report developing authentic assessment on writing

REPORT

DEVELOPING AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT

Writing Discussion Essay

This report is arranged to fulfil a final project of

Developing Authentic Assessment

Presented by:

KHOIROTIN NI’MAH                   2813123090 TBI 5C

Lecturer:

Renita Donasari, M. Pd

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT (TBI)

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

STATE ISLAMIC INSTITUTE OF TULUNGAGUNG

TULUNGAGUNG

2014

PREFACE

We are grateful to our God who gives us mercy and blessing in order to we can finish this report well. And also for our prophet Muhammad who always give syafa’at to us. We do not forget to thank for our lecturer who has guided us and our family, our friends who always support us.

We have written and arranged this report to fulfill our assignment in practical work of developing authentic assessment which conducted by college. It is important for university students especially for who wants to be a teacher or researcher. Although this subject is practical work but it gives an important impact for us. We have to consider this for our evaluation while conducting test to our students. In this report, we can also determine the distinction between traditional assessment and authentic assessment. The result of this practical work is we are expected to produce an authentic test and also how to score them authentically by using rubric.

This report provides some information about developing authentic assessment in writing. There are many kinds writing text and genre, such as narrative, information, and persuasive. In this case, we would like to report our interpretation while conducting a writing test in making a discussion essay. Representing the kinds of the task, the instruction, criteria, and also the scoring are parts of this report. Finally, we can determine whether our test and scoring rubric are effective or not, and also determine to whom it will be appropriate level.

As a beginner researcher, we realize that a lot of mistakes which done by us while administering, arranging, and reporting this project. So, we hope that the readers can give some suggestions in order to make better in future.

Writer

Tulungagung, Nopember 05^th 2014

TABLE OF CONTENT

Preface..................................................................................................... ii

Table of Content...................................................................................... iii

CHAPTER I............................................................................................ 1

INTRODUCTION................................................................................... 1

CHAPTER II .......................................................................................... 2

2.1 Writing Discussion Essay.................................................................. 2

2.2 Students Activities in Writing Discussion Essay............................... 2

2.3 Criteria for Writing Discussion Essay............................................... 4

2.4 Scoring Rubric for Writing Discussion Essay.................................... 4

2.5 Population, Sample, and Sampling................................................... 6

2.6 The Result of Writing Discussion Essay Assessment........................ 7

2.7 Students Problem in Achieving the Writing Discussion Essay Criteria          8

2.8 How is the Effectiveness of the Scoring Rubric for Writing Discussion Essay        9

2.9 The Advantages and Disadvantages of Scoring Rubric..................... 10

CHAPTER III.......................................................................................... 11

3.1 Conclusion......................................................................................... 11

3.2 Suggestion......................................................................................... 11

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This report focuses on authentic assessment for writing especially writing discussion essay. We begin with the overview about authentic assessment itself which defined by some experts. Assessment is authentic when it corresponds to and reflects good classroom instructions and activities. Authentic assessment is used to describe the multiple forms of assessment that reflect on students learning, achievement, motivation, and attitudes on instructionally relevant classroom activities. The distinction between traditional and authentic assessment is consider in what they referenced that score, what are they oriented for, what activities which would be scored, when the sore is taken, and etc.

The examples of authentic assessment such as performance assessment, portfolios, and students-self performance. Based on those examples, we can divide authentic assessment into several types such as in performance assessment include oral interview, text retelling, writing samples, project/exhibitions, experiments/demonstrations, constructed-response items, and teacher observation. The last types is portfolio, is often used to integrate the results of individual performance assessments to monitor learning overtime. Eventhough self performance does not include in this type but all of the another types have involved self performance in their assessment.

In writing assessment we can also use this authentic assessment to determine students’ ability in writing while they are conducting this test. In writing essay, students will rely on at least four types of knowledge to develop their writing: knowledge of the content, procedural knowledge to organize the content, knowledge of conventing of writing and procedural knowledge required to apply the three other types of knowledge in composing writing product (Hillocks 1987). Students write a variety of text based on their purpose and are able to determine the genre of the text. For example, in this report we are going to present how students write or compose their idea in purpose to discuss their arguments about current issues. So, their writing can be called as discussion text which involves in argumentative or persuasive essay.

CHAPTER II

CONTENT

A.   Writing Discussion Essay

Writing is one of the basic skills which has had by the learner in English language learning. Students’ writing can be determined by their input such as listening and reading because writing is one of the productive skill like speaking. When their input are well, so their output will be good also. In writing, students are able to express their idea or their position in the written form. They will use some knowledge to develop their writing which have discussed earlier in introduction. Those knowledge have implications in writing assessment: first, writing assessment should evaluate more aspects of writing than just mechanic and grammar. Second, writing assessment should catch some of the processes and complexity involved in writing, so that the teachers can know in which aspects of the writing process students are having difficulty.

As we know that in writing, we refer to the purpose of our writing and at least there are three purpose in writing for example informative writing, narrative writing, persuasive writing, and etc. The discussion essay is one of the form of persuasive writing. In persuasive writing, writers attempt to influence others and initiate action or change. This type of writing is often based on background information, facts, and examples the writer uses to support the view expressed. Writer use higher-level cognitive skills in this type of writing, such as analysis and evaluation of a book, a movie, a consumer product, or controversial issue or problem. Writers can also use personal experience or emotional appeals to argue in support of their view.

B.   Students Activities in Writing Discussion Essay

While conducting writing assessment, we also have to do some activities in order to our writing assessment runs well. Teachers provide some instructions to their students.  Based on Michael’s statement in his book stated that there are at least three stage in writing process, they are pre-writing, writing, and post-writing. Teachers have to guide their students to step from one stage to another one until they reach their goal. The learning objectives of this assessment is students are expected to be able to produce discussion essay with certain topic. Students also do their activities based on what the teacher said (instruction). In this research here they are some instruction which given by the teacher.

Instructions

Create a good discussion essay by improving certain criteria below:

1.    The topic is “ Demonstration should be abolished”

2.    Recognize the general structure in discussion essay.

a.          Introduction (introducing the issues or topic, giving background information and stating what’s your point of view in thesis statement)

b.          Body of paragraph

-             The topic sentence of the paragraph present the reason for your point of view;

-             Support your point of view by giving some evidences;

-             Write the opposing argument of your thesis statement;

-             Support the opposing argument by giving evidence.

c.          Closing (restate or paraphrase your argument that appeared in thesis statement/ reinforce your point of view)

3.    Make an outline before composing text.

4.    The essay consist of at least 250-300 words.

5.    Include several evidence to support your argument (ex. Direct quotes, paraphrasing, statistic data, and etc.)

6.    Use simple present tense ( S+V1+Complement)

Ex. I can catch up your idea

7.    Give an appropriate title in your essay

After giving the instruction, teachers provide them sixty minutes for doing it in a piece of paper line. During composing the discussion essay, students may open the bilingual or monolingual dictionary and also may use internet to search some evidences to support their idea. But it is forbidden for them to browse or copy their work from it. Students may submit their work if they have done and not more than sixty minutes and teacher will evaluate it.

C.   Criteria for Writing Discussion Essay

Whether it is writing test or another skills and components test, all of them have to use a certain criteria. By using criteria, we can see in what extent they can understand the material during composing the discussion essay. We can also determine their abiliti’s level, in what level they have to be. In our research, we provide some criteria which have to reach by the students. Those criteria are:

Criteria

1.              An outline including:

a.                   Introduction which consist of thesis statement

b.                   Pro argument and contra argument

c.                   Conclusion (paraphrase the thesis statement)

2.             Develop and compose an introduction which consist of thesis statement (must be clear and debatable)

3.             Develop and compose body of essay (consist of topic sentence, supporting sentence, and evidence such as direct quotes, paraphrasing, and textual analysis).

4.             Develop and compose a conclusion which is paraphrasing the thesis statement.

5.             Produce a good, clear  and coherent essay. (grammar focus, proper structure, organization, author’s purpose, transitions, mechanics, and quality support).

D.   Scoring Rubric for Writing Discussion Essay

In authentic assessment, it has provided three types of scoring rubric: holistic scoring, primary trait scoring, and analytic scoring. Holistic scoring uses a variety of criteria to produce a single score. The specific criteria selected depend on local instructional programs and language arts objectives. The rationale for using a holistic scoring system is that the total quality of written text is more than the sum of its components. A variation on holistic scoring that lends itself to classroom use is primary trait scoring. This type of scoring focuses on whether or not each paper shows evidence of the particular traitor feature you want students to demonstrate in writing. The third scoring of rating scale uses analytic scoring. Analytic scoring separate the features of composition into components that are each scored separately. Considering the different purpose and focus on instruction, we decide to use analytical scoring rubric.

Rubric

Analytic writing essay scoring rubric

NO	CRITERIA	POOR (0-1)	FAIR (2-3)	EXCELLENT (4)
1	Composing an outline	Poor systematic, difficult to help developing the essay	Adequate systematic, easy to help developing the essay but still has unclear statement	good systematic, easy to help developing the essay
2	Thesis statement	doesn’t state what the essay is going to be about	doesn’t clearly state what the essay is going to be about	clearly states what the essay is going to be about
3	Evidences used	Few pieces of evidence used support the topic sentence	Most pieces of evidence used support the topic sentence	All pieces of evidence used support the topic sentence
4	Main points	The main points do not restated from introduction	Some of the main points are creatively restated	The strongest main points are mentioned
5	Supporting points	Few parts which support the main idea	Most of the supporting points support the idea	All of the supporting points support the idea
6	Conclusion	Didn’t represent the essay and also didn’t paraphrase the thesis statement	Represent the essay but did not paraphrase the thesis statement	represent the essay by paraphrasing the thesis statement well
7	Grammar on focus (tense, punctuation, modal, conjunctions are used)	The grammatical errors more than ten words	The grammatical errors just 5-9 words	The grammatical errors only not more than 4 words
8	Organization	The essay is takes into account the proper structure but is confusing and lacks organization	The essay is clear and coherent taking into account the proper structure but lacks organization	The essay is clear and coherent taking into account the proper structure and organization

Total score : ____________

Max. Score is  32 points

Score description        :

TOTAL SCORES	STANDARD	GRADE
22-28	EXCELLENT	A
15-21	GOOD	B
8-14	FAIR	C
1-7	POOR	D

E.   Population, Sample, and Sampling

Realizing this writing test is rather difficult, we choose the target population of this research at English students university in fifth semester. Because they have already got the materials of writing in several semester before. We select the sample of ten students in English Educational Program of IAIN Tulungagung fifth semester. We take the sample by using random sampling among the five classes of TBI students fifth semester. Here they are the list of ten participants in our research: (using initial name)

1.       Dita Maya      TBI 5C

2.      Jam’zluine       TBI 5C

3.      LH                   TBI 5C

4.      Marsinah         TBI 5C

5.      Miss E             TBI 5B

6.      Mr. R               TBI 5B

7.      Ning                TBI 5B

8.      Si Mawar         TBI 5B

9.      STD                 TBI 5B

10.  THR                TBI 5E

F.    The Result of Writing Discussion Essay Assessment

After evaluating the students’ work by using analytical scoring rubric, we can conclude that six of ten students have got A score and four of them have got B score. For the explicit score, please see in this table below.

NO	NAME	OUTLINE	THESIS STATEMENT	EVIDENCE	MAIN POINTS	SUPPORTING  POINTS	CONCLUSION	GRAMMAR	ORGANIZATION	TOTAL SCORE	GRADE
1	Dita maya	2	1	3	2	2	3	4	2	19	B
2	Jam’zluine	4	4	4	3	3	2	2	4	26	A
3	LH	1	3	2	3	2	2	1	3	17	B
4	Marsinah	3	4	3	3	2	2	2	2	20	B
5	Ms. E	4	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	30	A
6	Mr. R	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	30	A
7	Ning	4	3	3	4	4	3	4	4	29	A
8	Si Mawar	2	4	4	3	3	3	2	4	25	A
9	STD	2	2	4	3	2	3	3	3	22	B
10	THR	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	30	A

G.  Students’ Problem in Achieving the Writing Discussion Essay Criteria

By evaluating and analyzing the students’ work, we can interpret that most of the students have some problems/mistakes in making thesis statement, supporting points, conclusion, and grammar.

1.      Thesis statement          :

-          Students couldn’t state their point of view toward the topic. Ex. In Dita Maya’s work       : “Demo is a mass protest in front of the public.”

2.      Supporting point         :

-          Students didn’t support their main point with good supporting point and also included unrelevant statements. Ex. In STD’s work           :” Demonstration is to provides a display or flexibility to use in a short time capability and facilities of an application, for the purpose of promotion.”

3.      Conclusion      :

-          Students couldn’t paraphrase their thesis statement well. Ex. In Jamz’luine’s work she wrote a thesis statement :” Demonstration always happen with anarchy.” And her conclusion is “ So that demonstration should be abolished because it always happen with anarchy.” It means that she didn’t paraphrase her thesis statement.

4.      Grammar         :

-          Students sometimes forget to use S/ES after Verb for third person. Ex. It makes the government are more angry.

-          Students sometimes forget to use to be IS/AM/ARE after nominal sentence. Ex. If demonstration is not be abolished, it will be disrupted peoples’ live.

-          Students sometimes forget to determine single and plural noun. Ex. Demonstration should be abolished because there are mani negative impacts.

-          Error in spelling, ex. Fasilities

H.  How is the Effectiveness of the Scoring Rubric for Writing Discussion Essay

In terms of interpretation of test result, there are two classifications of test. They are norm-referenced test and criterion-referenced test. Having norm-referenced tests, the result of the test of a student is interpreted in relation to that of other students in the form of a mean (average score), median (middle score), standard deviation and or percentile rank. Criterion-referenced test, on the other hand, does not compare one student with other students’ performance. Rather, it classifies students according to whether or not they are able to perform some tasks satisfactorily. It is designed to give students feedback, usually in the form of grades on specific course or lesson objective.

If our test is norm-referenced test, the effectiveness of scoring rubric can determined by the distribution of the participants’ score. The distribution is normal if the result of the test are most of the students are average, a few of them are excellent, and a few others are poor. The distribution of students’ score can be represented in a smooth curve through points. So, if the distribution of score is normal, we can conclude that the scoring rubric is effective.

If we refer to the norm-referenced test above, our scoring rubric for writing discussion essay is not effective because most of the students are got A score. But in this case, our test is being criterion-referenced test. We do not compare each students’ score. Students have to pass a certain criteria in writing discussion essay in order they are successful in this writing test. So, we can conclude that this analytical scoring rubric for writing discussion essay is effective. It can measure, evaluates, and also represents students’ ability.

This scoring rubric does not need to add some other criteria because it has represented students’ ability in writing. Although all of our participants are got A score, it does not indicate that our rubric is not effective. They have got A score because some reasons, for example actually this test is administered for students in Senior High School, but we administer this test to English students university. They have already got some materials about writing especially writing discussion essay in several semester before. It is not impossible if they mastery lot of ability in writing and have a good score in this test.

I.      The Advantages and Disadvantages of Scoring Rubric

Rubric is an authentic assessment tool which is particularly useful in assessing criteria which are complex and subjective. Scoring rubrics have become a common method for evaluating student work. Scoring rubrics are descriptive scoring schemes that are developed by teachers or other evaluators to guide the analysis of the products or processes of students' efforts (Brookhart, 1999).

Many experts believe that rubrics improve students' end products and therefore increase learning. When teachers evaluate papers or projects, they know implicitly what makes a good final product and why. When students receive rubrics beforehand, they understand how they will be evaluated and can prepare accordingly.

The advantages of using rubrics in assessment:

• Allow assessment to be more objective and consistent
• The teacher can clarify his/her criteria in specific terms
• Clearly show the student how their work will be evaluated and what is expected
• Providing useful feedback regarding the effectiveness of the instruction
• Motivates students to reach the standards specified.
• Can offer a method of consistency in scoring by clearly defining the performance criteria.
• Giving the child more control of their own learning process.

The Disadvantages of Rubrics in General

• Rubrics can also restrict the students mind power in that they will feel that they need to complete the assignment strictly to the rubric instead of taking the initiative to explore their learning.
• If the criteria that is in the rubric is too complex, students may feel overwhelmed with the assignment, and little success may be imminent.
• For the teacher creating the rubric, they may find the task of developing, testing, evaluating, and updating time consuming.

CHAPTER III

CONCLUSION

A.   CONCLUSION

Writing is one of the basic skills which has had by the learner in English language learning. Students’ writing can be determined by their input such as listening and reading because writing is one of the productive skill like speaking. This report provides some information about developing authentic assessment in writing. There are many kinds writing text and genre, such as narrative, information, and persuasive. In this case, we would like to report our interpretation while conducting a writing test in making a discussion essay. Representing the kinds of the task, the instruction, criteria, and also the scoring are parts of this report. Finally, we can determine that our scoring rubric writing discussion essay is effective and it appropriates for senior high school level.

B.   SUGGESTION

Based on our consideration, we clearly state that this rubric does not need to add  some criteria or reduce the exist criteria. We suggest to the next rubric designer in order to develop this writing rubric into better writing rubric than before and also find another better current issue in designing rubric especially for writing. After that, the next rubric designer can also offer their finding to solve those issues. For educational program, this rubric is very effective to help whether the students or teacher to guide them trough the language learning and evaluate their work objectively.