Yao Chie, Sharon, Nurhidaya, Angeline Cheong HW (TG02)

Alternative assessment is defined as any assessment method that is an alternative to the traditional paper-and-pencil tests. It seeks to reveal students’ critical thinking and evaluation skills by asking students to complete open-ended tasks that often take more than one class period to complete.

Alternative assessment takes many different forms, according to the nature of the skills and knowledge being assessed. Some of the examples are: exhibition of students’ works, oral presentation, performance-based assessment, portfolios, journal writing and authentic assessment (use of real-life problem solving scenarios).

In the recent years, the use of alternative assessments has been on a rising trend as it helps schools prepare students for the complex tasks that will be required of them when they become adults by focusing on thinking skills rather than memorization.

Basically we have incorporated into our alternative assessment an element of Cooperative Learning, as can be seen in the attached link. The title of the video is Social Activity. This video shows how students learn social skills, while solving Mathematics problems. And such skills are important for students in the upper primary level.

here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FGeGD9Qmb0

Maths Trail
A Maths trail learning journey in the neighbourhood with different stations. All P5 pupils will be split into 3 groups with a given time at a station before switching to the next station.

1) Supermarket (budget planning trip for mother) - Topic: Money (Budget planning) Description of the scenario and the amount of money will be given and pupils are to plan and buy stuffs from the supermarket so that budget will not exceed.

2) HDB flats and other objects that pupils can find (identify which building / objects has an equilateral/isosceles/right-angled triangle shape), - Topic: Triangles

Pupils are to find 3 places/objects that fall under the different category of triangles. Either by sketching or taking pictures with digital cameras (Use of ICT tool)

Pupils are to justify why they think a particular place or object belongs to an equilateral / isosceles / right-angled triangle shape. (To test their understanding on the properties of different types of triangles.)

3) Finding the shortest path to get from point A to point B (with the neighbourhood map given to the pupils) - Topic: Estimation and Measurement of distances
Example:
Locate the shortest path from the playground to the nearest hawker centre.
Locate the shortest path from the school to the community library.
Locate the shortest path from home to the MRT station.

There may not be 1 fixed path as pupils may locate different paths which they think is the shortest route.

At the end of the maths trail, the teacher will do a debrief on the purpose and learning objectives of the various stations and inform the pupils that what they have just encountered are some real-life situations where mathematics as well as life skills are involved.

Assessment will be based on self-assessment (individual student to reflect on how/what they have learnt through their learning journey) and group assessment (how students work together, task completion, etc.)At the end of the day, the teacher may award certain percentage points on the overall assessment based on this learning journey.