Lesson 4

PROCESS-ORIENTED, PERFORMANCE-BASD ASSESSMENT

Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, the students are expected to:
► gain knowledge on the learning competencies;
► discuss the standards in task designing; and
► differentiate holistic and analytic rubrics.

Introduction
Hello, Welcome to your fourth lesson. This lesson will discuss the
importance of process-oriented, performance-based assessment. Enjoy and have fun
while learning. 

Before we start …

Choose any five activities below and then construct your own analytical
scoring rubrics. (P.S. I know it was already discussed to you in AOL1)

1. Use evidence to solve a mystery

2. Devise a game
3. Participate in a debate
4. Infer the main idea of a written piece
5. Draw a picture that illustrates what’s described in a story or article. Explain
what you have drawn, using details from the story or article.
6. Write a research paper
7. Apply a scoring rubric to a real or simulated piece of student work
8. Write an outline of a text or oral report
9. Propose and justify a way to solve a problem
10. Design a museum exhibit.
 Let’s start …

Too often, as a teacher I tend to assess students’ learning through their

outputs or products or through some kind of traditional testing. However, it is
important to assess not only these competencies but also the processes which the
students underwent in order to arrive at these products or outputs. This lesson is
concerned with process-oriented, performance-based assessment.
Process-Oriented Learning Competencies
Information about outcomes is of high importance; where students end up
matters greatly. But to improve outcomes, we need to know about student experience
along the way – about the curricula, teaching and kind of student effort that lead to
particular outcomes.
Learning Competencies
The learning objectives in process-oriented performance-based assessment
are stated in directly observable behaviors of the students. Competencies are defined
as groups of clusters of skills abilities needed for a particular task. An example of
learning competencies for a process-oriented performance-based assessment is given
below:
Task: Recite a Poem by Edgar Allan Poe. “The Raven”
Objectives: The activity aims to enable the students to recite a poem entitled “The
Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, specifically to:
1. Recite the poem from memory without referring to notes;
2. Use appropriate hand and body gestures in delivering the piece;
3. Maintain eye contact with the audience while reciting the poem;
4. Create the ambiance of the poem through appropriate rising and falling
intonation;
5. Pronounce the words clearly and with proper diction.
Notice that the objectives starts with a general statement of what is expected of the
student from the task and then breaks down the general objective into easily
observable behaviors when reciting a poem. The specific objectives identified
constitute the learning competencies for this particular task. A competency is said to
be more complex when it consists of two or more skills.
The following competencies are simple competencies:
1. Speak with a well-modulated voice;
2. Draw a straight line from one point to another point;
3. Color a leaf with a green crayon.
The following competencies are more complex competencies:
1. Recite a poem with feeling using appropriate voice quality, facial
expression and hand gestures.
 2. Construct an equilateral triangle given three non-collinear points;
3. Draw and color a leaf with green crayon.
Task Designing
Learning tasks need to be carefully planned. In particular, us teacher must
ensure that the particular learning process to be observed contributes to the overall
understanding of the subject or course. Some generally accepted standards for
designing a task include:
1. Identifying an activity that would highlight the competencies to be evaluated,
e.g. reciting a poem, writing an essay, manipulating the microscope, etc.
2. Identifying an activity that would entail more or less the same sets of
competencies.
3. Finding a task would be interesting and enjoyable for the students.
Example: The topic is on understanding biological diversity
Possible task design: bring the students to a pond or creek. Ask them to find all living
organisms they can find living near the pond or creek. Observe how the students will
develop a system for finding such organisms, classifying the organisms and
concluding the differences in biological diversity of the two sites.
NOTE: Science laboratory classes are particularly suitable for a process-oriented
performance-based assessment technique.
Scoring Rubrics
Rubric is scoring scale used to assess student performance along a task-
specific set of criteria. Authentic assessments typically are criterion-referenced
measures, that is, a student’s performance against a set of criteria to determine the
degree to which the student’s performance meets the criteria for the task.
To measure student performance against a pre-determined set of criteria, a
rubric, or scoring scale, is typically created which contains the essential criteria. For
example, the following rubric covers the recitation portion of a task in English.
Example of Recitation Rubric
Criteria 1 2 3
No. of
Appropriate hand x1 1-4 5-9 10-12
Gestures
Appropriate facial Lots of No apparent
Few inappropriate
expression x1 inappropriate inappropriate
facial expression
facial expression facial expression
Voice inflection Can vary voice
Monotone voice Can easily vary
x1 inflection with
used voice inflection
difficulty
Incorporate x1 Recitation Recitation has Recitation fully
proper ambiance contains very little some feelings captures ambiance
through feeling in feelings through feelings
 the voice in the voice.
As in the example, a rubric is comprised of two components: criteria and
levels of performance. Each rubric has at least two criteria and at least two levels of
performance. The criteria, characteristics of good performance on a task, are listed in
the left-hand column in the illustrated rubric.
For each criterion, the evaluator applying the rubric can determine to what
degree the student has met the criterion. For example, the recitation can contain lots of
inappropriate, few inappropriate or no inappropriate hand gestures.
Finally, the illustrated rubric contains a mechanism for assigning a score to
each project. In the second-to-left column a weight is assigned each criterion.
Students can receive 1, 2 or 3 points for “no. of sources.” But appropriate ambiance,
more important in this teacher’s mind, is weighted three times (x3) as heavily. So,
students can receive 3, 6 or 9 points.
Descriptors
The rubric includes another common, but not a necessary, component of
rubrics – descriptors. Descriptors spell out what is expected of students at each level
or performance for each criterion. Descriptor tells students more precisely what
performance looks like at each level and how their work may be descriptors help the
teacher more precisely and consistently between student works.
Let’s exercise our
brains

Answer the following:

1. Differentiate Analytic and Holistic Rubrics.
2. When to use Analytical Rubric?
3. When to use Holistic Rubric?
4. How many levels of performance should be included in a rubric?

CONGRATULATIONS! For finishing the first lesson and

learning by your own. NEVER STOP LEARNING 