Alfie's Reflection II - Comer’s “YAL and Alternative Assessment Measures”

Comer’s “YAL and Alternative Assessment Measures” offers three specific alternative assessments that measures learning. Comer first posits that the principle purpose of assessment should be to “aid the teacher in determining what should be taught.” Assessment should inform the teacher of students’ learning needs so that the teacher can “adjust the teaching work to meet the learning needs.” Instead of only using traditional assessment, which can sometimes be misleading, to assess those needs and thus, instruction, formative authentic assessments can “inform instruction in a more holistic manner.” Using alternative assessments also encourages multimodal literacy where students are able to critically express themselves through different modes of expression which is an essential skill in today's ever evolving globalized world.

Comer suggests three authentic assessment practices such as Interest inventory/survey that assesses students’ interest, knowledge rating charts and the use of technology such as twitter and cyber hunts that assesses students’ comprehension. I will only be discussing the use of cyber hunts to assess students’ comprehension in this entry. This is because the use of ICT in classrooms is strongly encouraged in today’s technologically advanced world, especially in Singapore where so many are constantly plugged in and connected to the internet. As such, technology can be used as an instrument for learning as well as assessing. Comer uses cyber hunts where “students are presented with questions and asked to search specific websites in order to answer the probes posed on the cyber hunt.” Students essentially use the internet as a platform for research. In the example that she gives, the website is already chosen for students so they merely have to click, read and sieve out for answers. While the term “cyber hunt” sounds really appealing, the nature of the activity is rather basic and can be uninteresting for students. Providing students with a website seems to limit their research. Perhaps, a topic can be given to students and they are to find their own articles that would answer a question on the topic. This would push students to find articles that would truly fit the topic at hand, allowing them to acquire a deeper understanding of the topic as now, they have to critically and discerningly sieve through different websites, perspectives and choose one which fits the research topic/question. That research can then be translated into a graphic organizer or an online blog entry that allows students to consolidate, synthesize and share the information collected. With the prevalence of technology, it is also perhaps possible to allow students a degree of autonomy in their research as the use of Google has become a habit almost for many who are connected to the internet 24/7 on their phone, ipads etc. The internet realm is not unfamiliar to our plugged in students. In using technology as a means of alternative assessment, students might be more inclined to participate and it is also much easier for the teacher to share her feedback (like our very own lit assessment blog). It becomes possible for teachers to harness the advantages of the internet to assessing our students learning needs and so, catering our lessons to those needs and understandings.