ABSTRACT
The assessment of students can take many forms and occur during any part of the learning process: before introducing students to new content; while students are processing information in a lesson; and when they create products to show what they have learned. Authentic assessments are those that reflect “real-life” tasks that are both meaningful and relevant to students. These are student-centered, activity-based, and product-oriented. In other words, students play an active role in creating something they are interested in that is useful and finite. Rubrics are helpful devices often used in conjunction with authentic assessment, performance-based assessment, and project-based learning. In brief, a rubric is a grid-like graphic organizer used to assess the level of student performance or progress by evaluating elements within a specific task. Student logs and journals provide another opportunity to assess students “in the moment,” at the end of the lesson, or over time.
