THE USE OF AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT FOR STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL

ASSESSMENT IN EFL LEARNING AND TEACHING

Lecturer:
Prof. Dr. Rusman Roni, M.Pd

By:
Dhia Fitriah (20186012002)

Graduate Program
PGRI University of Palembang
2019
 THE USE OF AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT FOR STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL

1. Introduction

Assessment is one of the most important aspects of language teaching and learning. It
cannot be separated from the learning process since it is carried out during or after the
teaching and learning activities takes place. Teachers are one of the parties who act as
assessors of student performance. Assessment is a planned and sustained effort by the teacher
to obtain information how far the success of learners in understanding and applying learning
that learned both in terms of process and results.

The application of authentic assessment becomes an obligation for teachers. Through

an authentic assessment, teachers can know about progress and achievement of students’
learning that are able to express, prove and demonstrate precisely that the learning objectives
have been completely mastered and achieved with motivation and attitude toward learning.

In this regard, writing skills become an important skill in learning English. According
to Hamp-Lyons (1990) in O’Malley (1996: 136) “writing is a personal act in which writers
take ideas or prompts and transform them into selfinitiated topics”. Through writing
activities, students can deliver their imagination and ideas in writing. Teacher needs to
develop assessment tasks that allow learners to demonstrate real-world writing skills – skills
that will be useful in their interactions outside of the classroom. So, authentic assessment is
very suitable to be applied in learning English, especially to assess students’ writing skill.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Authentic Assessment

Authentic assessment is multiple forms of assessment that reflect student learning,

achievement, motivation and attitudes on instructionally-relevant classroom activities
(O’Malley & Pierce, 1996). O’Malley and Pierce (1996) mention three types of authentic
assessment namely performance assessment, portfolios, and students-self assessment.

Performance assessment is an assessment which is conducted by observing student’s

activities in doing particular activity. Frey and Schmitt (2010) state that performance tests
measure skill or ability; are sometimes called alternative assessments or authentic
assessments; and scoring often requires subjective judgment. An authentic performance
assessment has students demonstrate understanding and skills in a real-life context rather than
contrived problems for the classroom setting. In general, high-quality performance
assessments should focus on important intended learning outcomes; engage students’ higher-
order thinking skills; integrate authentic tasks and problems; foster both independent and
collaborative work; integrate assessment within the learning process; leverage technology
when appropriate; and have meaningful success criteria (Bland & Gareis, 2018).

Portfolio assessment is defined as a continuous assessment process based on a set of

information that shows the development of students’ competence in a given period of time.
Portfolio assessment is an assessment form that students do together with their teachers, and
is an alternative to the classic classroom test. O’Malley and Pierce (1996) stated that a
portfolio assessment is a purposeful collection of student’s work that is intended to show the
progress over time. The portfolio contains samples of the student's work and shows growth
over time. An important keyword is reflection; by reflection on their own work, students
begin to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their self-assessment. In portfolio
assessment it is the quality that counts, not the quantity.

Project assessment is an integrated unit of works which cannot be finished at a given

time. This assessment requires the students to do a series of tasks resulting on specific
product or data. Bell (2010) claims that student’s project related course work is assessed
within the context of the project work itself. Teachers need to consider their own teaching
circumstances, as well as the project objectives in order to adjust the assessment models to
their own classes.

2.2 Authentic Assessment of Writing

Writing represents what we think. It is because the writing process reflects things,
which stay in the mind. It motivates thinking, that is, it can help learners to organise their
ideas, and develop their critical thinking skills to summarize, analyze, and criticize (Rao,
2007). Unlike other skills, writing cannot be assessed by using a conventional method like a
multiple choice or true-false item test. A teacher can only know the students’ writing
competence by checking their work in detail.
 Accordingly, an authentic assessment is seen as the most appropriate method in
assessing students writing skill. The following are the steps in assessing students writing by
using authentic assessment proposed by O’Malley and Pierce (1996): 1) selecting topic that is
appropriate for the students, 2) selecting rubrics students can use, 3) sharing rubrics with the
students, 4) identifying bench-mark papers, 5) reviewing how students write not just what
they write, 6) having a conference with the students on their writing results.

3. The Implementation of Authentic Assessment of Writing

In implementing the authentic assessment of writing skill, portfolio assessment is

quite appropriate. As proposed by O’Malley and Pierce (1996), the first thing that teachers do
is to select topic that is appropriate for the students. Teachers also can ask the students to
make a written text based on the theme they discussed in every chapter.

After that, teachers can select rubrics that students can use and share it with the
students.

Table 1.Rubrics f Aorssessment of Writing Skill

(Rukmini & Saputri, 2017)
 The next step is Teachers identify bench-mark papers. They should identify bench-
mark papers to communicate what a good writing is to the students. Benchmarks are a clear
measurement of what students at a particular grade level should know and be able to do.

Furthermore, the teachers should review how students write because both teacher and
students will obtain a better understanding in the writing processes. Students should be
encouraged to look at the writing content, grammar, and structure.

Finally, the teacher should have a conference with the students to discuss their writing
because occasional writing conferences provide excellent opportunities to ask students key
questions about their writing processes and to provide students with personal feedback on
their writing.

4. Conclusion

In Conclusion, assessment interprets the success of learning from the score achieved.
Assessment as one of the most important aspects of language teaching and learning cannot be
separated from the learning process. Authentic assessment is multiple forms of assessment
that reflect student learning, achievement, motivation and attitudes on instructionally-relevant
classroom activities. Unlike other skills, writing cannot be assessed by using a conventional
method like a multiple choice or true-false item test. Accordingly, an authentic assessment is
seen as the most appropriate method in assessing students writing skill. Teachers, one of the
parties who act as assessors of student performance, need to implement authentic assessment
as a tool to monitor the students’ progress in mastering the writing skill in the classroom.
Through an authentic assessment, teachers can know about progress and achievement of
students’ learning that are able to express, prove and demonstrate precisely that the learning
objectives have been completely mastered and achieved with motivation and attitude toward
learning.

References

Bell, S. (2010). Project-based learning for the 21st century: Skills for the future. Clearing
House Journal, 83(2), 39-43.

Bland, L.M., & Gareis, C. M. (2018). Performance Assessments: A Review of Definitions,

Quality Characteristics, and Outcomes Associated with Their Use in K-12 Schools.
Teacher Educators' Journal, 11, 52-69.

Frey, B., & Schmitt, V. (2010). Teachers’ classroom assessment practices. Middle Grades
Research Journal, 5(3), 107-117.

Gottlieb, M. (1995). Nurturing student learning through portfolios. TESOL journal, 5(1), 12-
14.

O’Malley, J. M., & Pierce, L. V. (1996). Authentic assessment for English language learners:
practical approaches for teachers. Massachusetts: Addison Wesley Publishing
Company.

Rao, Z. (2007). Training in brainstorming and developing writing skills. ELT Journal, 61(2),
100-106.

Rukmini. D. & Saputri, L., A., D., E. (2017). The Authentic Assessment to Measure
Students’ English Productive Skills Based on 2013 Curriculum. Indonesian Journal of
Applied Linguistic. 7 (2), 263-273.