Session 3, Part 2: Assessment that Educates

Create Your Ideal Curriculum, Session 3: Design an Authentic Assessment Process

Read the following two leads from informative writing pieces by 5th graders, and then decide which one is the better.

Writing Lead #1: “Video games have been around for many years. To start, the first video game created was called ‘Pong’. The idea behind Pong was kind of like a pixelated tennis game. You had two lines (the racquet) and a white square (the tennis ball)...” 

Writing Lead #2: “How do you make a snowman? First, you need snow so you can make a big ball. Then you need…”

If you thought the first piece was better, I would agree. So how did we know? We didn’t have a rubric ahead of time to analyze the writing with and assess their quality. We didn’t list the grade level standards that are addressed in this work. Likely, we knew because we have read a lot of writing. Throughout our reading lives, and maybe even through your writing practice if you have one, we have internalized a sense of quality for writing. We prefer this article or that book or this author over another.

The poin…