Observations:
A type of informal assessment and could be both formative and summative. It is both criterion and norm referenced because you have a checklist of what you want students to be able to accomplish and how well one student is doing it compared to other students. This type of assessment would happen during the course of instruction and the teacher would engage the classroom and observe what the students are saying and who is participating. Unfortunately, informal instruction are not systematic, so they can provide an incomplete or inaccurate picture of students' learning. Since some students are more likely to participate than others, this assessment might not be as fair or reliable as others. It is very practical because you do not have to write a test or take a long time preparing to informally assess. The assessment will be valid as long as the questions you ask the students are intended to measure what the they know.
Self-assessments:
This could be a formal or informal assessment, depending on how the teacher gives the assessment. It could be given in a one-on-one situation or on a piece of paper after a unit or project. It is a criterion referenced assessment because there are certain requirements that you want a student to fulfill and evaluate themselves on. If the student is honest, it is valid, reliable, fair and practical. If the student is not honest, it is not valid, reliable, fair or practical. If some students are honest and some are not, it is not a fair assessment. Some students could say that they worked really hard when they did not. Other students will be too hard on themselves and even though they did an excellent job, they will say that they could have done better. Self-assessments are nice because if you feel you can trust what your students say, you can see if a student did do the best that they could even if it wasn't the best project that was turned in.
Peer-assessments:
This would be a formal assessment at the end of a group project. I think it is norm referenced, since you are comparing your contributions to another students contributions. This type of assessment may not be reliable or valid because students may give another student a bad grade just because they don't like them or may be intimidated by another student and give them a good grade even though the student did nothing. It may not be fair because like I said, students may not be completely honest. If students are honest, then this is a really good type of assessment to see how the group worked together. IF the students are honest, it is a very practical assessment, because you get to get the opinions of other students and see if each team member participated. Teachers can't be everywhere at once, so it is nice when you can get some feedback from students.
Projects (things students make ABOUT the topic - e.g. posters, research papers, etc):
Of course, it depends, but I think the most effective way to use a project is to use it as a formal summative assessment and criterion referenced. If you provide a rubric then the assessment would be reliable and fair. With a rubric, students know what is expected of them and are in control of their own grade. They can decide what they want to do and if they do not want to include something in the project and get points taken off. Rubrics are a little tedious since you have to go through every project and evaluate each student and use judgement if they should get full points or not. It is practical because students can be in control of what they want to do with their project and what they want to learn from the project. The assessment is valid as long as the teacher does a good job explaining what they expect and the students follow through on what is expected.
Performance (things students do WITH the topic - e.g. conducting a debate, running a mile, creating a meal plan, analyzing a poem, etc.):
This assessment could be both formal and informal. I would use this as a formative assessment and used during a unit. It is criterion-referenced and valid, reliable and practical. Depending on the assignment, it might not be fair to every student. In a gym class, a student could get a bad grade on completing a mile in a certain time because they are ill or because of a medical condition. Students are not always good at analyzing poems and unless you are open to really "out there" interpretations, students might get a bad grade. I think that sometimes teachers expect students to know what they exactly what they are thinking. These assignments are reliable because you can see how much a student knows by hosting a debate or having them create a meal plan using the information that they have learned already.
Portfolios:
This is a summative assessment, since it should contain a lot of assignments throughout the course of the year to see if a student has improved. This type of assessment is fair, valid, reliable and practical. The only way that it will not be reliable is if the student chooses not to do the assignments and you cannot show the parents how their child has improved. I like this type of assessment, but I do not think it is very practical for some classes. I can see it working in an english or art class, but I can't see it working well in a history class.
Tests:
This is a formal, summative assessment. With a test, you plan for it and have a set date and time for students to take the test. This provides information at the end of a unit or the end of instruction and are used to give the student a grade on what they have learned. The test will be valid if the questions that the teacher writes are clear and the student can understand what you are asking them. It isn't fair for some students because some students are not good at multiple choice tests. I think it is fair if you put a variety of questions on the test. The test is not always reliable because it doesn't always test what the student knows. The student may know a lot of information taught in class, but it might not be on the test. These kind of tests are practical because they are easy to grade and when a test is written well, and a lot of students miss a test question, it shows you that you did not get your point across and you must re-teach that question.
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