Unit 8 It's not just about the test

I try to vary my data collection as I find that reliance on one form of assessment may limit a student's ability to demonstrate her learning. I would include some of these methods of collecting information:

Cloze: A gap-fill assessment activity which requires students to understand the context and vocabulary. Depending on the level of your students you may provide a word bank (beginners) or allow for synonyms that identify that the student understands the meaning of the passage. This is short answer so may be a little less intimidating than a long-answer explanation on a topic.
Observations:The first step in observations is to create a chart outlining what it is that you want to observe, this narrows down your focus. If you simply have a sheet with empty grids your observations can be too random to be purposeful. There can still be a section for the teacher's reflections or global points to assist with teaching or re-teaching. For instance, if you find that 5 out of 15 students are having an issue with the future tense then highlight their names to indicate that will be a group you will meet with to re-teach the concept.
Presentations:  Glogster is an interactive visual tool which incorporates multi-media to demonstrate what they have learned about a topic. This is better than a standard poster presentation as students can embed technology in to it e.g. a video clip.
Reflections journal: At the end of each class ask students to record in their journal (this can be a section of their portfolio). You can provide the students with the questions, if you are looking for feedback on a particular area or leave the task open. You might want to have some sample questions up in the classroom for those students who might get 'stuck' on what to write. ( Sample reflection questions )
Rubrics: Co-create rubrics with your students using tools such as Rubricmaker (example of  Oral presentation rubric ). When creating the rubric include some non-negotiables to ensure that the outcomes being measured are reflected (e.g. uses the past tense correctly). Rubrics are not necessary for every activity but students should know the target they are working towards when they are being assessed.


This article has some good additional strategies that work for performance based assessments: 

6 Types of Performance-Based Assessments

Kelly, Melissa. (2019, May 27). Authentic Ways to Develop Performance-Based Activities. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/ideas-for-performance-based-activities-7686