The article that I have chosen for this reflection deals with the use of alternative assessment in the classroom. The name of the article is "Using Alternative Assessment to Provide Options for Student Success" and is written by Dorie Combs. I found this article in the September 1997 issue of the Middle School Journal. The use of alternative assessment is something that many teachers today are seriously considering and trying to implement in their classrooms. I think the ideal situation for a teachers who wants to use alternative assessment would be in a school system that chooses this type of assessment to measure student success. However, I feel that a teacher who wants to implement this type of assessment within the classroom can effectively do so whether the school is using this form of assessment or not. It merely makes it easier for the teacher and better for the students if the entire school has been reformed to this way of assessing the students.

I feel the strongest and most positive reason for using alternative assessment in the classrooms of today is that this type of assessment has been show to produce greater student success. All of the students in the classroom have the opportunity to succeed not just those that memorize information easily and can regurgitate it on tests. Many students do not perform well in situations which cause stress, such as the forms of testing given under traditional assessment. In certain cases, traditional forms of testing cause students unnecessary amounts of stress which hinders their ability to effectively convey the knowledge they have acquired. These students will more than likely thrive when given the opportunity to show what they have learned in a different format, such as alternative assessment.

Another excellent reason for using alternative assessment in the classroom is the amount of ownership the students feel in the work they complete. I would think many students would prefer to perform a play in front of an audience rather than to just write a play for the teacher. An experience such as performing a play gives the students the opportunity to gain the attention of a real audience and this gives their learning and their work more meaning and purpose than a pen and paper test ever could. Also, I feel that the means of completing the work by the student and assessing the work by the teacher becomes more individualized on the basis of the student and the teacher.

This article discusses uses an "option" menu in which students are given various options in regards to work that can be completed. I really like this idea because I know that I personally would much rather have a choice in the work I have to complete rather than having a teacher merely tell me which assignments to complete. An effective teacher would also have the students help come up with the ideas for the option menu and in doing so would probably receive a much greater response in regards to the work completed. By giving students a choice the teacher is allowing the students to actively participate in their assignments and this will also instill a higher level of ownership and individualization in the work the students complete. In the classes I am observing this semester, I have seen many students choosing to fail their assignments. I feel that part of this is lack of motivation and ownership in the work to be done. Another part of this is that I feel that many of these students have been stereotyped most of their school years as "failures". With the option menu, the students could complete extra assignments to improve their grades. I think that perhaps I would have to build in enough time for the students to also rework their assignments rather than receiving a grade the first time they turned the assignment in. I think giving the students an opportunity to overcome failure by offering extra assignments for bonus points and the chance to rework assignments using the teacher's positive feedback is a positive step toward improve students' overall performance and their self-esteem in the process.

In conclusion, I feel that alternative assessment should be used in every classroom, at different levels perhaps, but still in every classroom. This does not mean that a teacher has to completely do away with written tests but maybe he/she could fin that happy medium between the two to satisfy both administrators and the students. In using alternative assessment, a teacher is giving the students more opportunities to be interested in the work they must complete and far greater opportunities to succeed in all that they attempt to accomplish.