connections or variations between their compulsory text and the text of their choice.

**Why is this even necessary? This comparative aspect of the assessment was crafted to cater to the students’ interests. The general problem faced in the literature classes is that the students have little motivation and interest to read the classics that are commonly taught in literature classes. So, by allowing them to make reference to texts that are more likely to appeal to them and texts that are aligned to their interests and their teenage experiences, they would be more motivated to engage in lessons.

Comparative question: In your letter this week, write about the book’s genre and any connections you may have with the book. Can you connect and identify with the characters? Does this book remind you of any other book you have read? Does this book make you think of anything that is happening in the world?

iv.                 a formative assessment task to allow for ongoing measurement of each student’s progress.

The formative assessment refers to the literacy letters. The literacy letters can be used as a means of formative assessment as it tracks the students’ progression. It allows the teacher to identify areas of strengths or weaknesses so as to be able to structure lessons in order to better meet the needs of the students.

Apart from being assessed by the teacher, the literacy letter can be assessed by their peers as well. The peer edit check list allows students to review the work of their peer.

Sample of Literacy Letter Peer Edit Check List

The letters were designed to build upon one another each week, so that students engaged in a form of dialogic journaling about each book. During weekly individual conferences with students, we invited them to look over previous letters to notice patterns in their thinking and motivation.

Importantly, an analysis of the weekly literacy letters led to teaching points for small groups of students or the whole class. As such, the literacy letters became an authentic formative assessment tool useful in lesson planning.

2. Storyboard That [Taken from http://www.storyboardthat.com/articles/education/types-of-literary-conflict ]

Storyboard That is an ICT tool that helps engage students in class and  teach them to identify the types of literary conflict. Visual cues in storyboards bring heavy concepts such as Man vs. Society and Man vs. Self down to earth through “comic-strip” style illustrations and captions.  The various conflicts in literature are depicted in the poster below:

These conflicts can be depicted using the ICT tool as shown below: 

However, bearing in mind that creating and maintaining a Storyboard That account requires money, teachers might want to tweak the activity by asking students to draw out the storyboard, or use an alternative ICT tool to help them depict the various types of conflict that they might encounter in a literature text.

3. Tone and Mood in Literature : Moving Beyond Paragraphs [Taken from http://www.creativity2point0.org/2012/10/tone-and-mood-in-literature-moving.html ]

This mode of assessment is inspired by the following:

The following are images that you will get if you Google the term Humument.

Thus, drawing from Tom Philips creation, students will be asked to create their own versions of ‘A Humument’ where they would focus on the dominant tone and mood established within a specific passage or section of the literature text. After identifying the tone and mood, they will express the tone and mood though illustrations drawn onto the page, and by drawing focus to specific phrases or words that help to express the dominant tone and mood of the passage or section of the text.