Keep it Simple!

    

Sore back, strained eyes, and countless hours of creating that perfect lesson to teach online – Been there, done that! Now let’s add trying to conduct valid PBLA assessments online into the mix.   The good news is, and there really is some, it is possible. The days of in-class teaching and conducting in-class assessments may feel like a distant memory, however a lot of what we did can be adapted to work in an online class.   

 

Listening and speaking are two skills which naturally lend themselves for assessments during a Zoom class.  We all regularly use many real-world reading and writing tasks with our classes, but we just have to remember to make them skill-using activities with holistic feedback and count them as artefacts for our students’ portfolios.  Keep track of everything in the assessment logs!  (See previous post for the links)

 

As you know, there are different tips and tricks to use to ensure we are getting authentic answers from our students. As well, there are lots of resources out there to help you find real world tasks to use as either assessments or skill-using activities. 

 

Here is the PowerPoint we did with ideas for whole class and 1:1 assessment strategies: 

 

PowerPoint - Strategies for Valid Online Assessments

 

You can give your students a copy of “Assessment Rules during Zoom Class” here.

                                                                                                                                     

Here are some other useful links: 

  

Real World Task Bank 

 

Curriculum Real-World Tasks CLB 1-8 from Tutela 

Kate Maven's link to ALOT of her resources (check out! It's full of goodies!)

ReadWorks (great for assessing reading)

 

Whatever is your preferred method of assessing your students, try not to re-invent the wheel and create extra work – Remember, keep it simple!  

You all have great ideas, so please share with each other! Feel free to scroll through our past blog entries to get inspiration for October teaching ideas and activities, and take time to enjoy the rest of these crisp fall days. 

Happy online teaching (and assessing) everyone! And if you need some laughs about it ALL....check out this video that Kate shared here. It's hilarious!

Your PBLA team - Haleema and Carolyn