1

RUNNING HEAD: ASSESSMENT CHALLENGES IN THE COMMON CORE ERA

Assessment In the Common Core Era

Cameron Peppers

Bryan College
 2
ASSESSMENT CHALLENGES IN THE COMMON CORE ERA

This article gives the reader a perspective on the common core state standards (CCSS),

the idea of range and portfolios. Range has a wide scope of tasks and condition and prior to

CCSS range was difficult to assess. CCSS gives teachers a way to comprehend range better than

previous standards. CCSS includes range in the standards. This helps teacher include range in the

classroom easier. The thesis of this article is the authors consider how portfolios can meet the

challenges of assess various aspects of literacy and student learning. (Murphy and Smith, 2013)

This article gives readers insight into the idea of portfolios and how they can be used in the

classroom. Portfolios are a good way to include range in the classroom. They include multiple

writing examples, self-assessment, reflection and then the teacher assess it.

The Common Core State Standards show that one writing style or model will not fit

every topic. These standards help prepare students for further education because they include the

use of technology, different writing, range of tasks, and time. The timed writing includes short

essays, long essays, and projects. The concept of range has a several parts that are always in

motion. Writing conditions are included as well and they include purpose, audience, genre, and

collaboration. The more of a variety the student writes then the more prepared a student will be

later down the road.

Range is big idea when it comes to writing and these kinds of ideas typically raise

questions. Range is hard to assess because there are many moving parts and it is not one topic.

This article shows that portfolios are one way to assess a students range. These contain short

writings, diverse types of papers, long essays, and writings to different audiences from

throughout the school year. The elasticity of these create an assessment that can be used for

different subjects as well as grade levels. When a student is working on a portfolio, the teacher

could ask the student to reflect on their work. This adds an extra element to the portfolio making
 3
ASSESSMENT CHALLENGES IN THE COMMON CORE ERA

it a well-rounded assessment. A portfolio can be used as a summative or a formative assessment.

The authors believe that portfolios show their true value in the shape of a formative assessment.

In order to achieve this, the teacher should incorporate portfolios into the instruction time.

Portfolios can be incorporated into instruction type by having the students write a short essay

about their readings for the day or about the lecture. This type of assessment is more effective

when it involves decision making and helps the students be continuous learners.

Formative assessments are more effective when the teacher is able to adjust the how they

teach based on the results of the assessment. Students can use formative assessments to gain

insight on the information they are learning and the teacher can give feedback to help students

learn more. Formative assessment brings forth student participation through self-assessment and

activities. Another way formative assessments are effective in the classroom is that they can

close the learning gap. This means that these assessments help the low achievers because this

assessment involves practice and repetition. Formative assessments help the entire classroom

because they raise the overall achievement level. Portfolios fit this criterion and they have perks

of their own. Portfolios can be shared with multiple people; this allows for portfolios to be cross-

curriculum and it can include multiple subjects in one portfolio.

When students reflect on their writings, this gives them a different perspective and that

perspective allows them to achieve a higher understanding of the concept. This helps the students

make this information easier to retrieve in the future. A way that teachers could help students

perform the task of reflecting on their portfolios is by guiding the students in the right direction.

The teacher could tell the student to include the different writing strategies that were used,

strengths, weaknesses, and difficulties with certain assignments. Another way a teacher can help

students reflect is by giving them questions to answer based on their writings. These questions
 4
ASSESSMENT CHALLENGES IN THE COMMON CORE ERA

could involve the effectiveness of the students paper, the purpose behind the paper, the use of

technology and what they learned by working with others. Teachers could give the students

certain criteria to reflect on. The criteria could include, the audience the paper was written for,

goals that the student set for the paper, and the genre of the paper. During the reflection, the

student is re-learning the material and gaining a new perspective. This allows the student to

retain the information better because they are looking on their writing based on self-assessment

and from a completely different perspective then before.

Teachers could consider making portfolios a team effort by involving other teachers and

students in the grading process. There is not a specific way of grading portfolios. A portfolio

could be graded on the improvements a student made in their writing, knowledge gained or

however the teacher wants it to be graded. When a teacher puts the students in charge of picking

which papers belong in the portfolio; that is when the teacher is helping students learn decision

making skills and involving them in their own learning. A teacher could include other teachers in

this process, like stated before. This would give students a different perspective on their writings

and help the students learn more. The benefit of having another person look at portfolios is for

the students and the teacher. The students and the teacher both benefit because the different

perspective gives a new response to the material. The reflection that the student writes is a big

part in how the teacher assess the portfolio. When a teacher reads the reflection, the teacher gains

insight into what the students think about their writings. This helps the teacher give better

feedback and can help the student learn more.

In my opinion from reading this article is that portfolios are beneficial to the classroom. I

think that teachers should use portfolios in the classroom because the students would become

better writers. I think that there is a balance when using portfolios and some teachers could go
 5
ASSESSMENT CHALLENGES IN THE COMMON CORE ERA

too far. The balance is having the students write enough papers to allow the students to see their

improvements throughout the semester but not so many papers that the students despise writing

and start performing poorly. I have never done a portfolio in a classroom before, but I have had

multiple experiences of collaboration, revising and research papers. I think that I would be a

better writer today if I would have a teacher that used this kind of assessment. The feedback that

students receive is constructive and beneficial. I think that using portfolios as a formative

assessment is an effective way because the teacher and the student receive immediate feedback.

The teacher can adjust their teaching method if the students are not achieving to the level that

they need to be at, and the students receive feedback from the teacher on the information they

wrote down.
 6
ASSESSMENT CHALLENGES IN THE COMMON CORE ERA

References

Murphy, S., & Smith, M. (2013). Assessment Challenges in the Common Core Era. The English

Journal, 103(1), 104-110. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24484068