Thanks Deirdre for passing along the chart that expands the traditional Bloom's taxonomy with activities and updated assessment methods. The way that they have fleshed out CREATE is really useful - and great examples of alternate assessment throughout the chart. I still would add in what I believe are critical elements of pure inquiry into the EVALUATE category.. adding decision making, solving problems, taking positions, and most importantly the skill of justifying them....
My biggest challenge in my current teaching is the commitment to build into my assessment full opportunities for cyclical projects and assignments, where the chance to build on and revise first time learning and attempts is always built in. I thought that on the top of the website Deirdre sent us ( CHART) these words were right on the money... may be the most useful guiding paragraph for modern assessment: THANKS!!!
One of the best ways to function as ally or coach is to role--play the enemy in a supportive setting. For example, one can give practice tests where the grade doesn't count, or give feedback on papers which the student can revise before they count for credit. This gets us out of the typically counterproductive situation where much of our commentary on papers and exams is really justification for the grade---or is seen that way. Our attempt to help is experienced by students as a slap on the wrist by an adversary for what they have done wrong. No wonder students so often fail to heed or learn from our commentary. But when we comment on practice tests or revisable papers we are not saying "Here's why you got this grade." We are saying, "Here's how you can get a better grade." - Peter Elbow in Embracing Contraries
Thx for the great ideas...N