PENTRU OBȚINEREA GRADULUI DIDACTIC I ÎN ÎNVĂȚĂMÂNT CONDUCĂTOR ȘTIINȚIFIC: CONF. UNIV. DR. MĂRĂȘESCU AMALIA AUTOR, PROF. BAROS ( COMAN ) VALENTINA… [309901]
[anonimizat] I
ÎN ÎNVĂȚĂMÂNT
CONDUCĂTOR ȘTIINȚIFIC:
CONF. UNIV. DR. [anonimizat]. BAROS ( COMAN ) VALENTINA
ȘCOALA GIMNAZIALĂ „MIHAI EMINESCU” PITEȘTI
PITEȘTI
2018
UNIVERSITATEA DIN PITEȘTI
FACULTATEA DE LITERE
DEPARTAMENTUL PENTRU PREGĂTIREAPERSONALULUI DIDACTIC
TESTING AND EVALUATION IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
CONDUCĂTOR ȘTIINȚIFIC:
CONF. UNIV. DR. [anonimizat]. BAROS (COMAN) VALENTINA
ȘCOALA GIMNAZIALĂ „MIHAI EMINESCU” PITEȘTI
PITEȘTI
2018
TESTING AND EVALUATION IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1. [anonimizat], and testing
Purposes of testing and evaluation
Ways to test and evaluate student: [anonimizat] 2. ASSESSING PRIMARY AND SECONDARY STUDENTS’ RESULTS THROUGH TESTING AND EVALUATION
2.1. Assessment of learning vs. assessment for learning
2.2. Basic principles in designing internal assessment at primary and secondary level
2.3. Teaching – Learning – Assessing
CHAPTER 3. METHODS AND TECHNIQUES OF TESTING AND EVALUATION ENGLISH LANGUAGE KNOWLEDGE OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
3.1. Traditional vs. Modern in assessing English
3.2. Testing the four skills
.
CHAPTER 5. STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TESTING AND EVALUATION METHODS AND TECHNIQUES USED AT PRIMARY AND SECONDARY LEVEL
CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION
The new and innovative role of foreign languages is closely connected to the development of society itself. [anonimizat]. Today we live in a globalized world that is completely different from what it used to be.
Firstly, [anonimizat], one foreign language. When sitting for a scholarship or applying for a job, English is generally among the basic recquirements. [anonimizat]. [anonimizat], well-[anonimizat], [anonimizat]. As a [anonimizat] a [anonimizat] I have mentioned above, a way to facilitate the development of students' learning skills and to improve communication competence in general.
Secondly, an important aspect of the educational process resides not only in students' capability of using language but also in their ability to use it practically rather than theoretically. I strongly sustain that learning a [anonimizat], should be seen as part of a permanent learning process or lifelong learning process. Formal learning is not enough anymore. This must be doubled by the informal counterpart. [anonimizat]. Students should not limit their study and use of knowledge to schools. Instead, they should expand their linguistic competence according to their priorities, needs and circumstances.
Furthermore, The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages considers learning foreign languages as a necessary need in nowadays society. It presents what language primary and secondary learners must learn in order to develop the knowledge and skills they need to communicate effectively. The description also defines the new role of foreign languages within the educational system, such as interpreting and understanding the new values through language. Concerning this matter, primary and secondary teaching becomes organically linked to testing, that is why changes in teaching are soon followed by changing in testing strategies. In my opinion, teachers need to test those skills that allow students to manage the language no matter the situation. I am not talking about students just acquiring English knowledge but using it, showing what they can do with the help of language, being able to perform practical tasks in situations that simulate real life and not only, exchanging ideas and negotiating meaning.
All things considered, testing and evaluation claim for new needs of development due to the current change within the Romanian educational system. My teaching experience consolidated my conviction related to the necessity of approaching this subject. A fair evaluation, as objective as possible, gives students the opportunity to reach self-knowledge, self-worth and social integration. The role of English in human society has made educators devise new ways of teaching and assessing so that their results match the primary and secondary school students' needs. The objective of testing and evaluation is to highlight attitudes and skills that show the efficiency of the educational process.
This paper attempts to look at the importance of classroom testing and evaluation A major concern of teaching English language for teachers has been assessing and evaluating students' progress during their courses of study as well as their classroom achievements at the end of it.
The first part of my paper tries to analyse the complexity of the concepts evaluation, assessment, and testing in order to clarify them and explain how they differ from one another. My paper contains definitions, theoretical material on these concepts and it focuses on the purposes, ways and roles of testing and evaluating students. The integration of evaluation actions in the educational process represents an important part of my paper and the initial assessment, the formative and the summative one are all researched in detail. The next chapter deals with the notions of assessment of learning and assessment for learning and it also introduces the basic principles in designing internal assessment at primary and secondary level.
Needless to say, in recent years, educators have been moving from traditional standardized tests to a more authentic assessment based curriculum in many countries. The second part of my paper is an attempt at finding the most suitable way to deal with the traditional and modern types of assessment and the theoretical notions were illustrated by examples. The examples were chosen suggestively, having a medium degree of difficulty, following the notions studied in primary and secondary schools. The four skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking) are important in any classroom and the role of the four skills is vast and constantly developing. In relation to the second language learning classroom, it is important that instructors consider these four skills separately and consider the students underlying knowledge of each skill, as well as ways in which student proficiency may be assessed that is why an important part of my paper deals with testing these skills.
The last part of my paper focuses on the research regarding the effectiveness of testing and evaluation methods and techniques used at primary and secondary level. In this respect, the major objective of the present research is to outline new methods and techniques of assessing English language knowledge, emphasizing the effectiveness of assessment methods and techniques used at secondary level, with a case study on the School ” Mihai Eminescu” in Pitești. The research was also based on a questionnaire and its objectives were achieved.
CHAPTER 1. THE CONCEPTS OF TESTING AND EVALUATION AS INTEGRAL PARTS OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS
1.1. Testing and evaluation in teaching and learning process
Assessment is an integral part of the learning process and wherever appropriate, it will be formative and diagnostic as well as summative and evaluative, providing feedback to students.
Testing and evaluation of language skills and competences are very important components of language teaching. Testing becomes an integral part of teaching because it offers significant information or inputs about the growth and achievement of learner’s difficulties, styles of learning, anxiety levels. Effective teaching and effective testing are the two sides of the same coin. A curriculum is what constitutes a total teaching-learning programme composed of overall aims, syllabuses, materials, methods and testing in short. It provides a framework of knowledge and capabilities, selected to be appropriate to a particular level. Tests evaluate not only the progress and the achievement of learners but also the effectiveness of the teaching materials and methods used.
If we were to define the present situation as far as second language teaching and learning is concerned, we could start by saying that today there is a clear awareness of the need to give equal attention both to language form and to language use. In this sense, in our teaching we try to cater to the development of all aspects of communicative competence and its four major components—grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence (Omaggio 7)—thus enabling our students to master the unity of ideational, interpersonal and textual knowledge which will allow them to communicate as members of a given social community. In this respect, the Communicative Approach to Language Teaching provides us with a teaching curriculum characterized by the dynamic interdependence of its three components—purpose, methodology and evaluation. This paper will focus on evaluation—always keeping in mind the actual relation of interdependence between evaluation and the other two components within this methodological framework.
Specialists mention “communicative” as the methodology of choice. Nevertheless, when pressed to give a detailed account of what they mean by “communicative,” there were varied explanations. A good teacher must know if communicative language teaching (CLT) is similar to teaching conversation, the absence of grammar or an emphasis on open-ended discussion activities being considered the main features of a course. For teachers, it is important to understand the essence of communicative language teaching. This concept can be considered: a set of principles regarding the goals of language teaching, the way learners learn a foreign language, the different types of classroom activities organized in order to facilitate learning, as well as the roles of teachers and students. (Richards, Jack, 2006:6)
Language Teaching seen as a communicative concept is characterized as a wide approach in the sense of teaching. It is not considered a method having a clearly defined set of practices at classroom level. From a historical perspective, the concept of Communicative Language Teaching has been considered an alternative to the Audio-Lingual Method, as well as a development of the Notional-Functional Syllabus (this way, ”CLT lays emphasis on helping learners use the target language in multiple and various contexts and on studying the different functions of language”).(Banciu et al., 2012:8)
Being different from the Audio-Lingual Method, Communicative Language Teaching is focused on helping students to create meaning; they are not helped to develop flawless grammatical structures or native pronunciation. This shows that studying a foreign language in order to learn it with success is an aspect assessed in terms of how well learners have developed their communicative competence. The communicative competence is considered to be an ability to use the language with adequate proficiency in communication.
1.2. Assessment, Evaluation, and Testing
In order o help teachers make effective use of evaluation, assessment, and testing procedures in the foreign or second language classroom, it is extremely necessary to clarify what these concepts are and explain how they differ from one another.
The term evaluation is all-inclusive and it is the widest basis for collecting information in education. According to Brindley (1989:3), evaluation is “conceptualized as broader in scope, and concerned with the overall program”. Evaluation involves all factors that influence the learning process, i.e., syllabus objectives, course design, and materials (Harris & McCann, 1994) and it goes beyond student achievement and language assessment to consider all aspects of teaching and learning and to look at how educational decisions can be informed by the results of alternative forms of assessment (Genessee, 2001).
Assessment is part of evaluation because it is concerned with the student and with what the student does (Brindley, 1989). Assessment refers to a variety of ways of collecting information on a learner’s language ability or achievement. Although testing and assessment are often used interchangeably, assessment is an umbrella term for all types of measures used to evaluate student progress. Tests are a subcategory of assessment. A test is a formal, systematic (usually paper-and-pencil) procedure used to gather information about students’ behaviour.
When defined within an educational setting, assessment, evaluation, and testing are all used to measure how much of the assigned materials students are mastering, how well students are learning the materials, and how well students are meeting the stated goals and objectives. Although you may believe that assessments only provide instructors with information on which to base a score or grade, assessments also help you to assess your own learning.
Education professionals make distinctions between assessment, evaluation, and testing. However, all you really need to understand is that these are three different terms for referring to the process of realizing how much the students know about a given topic and that each term has a different meaning.
We can refer to evaluation as the process of collecting information or evidence of a learner’s learning progress and achievement over a period of time in order to improve teaching and learning. Evaluation is inherently a theoretically informed approach (whether explicitly or not), and consequently, a definition of evaluation would have be tailored to the theory, approach, needs, purpose, and methodology of the evaluation itself. Having said this, evaluation has been defined as:
a systematic, rigorous, and meticulous application of scientific methods to assess the design, implementation, improvement or outcomes of a program. It is a resource-intensive process, frequently requiring resources, such as evaluator expertise, labour, time and a sizeable budget
'the critical assessment, in as objective a manner as possible, of the degree to which a service or its component parts fulfills stated goals' (St Leger and Walsworth-Bell). The focus of this definition is on attaining objective knowledge, and scientifically or quantitatively measuring predetermined and external concepts.
'A study designed to assist some audience to assess an object’s merit and worth' (Shufflebeam). In this definition, the focus is on facts as well as value-laden judgements of the programs outcomes and worth.
The assessment is an ongoing process having as a main purpose the improvement of student learning and it is typically used to describe processes to examine or measure student learning that results from academic programs. Assessment is the process of documenting knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs, usually in measurable terms. The goal of assessment is to make improvements, as opposed to simply being judged. In an educational context, assessment is the process of describing, collecting, recording, scoring, and interpreting information about learning.
The evaluation is often referred to as the process of making overall judgment about one’s work or a whole school’s work. When we ASSESS our students, we are commonly interested in how and how much our students have learnt, but when we EVALUATE them, we are concerned with how the learning process is developing.
Testing is a technique of obtaining information needed for evaluation purposes and we can obtain such information using tests, quizzes or measuring instruments. Language tests are broadly classified into two types as testing skills (such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing and sub-skills such as comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc) and testing knowledge of content (aptitude tests, proficiency tests, achievement tests and diagnostic tests).
Different types of tests are administered for different purposes and used at different stages of the course to gather information about students. The language teacher has the responsibility of deciding on the best option for a particular group of students in a particular teaching context. It is useful to categorize assessments by type, purpose, or place within the teaching/learning process or timing.
Ingram (1974:313) considers that “tests, like examinations, invite candidates to display their knowledge or skills in a concentrated fashion, so that the result can be graded, and inferences made from the standard of performance that can be expected from the candidate, either at the time of the test or at some future time”. A test is conducted to measure the knowledge of an individual and to compare him with other individuals who belong to the same group.
According to Carrol (1965: 364), “the purpose of testing is always to render information to aid in making intelligent decisions about possible courses of action. Sometimes these decisions affect only the future design or used of the tests themselves, in which case we are dealing with solely experimental uses of tests. Sometimes the decisions have to do with the retention or alteration of courses of training, as when one decides that poor tests results are due to in effective training”.
Pit Corder (1973:351) is of the view that “language tests are measuring instruments and they are applied to learners, not to the teaching materials or teachers. For this reason they do not tell us ‘directly’ about the contribution of the ‘teacher’ or the ‘materials’ to the learning process. They are designed to measure the learners ‘knowledge of’ or ‘competence’ in the language at particular moment in his course and nothing else. The knowledge of one pupil may be compared with the knowledge of others or with that of the same pupil at a different time, or with same standard or norm.
Thus, testing is a set of techniques of questioning and observing to find out how far learning is taking place, whether the students are following the teacher or instructor, and what are the problems of the students? It is also used to assess the knowledge of the students in order to compare one individual to another individual in the same group.
A test is regarded as an attempt to see whether the things taught have been learned, while examination is regarded as an attempt to find out whether the students have attained certain predetermined standard. Thus, a test is directly concerned with teaching while an examination is linked with an externally fixed standard of achievement. However, since both tests and examinations have the same common function, namely evaluation, it has become conventional to call them ‘tests’.
The most common use of language tests is to identify strengths and weaknesses in students’ abilities. For example, through testing the teacher might discover that a certain student has excellent oral language abilities, but a relatively low level of reading comprehension. A TEST is a method of measuring a person’s ability on knowledge in a given area and the main reasons for testing are the following:
a. Achievement/Attainment tests: usually more formal, designed to show mastery of a particular syllabus (e.g. end-of-year tests, school-leaving exams, public tests) though similar (re-syllabus) to progress tests. They are rarely constructed by classroom teacher for a particular class being designed primarily to measure individual progress rather than as a means of motivating or reinforcing language.
b. Progress Tests. Most classroom tests take this form and they assess progress students make in mastering material taught in the classroom. They are often given to motivate students and they also enable students to assess the degree of success of teaching and learning and to identify areas of weakness & difficulty. Progress tests can also be diagnostic to some degree.
c. Diagnostic Tests can include progress, achievement and proficiency tests, enabling teachers to identify specific weaknesses/difficulties so that an appropriate remedial programme can be planned. Diagnostic Tests are primarily designed to assess students' knowledge & skills in particular areas before a course of study is begun.
d. Placement Tests sort new students into teaching groups so that they are approximately the same level as others when they start. They take into account the general ability rather than specific points of learning and that is why a great variety of tests are necessary. Their reference is forward to future learning and the results of Placement Tests are needed quickly.
e. Proficiency Tests measure students’ achievements in relation to a specific task which they are later required to perform (e.g. follow a university course in the English medium; do a particular job). Reference forward to particular application of language is acquired: future performance rather than past achievement. They rarely take into account the syllabus that students have followed.
f. Aptitude Tests measure students’ probable performance, but they can be distinguished from proficiency tests. Aptitude tests assess proficiency in language for language use (e.g. will students experience difficulty in identifying sounds or the grammatical structure of a new language?) while proficiency tests measure adequacy of control for studying other things through the medium of that language.
To achieve the ultimate purpose of assessment – to improve student learning – we need to answer not only questions on how much students have learned, but also questions on how they learned and why certain results occurred. This information is obtained through techniques other than tests, including observations, surveys, interviews, performance tasks, and portfolios. Thus, assessment is a comprehensive concept, centring its endeavours on student learning, and serving the purpose of student improvement and development in a variety of ways.
In summary, evaluation includes the whole course or program, and information is collected from many sources, including the learner. While assessment is related to the learner and his or her achievements, testing is part of assessment, and it measures learner achievement.
Purposes of testing and evaluation
The most compelling reason of a teacher to consider implementing other testing and evaluation methods than traditional tests and quizzes is because traditional forms of assessment rarely improve teaching and learning methods, offering the teacher a limited understanding of students. The attitudes and beliefs students bring to class, the way they think in a foreign language, as well as their ability in applying what they understood should also be taken into account.
The main purpose of any student assessment should be the one of improving student learning. There are also few secondary purposes established in order to gather testing and evaluation information, such as:
providing individual information to students about how well they have understood and applied a particular topic, as well as where they are having difficulty.
providing information about how well the class understood a particular subject and what other additional activities might need to be introduced in the curriculum or whether it is time to approach another topic.
providing diagnostic information about individual understanding of students or difficulties in understanding a new topic.
providing information about the students’ perceptions and reactions to the class, the material, the topic matter, as well as other particular activities.
providing an overall indicator of students’ success in achieving course goals.
helping students to determine their strengths and weaknesses in studying the provided material. (Adkisson, C., McCoy, L. P., 2006: 31)
The process of selecting appropriate testing and evaluation methods and instruments is directly dependant on the purpose of assessment. If this purpose is the one of determining that students have learned some important concepts or skills, this may have effects in a different instrument or approach than if the purpose is to provide feedback to students. This way, “students may review material on a particular topic”. (Doughty & Long, 2003:44)
Regardless of the specific purpose of an assessment procedure, incorporating an assessment program offers teachers a way to reflect on what they are doing, but also to find out what happens in classrooms. The assessment provides teachers with a systematic way of evaluating information in order to use and improve their knowledge, not only the students’ knowledge of a particular topic, but the general knowledge of teaching. By using assessment to identify what is not working, as well as what is working, teachers can help their students to become more aware of their own success in learning a specific topic, as well as “to assess better their own skills and knowledge”. (Kumaravadivelu, 1994: 10)
Ways to test and evaluate student learning
There are several methods of testing and evaluating students and among them, we can mention:
projects or reports which can be individual or in groups
quizzes
minute papers
essay questions
journal entries
portfolios
exams that cover a broad range of material
attitude surveys
written reports
open-ended questions
enhanced multiple-choice questions where responses are designed to characterize students’ reasoning.
Quizzes and essay questions should be graded and assigned a single grade or score. More complex assessments are “projects and written reports and they may be evaluated using scoring procedures in an alternative way”. (Biehler, Snowman, 1997:440) These procedures are also used to help students to learn how to improve their performance, both on that task or future ones. Evaluation procedures for projects and reports consist of:
giving a grade of ten or "needs work" – this procedure allows the student to revise and improve the product
using a scoring rubric to assign points (for example, 0, 1, 2) to different assessment components – this procedure provides more detailed feedback to students on various aspects of their performance. The following categories may be used in order to evaluate a student project:
Understands the problem
Describes an effective solution
Discusses limitations of the solution
Communicates effectively
One may recommend using scoring rubrics, model papers and exemplars of good performance in order to assign student grades. These methods provide students with insights over what good performance is expected to be, allowing them, at the same time, to acquire standards in “comparison with teacher’s performance standards”. (Ciara O’Farrell, 2009:15) Also, there are other forms of assessment such as minute papers or attitude surveys. These do not require a score or grade, but they can be used to inform the teacher about what the student understands and feels, as input for modifying instruction.
Some suggestions can be identified below for teachers approaching alternative assessment procedures for their class:
The teacher should analyze every assessment activity, considering it a way to provide students with feedback on the improvement way for learning and not just as an activity used to give a grade.
The teacher should not try to do it all at once. He should choose one method, try it for a few days, and then introduce and experiment it in a gradually way with other techniques.
The teacher should not try to do it all alone. He should plan, review and discuss with other teachers, colleagues of him, about what he is doing and what he is learning from the assessment information.
The teacher should be open with his students about the reason and the way they are being assessed.
The teacher should make sure that he has opportunities to highlight the assessment information he obtains, reflecting upon it, as well as monitoring the impact of the results on his perceptions of the class and of the topic he is teaching.
The teacher should consult resources for ideas from different approaches to use and ways to evaluate assessment information.
The assessment drives instruction, so the teacher must be careful to assess what he believes is important for students to learn. The teacher should use an assessment form in order to confirm, reinforce and also support his ideas of what students should study. A good teacher should not lose track of the main purpose of assessment: learning improvement.
1.5. Integration of evaluation actions in the educational process
Research and school experience demonstrate that the evaluation act becomes a good one fulfilling its functions, in the conditions of its optimal integration in the didactic process, as its constitutive action. In contemporary didactics, it is unanimously acknowledged the need to carry out assessment in the process of education and training so that it does not present itself as an action independent of the training process, overlapped with it, but integrates in-depth, organic in the process itself. What, however, is the subject of confrontations of opinions and experiences concerns the ways of integrating the evaluative actions into the didactic process and the manner of accomplishing these actions. Apart from some special nuances, the different ways used outline three forms: initial (predictive) assessment, cumulative (summative) assessment and formative assessment (continuous).
Initial assessment
The initial evaluation is carried out at the beginning of a training program in order to determine the level of training of pupils at that time, the conditions under which they are can integrate into the following work. It is one of the prerequisites for designing the training programme. Knowing the pupils' learning abilities, their level of training and the degree to which they possess the knowledge and skills needed to assimilate the content of the next stage is a crucial condition for the success of the teaching activity. This form of assessment becomes necessary in situations where the educator starts work with pupils whose potential they do not know at the beginning of a school or a school year after a longer activity break. What is of interest is not the general training of students but the extent to which they possess the knowledge and capacities that constitute "cognitive" and "attitudinal" premises (interests, motivations, etc.) necessary to assimilate the new content. Consequently, the evaluation has a selective character, based on the content verified, and fulfills as a predictor a predictive function, indicating the conditions in which students can assimilate new content. The data obtained through evaluation of this nature helps to outline the following activity in three levels:
adapting it to the learning opportunities of the students;
organizing a class recovery program;
adopting support or even recovery measures for the benefit of pupils.
The initial assessment of English language proficiency has the following purpose: a teacher should obtain information regarding the student’s proficiency in listening, reading, writing and speaking. This information can be used for:
determining instructional starting points
identifying primary proficiency levels of different foreign languages
determining programming and instructional support in learning
Conducting an initial language proficiency assessment is connected to the fact that it may be influenced by feelings of stress and dislocation in particular cases. Students may underperform due to some issues such as lack of confidence, anxiety, the rate of speech or unfamiliarity with the dialect. Often, the student will show a significant improvement in language proficiency in a period of four to six weeks as he becomes more confident, more comfortable and more familiar with the environment he lives and studies. This assessment should be directed in a place full of comfort, a quiet area where the teacher can properly interact with the student.
Thus, in the verification – measurement – initial assessment, at the beginning of the year, the semester, the chapter, the data for the objectives of the design of the future action are obtained: the volume and the quality of the necessary knowledge, the skills, and the capacities to be used in the new learning.
Formative assessment
Formative assessment refers to a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course. Formative assessments help teachers identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or learning standards they have not yet achieved so that adjustments can be made to lessons, instructional techniques, and academic support.
The general goal of formative assessment is to collect detailed information that can be used to improve instruction and student learning while it’s happening. What makes an assessment “formative” is not the design of a test, technique, or self-evaluation, but the way it is used—i.e., to inform in-process teaching and learning modifications.
“Formative assessment is known as an active learning process partnering teacher and students to continuously and systematically gather evidence of learning with the express goal of improving student achievement. Intentional learning reflects a cognitive process having learning as an aim and not an incidental outcome.” (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1989: 66). Teachers and learners engage in an active and intentioned way in a formative assessment process in the moment they work together. They will:
focus on learning and developing topics as goals.
size up the position of the current work in relation to the aim.
take action to move closer to the aim.
The formative assessment process has an “impact on teachers”.(Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1989: 66). This way, teachers adopt a working assumption in order to:
be aware of students learning more effectively when they know and understand the learning aim.
help each student succeed. In this way, the teacher must precisely know the student position in relation to the learning aim.
provide specific suggestions for effective feedback. These suggestions will be provided in order to close the gap between the actual position of students and where they need to be in relation to the learning aim.
provide students with a way of regulating their own learning.
encourage meaningful learning. This type of learning appears between minds, during strategic conversations, as well as in the moment students become models of success for each other.
provide motivation. Motivation is not a material thing a teacher will give to his students; it is an aspect a teacher must help students to develop.
Teachers should act in a “constructive way” (Skehan P., 1996: 78) in order to:
bring precision to their long-time planning;
communicate learning aims in a friendly and appropriate language;
unpack the exact criteria learners must accomplish in order to succeed;
collect evidence of student learning for monitoring and adapting the teaching during a lesson;
give focused generative and descriptive feedback;
develop and improve a collection of strategies regarding the feedback;
teach each student how to self-assess;
make checklists, guides, rubrics or other meta-cognitive tools considered as an integral part of what students shall do before, during and after finishing the process of learning;
encourage students in order to become learning resources to one another;
plan and ask strategic questions, producing an evidence of student learning;
align appropriate levels of challenge and support;
create learning experiences in an intentional way, students being able to learn what they do well, what they should do more or how to focus their efforts in order to maximize a successful situation.
About formative assessment, one could consider some key points. A key premise is that of the students’ improvement ability. In this regard, “students must have the capacity to monitor and evaluate the quality of their own work”. (Beglar, D., Alan, H.,2002: 102) This process requires students to appreciate themselves, to evaluate, having necessary skills in order to make objective comparisons about the quality of what they are producing in relation to the standards and to develop and improve a set of tactics which can be drawn upon for modifying their own work.
The process of giving or receiving feedback must occur during English classes. Simple knowledge of results is consistently provided by direct or implicit means. A more detailed feedback is used where necessary, in order to help student work through misconceptions or other weaknesses at the performance level. Compliments should not be used meagerly and when used “they should be task-specific, whereas criticism is usually counterproductive”.
(Valerie J. Shute, 2007)
Royce Sadler (1989) identified three essential elements of formative assessment effectiveness:
helping students to recognize clearly the desired goal – students should understand what a teacher requires;
providing students with evidence about how well their work matches that goal;
explaining ways to close the gap between the goal and their current performance.
Quoting Crooks, “self-assessment represents a vital learning component. Feedback on assessment cannot be effective unless students accept that their work can be improved. Also, they have to identify important aspects of their work, in order to improve it. Self-monitoring became a key component of all professionals work. In this regard, if teachers want their students to become professional learners and very good in their fields, they should promote self-assessment in an active way. If students are asked and encouraged to make a critical examination and comment on their own work, assessment will be more a type of dialogue than a monologue, contributing stoutly to the educational development of students.” (Crooks, 1989:13)
Marks or grades do not produce learning gains. This can be reflected in the way students mostly gain learning value from assessment when feedback is provided without marks or grades. When the teacher provides a mark, it seems to dominate students’ feelings and thinking, being seen as the real purpose of the assessment.
Student motivation is essential to learning. Without it, assessment will be faulty; assessment has major influences on motivation. Therefore, it is very important to anticipate and optimize the motivational effects of feedback on assessment. (Shute, Valerie J., 2007) Researching, specialists highlighted the fact that the greatest motivational benefits will come from focusing feedback (Gibbs, G., 1988) on:
qualities of student's work, rather than on making comparisons with other students;
specific ways in which the student's work could be improved;
improvements that the student has made in comparison to his earlier work.
There are “some points that summarize the key lessons regarding formative assessment that promotes learning” (Goldstein, I. L., Emanuel, J. T., Howell, W. C., 1968: 154), as follows:
it involves students in self-assessment;
it involves learning aims that are being understood and shared by teachers and students;
it helps students to understand and recognize the standards to be achieved;
it provides feedback, helping students to recognize the next phases and the way of taking them;
it builds confidence that students can develop their work through improvement.
In order to obtain a productive formative assessment, learners should be trained in self-assessment. This way, they can understand the main purposes of their learning and thereby grasp what they need to do in for achievement. Opportunities for students to express their understanding should be designed into different fragments of teaching and for this; one will initiate the interaction whereby formative assessment aids learning. The dialogue between the teacher and the student focuses on evoking and exploring understanding, but at the same time, it should be thoughtful, reflective and conducted so that all learners have the chance to think and to express their own, authentic ideas. Tests and homework exercises are considered to be an invaluable guide to learning. However, the exercises must be relevant and concise to the learning goals. At this level, the feedback should give each student the guidance on how to improve. It is important to know that each child must be given opportunity and help to work at his/her own “improvement and development”. (Richards, J., C., Theodore R., 2001: 100).
As for the effects of formative assessment on student learning, long-standing theory and research suggest the critical role that formative assessment can play in student learning. With roots in Ralph Tyler’s curriculum rationale (1949), B.F. Skinner’s behaviourism and programmed instruction (1953, 1960) Robert Glaser’s seminal work in criterion-referenced instruction and testing (Glaser, 1963), and Benjamin Bloom’s concept of Mastery Learning (Bloom, 1968), the use of assessment in guiding instruction has long been advocated: “Through the assessment of students’ needs and the monitoring of student progress, learning sequences can be appropriately designed, instruction adjusted during the course of learning, and programs refined to be more effective in promoting student learning goals.”
Moving towards more recent pedagogical theory, Sadler (1989) adds the important cognitive and social functions that assessment can provide in teaching and learning and the significant role that feedback from assessment plays in enabling teachers and students to understand their learning goals, to compare the actual level of their performance to the desired level and to engage in effective actions to reduce the gap. In modern pedagogical conceptions, in fact, assessment moves from an information source on which to base action to part and parcel of the teaching and learning process.
That is, contemporary cognitive psychology recognizes that knowledge is always actively constructed by learners and a situational perspective reminds us that knowing is a verb before it is a noun (NRC, 2001a, 2001b). What is acquired through schooling is a set of capabilities for meaningful participation in activity structures; all knowing has a social component. And socio-cultural perspectives remind us as well of the political, social, and motivational functions of assessment (Gipps, 1999). The assessment itself provides opportunities for students to display their thinking and to be engaged with feedback that can help students to extend, refine, and deepen their understandings and reach more sophisticated levels of expertise. For example, interim assessment or quizzes during the course of instruction or questioning during class discussions can serve to elicit students' thinking, feedback can be used to encourage students to confront their misconceptions and the process itself can be instrumental in helping students move to higher levels of understanding (Gitomer & Duschl, 1995).
Nowadays, the effects of the formative assessment process on students are dramatic because this type of assessment involves students in learning a way to learn. Students learn more and smarter, but there is a growth in self-aware students who can tell teachers exactly what they did for getting right where they are. In other words, learners may become data-driven decision makers and self-regulated. They learn to keep note of their own learning and to use that information in order to choose from a growing collection of strategies for success. Students do not only learn how to take ownership of their learning, but they also consider themselves as autonomous, confident and capable.
This represents a combination of learning factors such as:
ownership,
autonomy,
confidence,
capability.
These factors fortify students with increased levels of resilience.
Improving and growing student resilience can cause a dangerous cycle for many of them, especially for those who attribute their failure in order to perform well on tasks to a lack of academic ability. Judging themselves to be incapable of achieving and powerless for changing things, students become discouraged and, in most cases, they quit trying. Resilient students, on the other hand, get over from poor performances. Students attribute their failures and their successes on learning tasks to factors within their control. At the same time, they rebound; students do not give up during challenges. Resilient students have faith in their capacity to adapt their activity and the way they are doing it in order to succeed. (Connie M. Moss, Susan M. Brookhart, 2009)
Even if formative assessment is very significant regarding its effects on learning, it has an influence over those students considered to be low achievers more than over other ones. This way, it makes possible the decrease in the achievement range while there is an overall raising achievement. Formative assessment represents a compelling method used to increase and improve student learning, but also to close the achievement gap.
Essentially, formative assessment seeks to present students with explicit goals or outcomes of instruction, to help them assess their current position in relation to these goals and to equip them with the tools to bridge the gap between the two. Thus, “effective formative assessment must help students answer the following questions”: (Chappuis, S.R., Stiggins, 2002:3-4)
“Where Am I Trying to Go?” Students need clearly articulated, concise learning targets to be able to answer this first question. Learning is easier when learners understand what goal they are trying to achieve, the purpose of achieving the goal and the specific attributes of success. Teachers should continually help students clarify the intended learning as the lessons unfold—not just at the beginning of a unit of study.
“Where Am I Now?” All of these strategies help students ascertain—and, even more important, learn how to ascertain—where they are and where they need to be, a sort of awareness that is central to their ultimate success.
“How Do I Close the Gap?” Assessment for learning helps students know what to do to move from their current position to the final learning goal. To meet learning goals, students must participate fully in creating the goals, analyzing assessment data and developing a plan of action to achieve the next goal.
These three core processes form the theoretical underpinning of formative assessment. Further conceptions note that teachers, students and peers all play a role in the learning process and, as a result, each has roles to play in formative assessment. Teachers’ roles emphasize setting clear goals, making aspects of explicit success, providing useful feedback and encouraging peer and self-reflection. (See Appendices-Progress Test)
Summative assessment
The impact of summative assessment is presented in the following part. According to Crooks (1988:467), “classroom evaluation could affect learners in many different ways”. For instance, it guides their judgement of what is important to learn, affects their motivation and self-perceptions of competence, structures their approaches to and timing of personal study (e.g. spaced practice), consolidates learning, and affects the development of enduring learning strategies and skills.
Summative assessments are used to evaluate student learning, skill acquisition, and academic achievement at the conclusion of a defined instructional period—typically at the end of a project, unit, course, semester, program, or school year. Generally speaking, summative assessments are defined by three major criteria:
The tests, assignments, or projects are used to determine whether students have learned what they were expected to learn. In other words, what makes an assessment “summative” is not the design of the test, assignment, or self-evaluation, but the way it is used—i.e., to determine whether and to what degree students have learned the material they have been taught.
Summative assessments are given at the conclusion of a specific instructional period, and therefore they are generally evaluative, rather than diagnostic—i.e., they are more appropriately used to determine learning progress and achievement, evaluate the effectiveness of educational programs, measure progress toward improvement goals, or make course-placement decisions, among other possible applications.
Summative assessment results are often recorded as scores or grades that are then factored into a student’s permanent academic record
There are effects of summative assessment manifested on short-term, such as:
focusing on important aspects of the topic;
giving students great opportunities to consolidate learning by practicing skills;
guiding further instructional activities or even learning ones, within the course;
There are also some effects on medium and long-term (Crooks, 1988:470) such as:
influencing students' motivation as learners, as well as their perceptions of own capabilities. This aspect is known as self-efficacy;
communicating and reinforcing teaching goals. This aspect includes key performance criteria. It also demands great standards of performance;
influencing students’ choice and development of learning different study patterns, skills or strategies;
influencing students’ subsequent choice of activities and even careers.
(See Appendices-Final Test)
We could conclude with some examples of formative and summative assessments:
(https://ctl.yale.edu/Formative-Summative-Assessments)
1.6. Testing and evaluation roles
Testing and evaluation are considered to be part of the curriculum, pedagogy and assessment cycle as an integral process. Testing and evaluation imply evaluating students’ learning by collecting evidence about it, interpreting the information obtained and making different judgments about students’ performance. This process has the purpose of providing feedback to many types of individuals, such as teachers, parents, students and even schools and the system of education. (Black, P, William., 1998: 60)
During the process of instruction, testing and evaluation are about the pupils’ learning progress, but also about the manner teachers provide knowledge to their students.
Testing and evaluation represent two indispensable components of the curriculum practice. Nowadays, in the context of educational systems, the main consideration of both teachers and students is represented by the learning outcomes. In this respect, the objective of assessment is to evaluate the ability which “students can demonstrate in connection with their knowledge growth and changes in comprehension based on their school experiences”. (Fisseha Mikre, 2010:101)
Talking about gaining school experience, teachers should be very careful about the quality of the curriculum practice and learning assessment in secondary school education. A part of current teaching and assessment practices in secondary school induce a passive, but reproductive form of learning. Particularly, teachers tend to accentuate the factual knowledge and the learners have a too firm behaviour in the context of the current theoretical framework. By contrast, teachers may value transferable skills, respectively communication skills, problem-solving or teamwork. Teachers suggest that during the learning process, assessment should be integral to teaching and learning activities and should be well structured. Portfolios, different types of assessment (performance, authentic peer or student self-assessment) along with feedback and comments have been established as procedures that align assessment with current theories of learning and teaching. In this regard, teachers are responsible for providing “the necessary feedback to students aiming them to relearn and refine learning goals”. (Fisseha Mikre, 2010:102)
According to Jan van den Akker (2003), assessment is an essential part of curriculum practice, as well as a process used in order to obtain information in curriculum proceeding with the goal of taking a decision regarding student learning, curriculum, programs, but also education policy. This way, teachers believe that assessment and curriculum should be integrated into the chain of class planning, operation, topic implementation and students’ evaluation. Formative procedures of assessment could also relieve the operations of the curriculum, including managing teaching, assessing pupils’ competences, parting learners to levels of education programs, assigning grades to pupils, certifying students’ competence, guiding, as well as counselling pupils, selecting the appropriate learners for education opportunities and so on. All these goals may be achieved in the context of effective assessment procedures in the curriculum operation and practice.
Regarding students’ learning progress and their attained competences, teachers need to find out to what extent the pupils have attained the learning goals. Many techniques such as paper and pencil tests, performance on assignments, research projects, and presentations and so on, may be useful while assessing students. According to Pratt (1998), it is necessary that assessment should be planned and conducted in a careful manner, while being subject to ongoing analysis, evaluation and improvement, in order to assure pupils achievements and grades. Students’ achievements and grades reflect the learning priorities established in the curriculum. Teachers must approach students’ knowledge and competence in the curriculum targets, as well as “assessment and instruction as parts of an integrated assembly”. (Fisseha Mikre, 2010:105)
With the image of a desirable curriculum component, assessment purposes are, first of all, represented by the instructional process. In this respect, the instructional process is considered an important part of the educational assessment, a pervasive observation and transaction that occur in classrooms. Teachers should be able to determine if a lesson is running smoothly and students understand it through observation during the learning process; in this regard, learners should give answers to teacher’s questions, should interact to one another (Nitko, 2004). In directing teaching, assessment could diagnose learning difficulties of different students, helping the teacher to identify the pupil’s strong and weak points and to plan an instruction with the purpose of remediating issues in formal ways.
Another assessment role is that of providing feedback about the success of a certain study programme (Pratt, 1998). Assessment is also able to report individual learning achievements or grades for different parties such as students, education institutes, parents and so on. Nitko’s opinion (2004) was that the results obtained by each student from different classroom activities such as tests, projects, quizzes, assignment papers or informal observations on learning targets can be used in order to give marks to pupils for a lesson, unit or a marking period. Moreover, assessment helps pupils to achieve their priorities at the instructional level, influencing their approach regarding the curriculum. In this situation, informal teacher questions, examinations and tests indicate students which curriculum parts have priority. Furthermore, assessment is useful when teachers want to enhance students' motivation, self-concept or the sense of self- efficacy. When the assessment is designed to produce real success during the students' learning and curriculum experience, its frequent use stimulates students’ confidence and willingness to learn.
Meherns and Lehman (1991) consider that the importance of assessment consists in increasing the students' motivation towards a course, encouraging good study habits, and providing the feedback that identifies the learners' strengths and weaknesses. Teachers can use assessment to guide decisions about the learners. The better the diagnostic and achievement data from assessment the teacher has about his/her students, the more appropriate the guidance he/she will be able to provide learners about their learning, and about their academic and occupational choices.
As we all understand, assessment is not something that follows and is separable from learning. Much has been written about the need to integrate assessment practices with instruction to enhance student learning (Wright, et.al, 1997). Assessment and instruction should be seamless, each contributing to the goal of improving learning. Moreover, effective instructors integrate assessment and teaching and the way the learning activities are structured. Despite this suggestion, teachers continue to use assessment that emphasizes the reproduction of knowledge and passivity of the mind at the expense of critical judgment and substantive competence (Black &Wiliam, 1998). For example, the introduction of multiple-choice tests into the education system has been criticized for encouraging teachers to set learning tasks that promote de-contextualized, rote learning. It also narrows the intended curriculum to basic skills with low cognitive demands. In contrast to this, the proliferation of the service industries and the changing character of work have created demands for transferable skills such as those of communication, information retrieval, problem-solving, critical analysis, self-monitoring and self-assessment. Due to this demand, there is a fast-growing interest in the more formative, holistic, contextualized forms of assessment, often described as ‘authentic’ or performance assessments.
However, as argued by Black and William (1998), it remains the case of traditional forms of assessment that are not easily replaced, embedded as they are in complex histories, cultures, and power relations of school societies. Shepard (2001) also suggested that the traditional assessment perspectives, based on behaviourist theories of learning and conventional principles conflicted with the implications of assessment for learning represented by the emerging cognitive and constructivist learning paradigms.
According to Wright (1997), performance assessment, portfolios, authentic assessment, student self-assessment and peer-assessment are considered procedures that align with the current constructivist theories of learning and teaching. In order to have salient contributions to the curriculum implementation process, assessment procedures should define what students regard important during their learning, how they spend their time, and how they come to see themselves as students. Sometimes, students complain about the assessment procedures used by their teachers, the curriculum does not shape the assessment; the assessment does not always shape the curriculum implementation and embody the purpose of education. As a result, students fail to experience the intended curriculum as a whole.
As a pillar of the educational process, assessment plays significant roles in implementing the curriculum. For this to happen, the practice should be based on some important guiding principles. James (2003) forwarded the following as guiding principles for conducting continuous assessment (assessment for learning):
– ensure that assessment procedures promote and reward desired learning activities and outcomes;
– communicate assessment requirements clearly to students;
– strive for providing effective feedback and comment to students on a continuous basis.
For instance, in the case of the first principle, instructors are advised to draw on Bloom’s taxonomy to divide the intellectual skills into three broad areas: recall and recognition, comprehension and application, critical thinking and problem-solving. With respect to the second principle, the need for commonly agreed marking procedures and techniques is obvious if collective responsibility for students is maintained and if there is full openness between colleagues. Of course, there can be a problem in overgeneralizing good assessment procedures for learning practice. As with teachers themselves, different subject disciplines may have different pedagogic assumptions. Thus, while the general principles apply across all subjects, the ways in which they manifest themselves in different subjects may differ (Black & William, 2004). On the other hand, the assessment procedure changes perceived as improvements in one course might be seen as impractical or irrelevant in another. However, teachers who have good intentions and who always attempt to make assessment practice integral to teaching become more efficient. Despite their good intentions, many teachers establish assessment tasks that encourage a narrow instrumental approach to learn emphasizing the reproduction of what is presented, at the expense of critical thinking, deep understanding, and independent activity (Filer, 2003). In contrast to this, Boud (1990) suggests some alternative changes in students' assessment. These include a careful track of the assessment practices to see how valid they are in the students' eyes, challenging the existing assessment procedures because they do not prepare reflective practitioners needed in the world of work.
According to Meherns and Lehman (1991) and Nitko (2004), quality teaching and quality assessment are intertwined; together they greatly improve students’ opportunities to learn. Teaching can be most effective when teaching activities, learning targets, and assessment procedures are all synchronized. For this, the assessment procedures should specify the important learning targets. As Nitko Anthony (2004) states it, to be valid, assessment procedures must match the learning targets. Otherwise, the validity of assessment for learning results falls down when even some of the tasks do not match the stated learning targets. Educational researchers estimated that effective teachers may spend from one third to one half of their time in assessment-related activities (Stiggins, Rick, 1992).
In McMillan’s opinion (2003), the need for changing the base of assessment at the classroom level is a scientific one or it is ascribed to the teacher’s belief, constructivist theories of learning and motivation, and the classroom reality. While teachers are willing to do this, assessment is enhanced in improving student learning.
The roles of testing and evaluation for different stakeholders can be summarized as follows:
for students to
understand their need of learning from different perspectives and the way they are progressing towards their goals;
understand their need for improvement on the next phase of learning;
understand their strengths and weaknesses in learning and the way of taking steps in order to improve and also, to self-regulate their own work at school.
for teachers and schools to
understand the strengths and weaknesses of students in the process of learning;
recognise the effectiveness of learning and teaching practices, making, at the same time, an adjustment to their way of teaching;
monitor the standards and quality of the education they are providing;
guide students for an appropriate future learning.
for parents to
understand the strengths and weaknesses of their children in the process of learning;
co-operate with schools institutions in order to guide their children in their future learning.
CHAPTER 2. ASSESSING PRIMARY AND SECONDARY STUDENTS' RESULTS THROUGH TESTING AND EVALUATION
2.1. Assessment of learning vs. assessment for learning
According to Wiggins (1993), the notion of assessment comes from the Latin “assidere”, meaning “to sit beside or with”. Although this notion is nowadays far removed from the role that it has typically played in schools, many teachers have always done it. Classroom assessment is represented by an undertaking presuming something different to audiences and in various situations. The purposes of assessment sometimes support or compete. As Wilson believes (1996), teachers use various assessment roles and keeping them straight is a challenging task.
The evidence collected in assessments has the capacity to clearly show both the outcomes of learning (what students have learned and what students have not learned) and the processes of learning (how students learn).
The former refers to an establishment of the way students have acquired the information, the quality of education provided to them by teachers and the types of standards that are being attained. In this regard, one could consider that the assessment involved is referred to as "assessment of learning". The latter refers to giving help to students in order to improve in a continuous way; the assessment involved being known as "assessment for learning". The first concept, the assessment of learning, is adaptable to reporting and assessing both students’ performance and progress towards the learning goals. The second concept, the assessment for learning, is preferable in case of identifying students’ strong and weak points and values, providing quality feedback for learners. This type of feedback implies providing timely support and enrichment. Also, assessment for learning is very important because it helps teachers to review learning aims, lesson plans, as well as different teaching strategies, improving them.
Analyzing the learning stages, as well as the curricula, one could observe that it is essential to schools and teachers to give more importance to assessment for learning to help students in improving and developing their way of learning, as well as promoting life-long learning. From earliest times until today, assessment of learning has always been of great concern at every level of education. However, the good intentions of assessment for learning should not be neglected throughout the teaching and learning practices.
In order to implement appropriate assessment strategies for curricula at each stage, it is useful to make a distinction between two forms of assessment, “formative and summative one, each of them serving different purposes”. (Earl, Lorna, 2003: 70)
Formative assessment represents an act of collecting evidence about student learning by different methods, such as class activities, homework, classroom observation or various quizzes. At the same time, it provides feedback in order to promote better learning for each student.
At the opposite pole, summative assessment is seen as being carried out at the end of a teaching unit/ term/year to sum up what students have learnt. A good example could be the end-of-unit tasks or tests. One could observe that it is clearly distinguished that assessment for learning is formative, while assessment of learning is summative. (Earl, Lorna, 2003: 74)
The first concept presented above- the assessment for learning- usually develops during daily teaching. This way, it reflects its vital part of everyday practice in classrooms, as follows:
assessment for learning is entailed in the process of learning and teaching;
assessment for learning involves sharing learning objectives between teachers and students;
assessment for learning provides help to students in order to know and recognise the aims of that specific lesson;
assessment for learning engages students in different types of assessment such as peer -assessment or self-assessment;
assessment for learning provides feedback to students in order to help them recognize the next steps for developing on success and strength values as well as for correcting their weaknesses;
assessment for learning involves both teachers and students. This way, teachers review and reflect on assessment data, respectively on the students’ performance and progress.
Assessment for learning takes place in the moment that teachers observe students' progress in order to get informed about their teaching. This type of assessment is frequent, formal or informal, in the last category being included some quality questions, written comments or anecdotal notes, entrenched in the teaching process and providing clear and timely feedback. This type of feedback has the capacity of helping learners through their learning progression, having the formative use providing of evidence that informs or shapes short-term planning for learning. (Earl, Lorna, 2003: 76)
Assessment of learning occurs when teachers use evidence of student learning to make judgements on student achievement against goals and standards. It is usually formal, frequently occurring at the end of units of work where it sums up student achievement at a particular point in time. It is often organised around themes or major projects and judgements may be based on student performance on multi-domain assessment tasks. Assessment of learning ”has a summative use, showing how students are progressing against the standards, and a formative use providing evidence to inform about long term planning”. (Malhotra et. al., 2015:22)
Nowadays, the predominant type of assessment in schools is represented by the assessment of learning. It has a summative purpose, it intends to certify learning and report to parents and students about students’ progress in school, usually by signalling students’ relative position compared to other students. Assessment of learning in classrooms is typically done at the end of something (e.g., a unit, course, a grade, a key stage, a program) and takes the form of tests or exams that include questions drawn from the material studied during that time. In the assessment of learning, the results are expressed symbolically, generally as marks across several content areas to report to parents. This is the kind of assessment that still dominates especially in secondary schools, with teachers firmly in charge of both creating and marking the test. Teachers use the tests to assess the quantity and accuracy of students’ work, and the bulk of teacher effort in assessment is taken up in marking and grading. A strong emphasis is placed on comparing students and feedback to students comes in the form of marks or grades with little direction or advice for improvement.
These types of testing events indicate which students are doing well and which ones are doing poorly. Typically, they do not give much indication of mastery of particular ideas or concepts because the test content is generally too limited and the scoring is too simplistic to represent the broad range of skills and knowledge that has been covered. But this lack of specificity hasn’t presented a problem because the ”teachers’ perceived purpose of the assessment is to produce a rank order of the students and assign a symbol to designate the students’ position within the group, whatever group it might be”. (Leithwood et. al., 2006:119). Teachers maintain voluminous records of students' achievement that are used only for justifying the grades that are assigned.
Assessment of learning and grading has a long history in education and they have been widely accepted by parents and the public. If they served us so well, why would we worry about a process that worked? Without moving too far away from my primary purpose, I’d like to highlight a few of the issues that are currently contentious about what we have always done. Although the public has been largely supportive of grading in schools, “scepticism is increasing about its fairness and even its accuracy”. (Earl, Lorna, 2013:30)
Educational researchers and theorists have been critical to the traditional grading practices for quite some time (Marzano, 2000). In terms of measurement theory, grades are highly suspect. Why? Because teachers consider many factors other than academic achievement when they assign grades; teachers weight assessment differently, and they misinterpret single scores on assessment to represent performances on a wide range of skills and abilities (Marzano, 2000). As education becomes an essential ingredient for a successful future, more attention will be paid to how grades are calculated and how well they actually reflect what they are taken to mean. The book is not yet closed on assessment of learning, and educators have a great deal to learn to ensure that it and the grades that result from it are defensible and worthwhile.
The self-assessment grid illustrates the levels of proficiency described in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and it is an essential component of the European Language Portfolio. The self-assessment that is a central feature of the ELP provides the essential link between the ELP and the CEFR. Self-assessment is carried out using checklists of “I can” descriptors arranged by language activity and common reference level (language biography) and summarized with reference to the CEFR’s self-assessment grid (language passport).
In terms of UNDERSTANDING, regarding the Listening process (the Council of Europe, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, 2015):
Level A1- Students are able to understand familiar words and very basic phrases concerning themselves, their families and immediate concrete surroundings when people speak slowly and clearly.
Level A2- Students are able to understand phrases and the highest frequency vocabulary related to areas of most immediate personal relevance. Students can get the main point in short, clear, simple messages and announcements.
Level B1- Students are able to understand the main points of clear standard speech on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Students can understand the main point of many radio or TV programmes, on current affairs or topics of personal or professional interest when the delivery is relatively slow and clear.
Level B2- Students are able to understand extended speech and lectures and follow even complex lines of argument provided the topic is reasonably familiar. They can understand most TV news and current affairs programmes, as well as the majority of films in standard dialect.
Level C1- Students are able to understand extended speech even when it is not clearly structured and when relationships are only implied and not signalled explicitly. Students can understand television programmes and films without too much effort.
Level C2- Students do not have any difficulty in understanding any kind of spoken language, whether live or broadcast, even when delivered at fast native speed. Students have some time to get familiar with the accent.
In terms of UNDERSTANDING, regarding the Reading process (the Council of Europe, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, 2015):
Level A1- Students are able to understand familiar names, words and very simple sentences, for example on notices and posters or in catalogues.
Level A2- Students are able to read very short, simple texts. They can find specific, predictable information in simple everyday material such as advertisements, prospectuses, menus and timetables and they can understand short simple personal letters.
Level B1- Students are able to understand texts that consist mainly of high frequency everyday or school-related language. They can understand the description of events, feelings and wishes in personal letters.
Level B2- Students are able to read articles and reports concerned with contemporary problems in which the writers adopt particular attitudes or viewpoints. They can understand contemporary literary prose.
Level C1- Students are able to understand long and complex factual and literary texts, appreciating distinctions of style. They can understand specialized articles and longer technical instructions, even when they do not relate to their field.
Level C2- Students are able to read with ease virtually all forms of the written language, including abstract, structurally or linguistically complex texts such as manuals, specialized articles and literary works.
In terms of SPEAKING, regarding Spoken interaction (the Council of Europe, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, 2015):
Level A1- Students are able to interact in a simple way provided the other person is prepared to repeat or rephrase things at a slower rate of speech and help them formulate what they are trying to say. Learners can ask and answer simple questions in areas of immediate need or on very familiar topics.
Level A2- Students are able to communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar topics and activities. They can handle very short social exchanges, even though they can't usually understand enough to keep the conversation going themselves.
Level B1- Students are able to deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. They can enter unprepared into conversation on topics that are familiar, of personal interest or pertinent to everyday life.
Level B2- Students are able to interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible. They can take an active part in discussions in familiar contexts, accounting for and sustaining their views.
Level C1- Students are able to express themselves fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. They can use language flexibly and effectively for social and professional purposes. They can formulate ideas and opinions with precision and relate their contribution skilfully to those of other speakers.
Level C2- Students are able to take part effortlessly in any conversation or discussion and have a good familiarity with idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms. They can express themselves fluently and convey finer shades of meaning precisely. If learners do have a problem they can backtrack and restructure around the difficulty so smoothly that other people are hardly aware of it.
In terms of SPEAKING, regarding Spoken production (the Council of Europe, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, 2015):
Level A1- Students are able to use simple phrases and sentences to describe where they and the people they know live.
Level A2- Students are able to use a series of phrases and sentences to describe in simple terms their families and other people, living conditions and their educational background
Level B1- Students are able to connect phrases in a simple way in order to describe experiences and events, their dreams, hopes and ambitions. Learners can briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans. They can narrate a story or relate the plot of a book or film and describe their reactions.
Level B2- Students are able to present clear, detailed descriptions on a wide range of subjects related to their field of interest. They can explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.
Level C1- Students are able to present clear, detailed descriptions of complex subjects integrating sub-themes, developing particular points and rounding off with an appropriate conclusion.
Level C2- Students are able to present a clear, smoothly-flowing description or argument in a style appropriate to the context and with an effective logical structure which helps the recipient to notice and remember significant points.
In terms of WRITING, regarding the Writing process (the Council of Europe, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, 2015) one may highlight the following:
Level A1- Students are able to write a short, simple postcard, for example sending holiday greetings. They can fill in forms with personal details, for example, they can enter their name, nationality and address on a hotel registration form.
Level A2- Students are able to write short, simple notes and messages. They can write a very simple personal letter, for example thanking someone for something.
Level B1- Students are able to write simple connected texts on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. They can write personal letters describing experiences and impressions.
Level B2- Students are able to write clear, detailed texts on a wide range of subjects related to their interests. They can write an essay or report, passing on information or giving reasons in support of or against a particular point of view. They can write letters highlighting the personal significance of events and experiences.
Level C1- Students are able to express themselves in a clear, well-structured text, expressing points of view at some length. They can write about complex subjects in a letter, an essay or a report, underlining what they consider to be the salient issues. Learners can select a style appropriate to the reader in mind.
Level C2- Students are able to write clear, smoothly-flowing texts in an appropriate style. They can write complex letters, reports or articles which present a case with an effective logical structure which helps the recipient to notice and remember significant points. They can write summaries and reviews of professional or literary works.
2.2. Basic principles in designing internal assessment at primary and secondary level
It is known that the ultimate objective of assessment is that of improving and developing student learning. For achieving this goal, schools have to set up their own internal assessment policies in order to be aligned with the curricula offered. Also, it should provide a rich source of assessment information, having the capacity to provide feedback in order to improve student learning. Proper record-keeping together with a systematic analysis of “assessment results help generate evidence-based feedback for school-based curriculum planning. (Akker, van den., 2003: 11). The following points should be mentioned and taken into consideration:
Because every student is unique and each one possesses a different capacity of learning, a teacher should develop his multiple intelligences and potentials. The Report of Learning to Learn – The Way Forward in Curriculum Development (2001) recommended that there should be a change in assessment practices and schools should emphasize more the “Assessment for Learning” considered an integral part of the learning, teaching and assessment cycle.
Assessments should be on the same line with student learning. They should make reference to the curriculum goals and outcomes. Performing internal assessments sets fundaments on the criteria derived directly from different learning objectives or outcomes.
Each assessment strategy has its own limits. A variety of assessment strategies will truly reflect students’ progress, highlighting their performance. For example, written examinations may not reflect very well students’ performance in laboratory, creative and practical work. “A proper assessment strategy should, therefore, be involved in order to cater for the different learning aims being assessed”. ( Akker, van den., 2003: 12)
“Students in the same class have different abilities. Adopting different assessment strategies could be important for them and for teachers in order to address different levels of performance and learner diversity. In this regard, they will provide equal opportunities for students to demonstrate what they achieved”. ( Akker, van den., 2003: 12)
Students should be provided with ample opportunities to receive timely feedback, usually through dialogue in the classroom, to motivate them and guide their future learning.
Assessment for learning could be used to track student progress over time, build up students’ confidence in themselves and help students to take responsibility for their own learning. This, in turn, would lay a foundation for life-long learning.
To enable the formative use of information gathered by summative assessment, constructive and timely feedback on students’ performance should be provided along with their results in tests and examinations.
Appropriate assessment formats and methods can help to provide quality feedback to students and a more positive backwash effect on students learning.
Certain educational research on the characteristics of good practice for assessing student learning summarizes the following set of principles:
Assessment’s primary purpose is the one of improving learners performance
In this respect, good assessment is founded on a vision of the types of learning teacher most value for students and the best manner of achieving these.” It sets out to measure what matters most”. (Stephens, D., 2003:44)
Assessment should be a pillar of understanding of the manner students learn
“Assessment has most effectiveness in the moment when it highlights the fact that learning represents a complex process that is multi-dimensional, integrated and revealed in the students' performance over time”. (Stephens, D., 2003:44)
Assessment should not be something to add afterwards, but an integral component of the course design
“Teaching and various learning elements of each program should be designed in full knowledge of the sorts of assessment students will undertake, and vice versa, so that students can demonstrate what they have learned and see the results of their efforts”. (Stephens, D., 2003:45)
Good assessment provides useful information to credibly report to parents on student achievements
A variety of assessment methods fit for purpose provides teachers with evidence of what students know and can do, and their particular strengths and weaknesses. Then, teachers can report to parents on how far their children have progressed during the year, where they are compared to the relevant standards, and what the students, parents and teachers need to do to improve the students' performance.( OECD, 2005)
Good assessment requires clarity of purpose, goals, standards and criteria
Assessment works best when it is based on clear statements of purpose and goals for the course, the standards which students are expected to achieve and the criteria against which we measure success. Assessment criteria, in particular, need to be understandable and explicit so students know what teachers expect of them from each type of assessment they encounter. Staff, students, parents and the community should all be able to see why assessment is being used and the reasons for choosing each individual form of assessment in its particular context.
Good assessment requires a variety of measures
It is generally the case when a single assessment instrument will not tell us all we need to know about the students' achievement and how it can be improved. We, therefore, need to be familiar with a variety of assessment tools so we can match them closely to the type of information we seek. (Communications Division, 2001)
Assessment methods used should be valid, reliable and consistent
Assessment instruments and processes should be chosen so as to directly measure what they intend to measure. They should include the possibility of moderation between teachers, to enhance objectivity and contribute to shared understanding of the judgements. (Communications Division, 2001)
Assessment requires attention to outcomes and processes
Information about the outcomes students have achieved is very important. It is notable to know where each student ends up, but also to receive information about their experiences along the way and, in particular, the kind of effort that led to these outcomes. (Communications Division, 2001)
Assessment works best when it is ongoing rather than episodic
Student learning is best fostered when assessment involves a linked series of activities undertaken over time, so that progress is monitored towards the intended course goals and the achievement of relevant standards.
Assessment for improved performance involves feedback and reflection
All assessment methods should allow students to receive feedback on their learning and performance so assessment serves as a developmental activity aimed at improving student learning. Assessment should also provide students and staff with opportunities to reflect on both their practice and their overall learning.
Schools should consider that excess drilling can reduce learning and teaching time, and increase unnecessarily teachers’ workload, putting undue pressure on students. “Institutions are advised to adopt some public assessment models in their internal assessment practices”. (Ciara O’Farrell, 2009:20)
A range of assessment practices, such as learning and assessment tasks, activities, projects, portfolios and reviewing assignments should be used to promote the attainment of various learning outcomes. These practices help to provide feedback on students’ understanding of concepts, as well as their knowledge and development of their generic and subject-specific skills. Schools may refer to the individual curriculum and assessment (C&A) guides for good practices.
Assessment should not be confined to activities that are conducted only for checking purposes but should include feedback for improvement.
Examples of assessment tasks:
With primary and secondary school learners, great examples of collecting information may be the following:
Pupils are asked to draw a face at the end of an activity or lesson, thus showing how confident they are about that certan topic. If they feel ready to move on, they can draw a Smiley face, a neutral face representsthat they are fairly confident while a sad face is for their need to review if they are not confident enough.
Another efficient way of getting feedback is that of using the Traffic Lights.The learners are given red, yellow and green cards and at different points, they are asked to choose a card and put it on their desks to show hw much they have understood.
The pupils really enjoy using their thumbs in order to show whether they have understood or not, thumbs up is for I understand; thumbs half way, I understand some and thumbs down for I don’t understand.
In the fourth grade, for example, they may be asked to write a sentence to summarise what they know about the topic at the start or at the end of the lesson. They can focus on what, why or how.
The secondary school students may share with their partner or parteners three things they have learnt.
What they considered being easy
What they found difficult
Something they would love to learn during their next classes.
Asking questions helps teachers identify and correct misunderstandings and gaps in knowledge. In this case, the most appropriate types of questions might be open questins, as tey encourage the use of thinking skills, communication and eliciting information.
Why is the use of Present Perfect Simple important in this sentence?
What if…..?
Can you explain…..?
Instead of asking “Is sugar uncountable?”, the teacher may ask “Why isn’t sugar countable?”,- then, students recall and they also provide a reason.
When asking questions, it would be useful to use might as it suggests many possible answers and giving them to think in silence before answering will help elicit the best answers.
Students must be given time to make corrections and improvements. This gives learners time to focus on the feedback that the teacher or their peers have given them, and make corrections. It also tells learners that feedback is valuable and worth spending time on. And, it gives them the opportunity to improve in a supportive environment. It would be better not to erase the corrections because seeing how they have corrected and improved their written work before they hand it to you would be helpful. Don’t let them use erasers, instead tell them to make corrections using a different colour so you can see them, and what they have done to make improvements.
(https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/assessment-learning-activities)
2.3 Teaching-Learning-Assessing
Ongoing Assessment
A teacher has to collect constantly any type of information, from informal to formal one, regarding the topics and the methods students choose to learn from. Teachers assess students by checking their assignments and tests but, at the same time, they suggest activities in small groups. Thereby, teachers are able to observe students participating in different types of activities, such as structured or unstructured ones. Teachers could obtain valuable information in order to keep in touch with children, parents or to meet different benchmarks and standards. At the time they collect the right type of acquaintance and use it efficiently, “teachers help their students grow as learners and thinkers”. (Alderson, Charles, 2000:82)
Contextually, assessment is interchangeable with evaluation. Assessment is a term to be used when referring to all methods and strategies in order to provide information about children learning. Formative assessment type provides students with feedback from teachers about how they handle during classes, throughout the process of learning. Through assessment, teachers will receive information about students’ knowledge and skills. (Littlewood, W., 1981).There is an instructional cycle highlighting ongoing assessment for both teachers and learners, providing information to them. Teachers can use formative assessment for:
providing feedback to teacher and student;
assessing learners’ previous readiness and knowledge;
monitoring progress;
encouraging and supporting group collaboration and self-direction;
checking for understanding;
demonstrating skills;
encouraging and supporting meta-cognition.
The essential purpose of assessment is to provide teachers the information they need in order to guarantee quality teaching. Assessment represents the basis of project-learning, providing, at the same time, providing students the appropriate knowledge. While integrating assessment in different units of teaching, teachers discover interesting and new things about learners’ needs. In this regard, they can develop the process of instruction in order to improve students’ achievement. Quoting McMillan, “when assessment is integrated with instruction, it informs teachers about what activities and assignments will be most useful, what level of teaching is most appropriate, and how summative assessments provide diagnostic information.” (McMillan, J.H., 2003: 35)
Assessment during instruction
While teaching a specific topic, teachers must account for different purposes of assessment, such as:
teachers have to encourage collaboration and self-direction;
teachers have to monitor students’ progress;
teachers have to check for understanding;
teachers have to encourage meta-cognition;
There are many types of informal assessment, respectively checklists, anecdotal observations, learning logs and even conferences. This way, teachers should collect information about students’ thinking, about their skills’ development, but also about the way they understand a certain topic. Teachers should assure students’ progress, information helping them to make a difference in the process of instruction. This difference can be done by immediate decisions. A good example in this respect is to review a certain concept or topic before going further with a scheduled activity. Also,” revising a sequence of activities could give advantages to the teacher in discovering students’ interest”. (McMillan, J.H., 2003: 42)
Knowing the opinion that learners have on a topic also helps the teacher to adapt instruction to individual learning differences so that he will ensure that all learners understand the main ideas, by practicing them. “They also master each topic component as they progress and develop their knowledge toward the final aim” (Guskey, 2005: 33).
Teachers can give help to students by means of individual feedback or, why not, flexible grouping. Children will develop their critical, objective or subjective thinking from the point they are in a certain moment to where they need to be. An efficient teaching is when the instruction process that meets students’ individual needs, has a final purpose: to provide them confidence, motivation, experience and so on.
Assessment has many purposes, but by far, the most important of them is represented by the development of a special category of learners, respectively the independent, the thoughtful and self-directed ones. Sometimes, students only get feedback from their teachers only after finishing a unit through a final test. (Brumfit, C., 1984) Also, by the time they find out the mark, the class has already approached another subject, and this way, the student has insignificant interest or opportunity in making corrections upon his mistakes or misunderstandings, not to mention the improvement of his own skills.
Assessment after Instruction
After finishing a unit, students should demonstrate what they have learned. On the one hand, teachers would find out if their students understood the topic. On the other hand they need to know what pupils have learned and what they will keep with them across the units. This proceeding signifies assessment after instruction: teachers should ask students to show that they understood the subject and to demonstrate their skill. Other types of assessment after instruction are long-term ones, appropriate examples being ongoing conferences or portfolios. They give both learners and teachers the opportunity to connect units of study, even if there are different topic areas and individual objects. Assessment after instruction helps students evaluate their own learning and it also gives teachers and schools important information for long-term planning over an extended period of time. (Laura Greenstein, 2010)
Creating a Classroom Culture of Learning
There are times when teachers plan a unit of study, thinking about the activities they could develop, the final papers or tests they should create and grade. In the moment formative assessment is considered to be a daily, repeated occurrence, teachers will think about what learners are doing than in terms of what teachers are doing. Instead of thinking or even saying, “I will explain the game and play concept to my students using an animated video and a demonstration,” a professional teacher will ask himself, “What type of activity can I ask my students to do in order to show me what they understand about game and play concept?” Then, the teacher conceives ways of helping students to build their own vision about the topic, their understanding, by monitoring the way they learn. In this type of classroom, teacher's behaviour is only instructional as the objective is represented by student learning. (Laura Greenstein, 2010)
When there is a good connection between students, teachers and parents, the pupils will be continually assessed towards the learning aims and progress. In this respect, the internal setting will be more focused on learning. “Children will control more the development of activities, but at the same time, they will take a more proactive approach to learning while their teachers will focus more on learning in classroom and less on teaching.” (Black, et al., 2003: 80).
A good teaching process is based on a learning network represented by a learning cycle. There are four steps in the cycle, observing and collecting facts being the first one. A teacher's daily programme implies continual observations of pupils. “There is always something new to learn about a pupil- the learner you think you know well.”(Jablon et al., 2007:25). When he observes a student’s skills, knowledge and behaviour, he should record his observations in a systematic way in order to analyze the information and to discover what is unique and special about that pupil. “This proceeding represents the basis for creating a positive relationship, teachers planning experiences in order to allow the child to develop”. (Stetson ed al., 2009:38)
The second step of the assessment cycle is represented by the process of analyzing and responding. During this stage, a good teacher will use the information obtained during the previous step in order to give responses to every student and scaffold his learning in an appropriate manner. If a teacher knows what students can do in relation to the final goals of development and learning, he may be able to decide how much support each individual needs, as well as whether the rules and routines of a classroom are appropriate for the group as an assembly. Teachers should use this knowledge only if they consider it helps them to decide when, what and how to realize the teaching process.
The third step of the cycle is evaluating. This one gives help when deciding which goal best describes the student’s skills, knowledge and behaviour. Teachers will be able to determine each pupil’s level of progress in connection to each goal by analyzing and evaluating in a consistent manner their portfolio samples or observation notes.
The fourth step of the assessment cycle, the final one, is represented by summarizing, planning and communicating. Teachers should summarize their knowledge about each student and create plans for individual ones and for groups. Finally, teachers should communicate their results to the learners' parents.
In accordance with the CEFR, processes such as learning, teaching and assessment accommodate different forms. There are many uses of this framework, such as:
Creating a plan for a language learning program regarding:
assumptions in terms of students' previous knowledge;
topic adaptation to earlier learning or to interfaces between many types of education such as primary or lower secondary one, as well as upper secondary and higher or further one;
topic objectives;
topic content.
Planning of language certification regarding:
examinations in terms of content syllabus;
assessment criteria through positive achievement;
avoidance of negative deficiencies.
Planning of a particular type of learning, the self-directed one, including:
growing student’s awareness of his state of knowledge;
self-setting of worthwhile, important and feasible goals;
proper selection of teaching materials;
self-assessment.
Certification and learning programmes:
may be global
may bring students forward the language proficiency and may also give them communicative competence in all dimensions;
may be modular
may improve the students' proficiency in a restricted domain for a particular objective;
may be weighted
may emphasize learning in various directions
may create a profile with an attained higher level in many domains of knowledge and skill in comparison with other ones;
may be partial
may take responsibility just in case of certain activities and skills, leaving others aside
CHAPTER 3. METHODS AND TECHNIQUES OF TESTING AND EVALUATION ENGLISH LANGUAGE KNOWLEDGE OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENT – A Methodological Approach
In the area of testing and evaluation, evaluation refers to the judgment of performance as process or product of change and that why it is the process of testing, appraising and judging achievement, growth, product, process or changes in these, through the use of formal and informal tests and techniques. The process of evaluation is global in conception and application. There are three major components that constitute the concept of evaluation and testing, i.e. Content, Method and Purpose.
Content has different connotation in testing. The general assumption is that whatever has been taught has to be tested. For this reason, whatever is assumed as content for teaching, will become the content for testing, too. In Second Language teaching, structure gets focused as main content.
Method is a means or manner of procedure, especially a regular and systematic way of accomplishing something. The method refers to the plans or procedures followed to accomplish a task or attain a goal. In testing, it refers to the procedure to be followed according to a definite, established, logical or systematic plan.
In the field of testing purpose is defined as the reason for which something exists/happens. It is synonymously used to represent the terms goal, aim and objective. Goal refers to a very broad and ultimate category, aim to a more specific set of purposes, and objective as the most precisely defined ends which can be described in terms of behavioral outcomes in the field of education.
In order to ensure the quality of school results and school progress, a variety of assessment methods and techniques are used. Etymologically, the concept of the method derives from the Greek methodos, which means "the way to …", "a way to follow" to achieve a well-defined and defined goal, through which the didactic framework gives students the opportunity to demonstrate the level of mastery of knowledge, training the various capacities tested by using a variety of instruments appropriate to the intended purpose . The method is the one that outlines the whole process of designing and carrying out the evaluative action, from the establishment of the evaluation objectives to the construction and application of the evaluation tool, through which we intend to obtain the necessary and relevant information for the proposed purposes. From this perspective, the evaluation tool is a constitutive element of the method, through which the student is aware of the task of evaluation, being the one that produces at the product level the methodological option of the teacher for measuring and appreciating the knowledge and skills of the student in a situation well defined educational system.
3.1. Traditional vs modern in assessing English
The part of my paper deals with the two types of assessment of a foreign language (in this case, English), and tries to answer the question: which of the two assessing methods would be most efficient?
Generally, assessment is concerned with the efficiency of the learning system, considered to be a sub-system of the social one. Therefore, assessment is the process which decides upon whether the educational system fulfils its functions. When it comes to assessing a foreign language, well known methodologists of the last decades of the 20th century, Hubbard, Jones, Thornton and Weeler (1983) consider the following as reasons:
identification of problem areas for remedial attention;
giving each student a course grade;
checking on general progress and obtaining feedback;
course or syllabus evaluation;
preparation for public examinations;
institutional requirement for student promotion;
measuring what a student knows;
identification of levels for later group-work;
reinforcement of learning and student motivation;
On his turn, Penny Ur (1996) considers that assessment may be used as a means to:
give the teacher information about where the students are at that moment, to help decide what to teach next;
give the students information about what they know, so that they also have an awareness of what they need to learn or review;
assess for some purpose external to current teaching (a final grade for the course, selection);
motivate students to learn or review specific material;
get a noisy class to keep quiet and concentrate;
provide a clear indication that the class has reached a station in ‘learning’, such as the end of a unit, thus contributing to a sense of structure in the course as a whole;
get students to make an effort (in doing the test itself), which is likely to lead to better results and a feeling of satisfaction;
give students tasks which themselves may actually provide useful review or practice, as well as testing;
provide students with a sense of achievement and progress in their language.
The beginning of the 21st century brought along a new approach in assessing foreign languages. ‘In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the application of assessment procedures that are radically different from traditional forms of assessment. More authentic forms of assessment, such as portfolios, interviews, journals, project work and self or peer-assessment have become increasingly common in the ESL classroom. These forms of assessment are more student-centered in that, besides being an assessment tool, they provide students with a tool to be more involved in their learning and give them a better sense of control for their own learning. Also, authentic assessment procedures (more popularly known as alternative assessment) provide teachers with useful information that can form the basis for improving their instructional plans and practices.
Interest in the use of non-traditional forms of assessment in the classroom reflects the changing paradigm in education in general and in second language teaching in particular. The old paradigm is slowly giving way to the new one:’ (Richard, J.C., Renandya, and W.A.: 335)
Taking a close look, we can notice obvious differences between the two paradigms. Among the differences we can mention that the focus in the case of traditional assessment is on the language and its accuracy, while the nontraditional assessment focuses on the important issue of communication between the members of teaching-learning-assessing process, i.e. the students and the teacher. The skills are no longer assessed separately, since the new approach involves assessing more than one, isolated skill at a time. The traditional assessment dealt with single solutions to certain problems, while the new approach is into multiple, open solutions.
Alternative assessment differs from the traditional one in that it has students show what they can do. ‘Students are evaluated on what they integrate and produce rather than on what they are able to recall and reproduce.’ (Richard, J.C., Renandya, and W.A,:339).
Traditional forms of assessment
Oral assessing
Conceived as a form of a dialogue between teacher-student(s), teacher-class, student(s)- student(s), the oral assessing has, besides its intrinsic value, an instructive function. This is the reason why the oral assessing must not be a mechanical checking and marking operation but an animated activity in which students demonstrate what they have learned, ask for explanations, and therefore take part directly to the instruction process.
There are, though, some less positive aspects to this oral assessing technique: the fact that some of the students find themselves in the situation to answer to difficult question, while others answer to less difficult ones.; some students simply reproduce the lesson while others have to use information given at different stages in the teaching process in order to elaborate a correct answer, and the examples could continue. In spite of all these and taking into consideration that the number of its positive aspects is greater than the number of its less positive ones, teachers still use this form of assessing the students’ knowledge.
Since this form of assessment implies face to face interaction, more care should be taken by the teacher as to the choice of words. Murray (in idem, 352) states some samples of responses to be avoided:
This is not good!
Wow! You can write!
Didn’t you learn anything about writing?
This is great, just great!
This is a mess, just a mess!
I’ve never seen such a bad paper!
I don’t know what I can teach someone who writes like you! (can be used to overprize or ovecriticise)
There are also some comments which might stimulate and encourage work:
What do you plan to work on next?
Where do you think you get off the track?
And you said you had no voice. Tell me how you made this draft so different.
Needless to say how important it is for the students to feel confident and pleased with the work done and also to feel encouraged by the teacher’s approval.
From teaching experience so far, I can say that oral evaluation also has a number of advantages:
the possibility of changing the type of questions and their degree of difficulty depending on the quality of the answers provided by the student;
immediate clarification and correction of student mistakes;
the freedom of manifestation of the student's originality;
the student's direct oral communication.
At the same time, the shortcomings of the oral assessment could be found in:
the examination time is short;
it has a survey character;
it is not convenient for shy students;
questions have different degrees of difficulty.
In order to avoid the survey character of oral assessing, I use a teacher's evaluation booklet for each class in which I have all the grades for oral or written evaluation, portfolios, etc., and the average of 3 notes in the oral evaluation is listed in the class register.
According to the traditional assessment, students can be examined through: off-hand paper, written test paper, independent class-work, homework, oral assessing, tests, and quizzes.
Off-hand paper
It is universally known the fact that the off-hand paper (i. E. the unannounced written paper, from the current lesson) is one of the most used form of assessing in classroom. Teachers believe that the off-hand paper is a good way to evaluate the entire class from the current lesson and it has a double target: to check whether all the students study with regularity and to cover the necessary amount of marks needed.
Off-hand papers are very little used in the context of the reform and by using it I do not intend to surprise an unprepared pupil, but it gives me the opportunity of differentiating the didactic activity on a level groups. I synthesize the results obtained in these papers in individual progress / regression graphs, I also establish criteria for interpreting the scores obtained and, based on the points recorded in the graphs, I impose groups for different treatment. Thus, in group A there are students who scored grades 9 and 10, in group B, those who received 7 and 8, and in group C students who had grades 5 or 6.
Off-hand papers are also used in order to discover the students’ power of concentration and the way in which students are able to handle without the help of the teacher.
After teaching the Present Tense, Continuous Aspect to students in the 5th grade (VD) , I decided to use a off-hand paper in order to see what types of exercises to prepare for the next time and to divede them in groups in order to be more efficient and help those who did not understand the use of this grammar tense.
Test – Present Tense, Continuous Aspect
5th Grade
Name: Date:
Put the verb in brackets in the correct form to make different form of the Present Continuous Tense: (0,20×10=2p)
She (read)………………………………. an English book.
They (listen) …………………………..to rock music.
We (drink) ……………………………..lemonade.
(you, study) ……………………………………….Japanese at the moment?
I (eat) …………………………………a hamburger.
(she, speak) ………………………………..Spanish now?
You (not watch) ………………………………….TV.
It (sleep) ………………………………………….on the sofa.
(I, wear) ……………………………………..a black Tshirt?
They (not go) ……………………………………to school.
II. Arrange the following words to make a sentence in the Present Continuous Tense:
(0,40×5=2p)
1. my glasses.for looking I'm.
2. What reading? of book kind you are
3. Susan is Why crying?
4. for Are waiting me? you
5. at in working is moment. Sweden John the
III. Choose the right form of the verb in the Present Tense, Continuous Aspect:
(0,20×5=1p)
1. I am _______ a sandwich now.
a. eats b. eating c. not eat
2. I am busy right now. I _______ breakfast.
a. am have b. am having c. have
3. My daughter _________ studying English at Kansas University.
a. is b. does c. do
4. _____ you waiting for a bus?
a. Do b. Are c. Is
5. What _____________? It looks delicious.
a. do you drinking b. are you drink c. are you drinking
IV. Find and correct the mistakes in the following sentences: (0,40×5=2p)
1. Jessica reading a comic book right now.
2. They are eat dinner at their favorite restaurant right now.
3. I watching a movie right now, so please be quiet!
4. The baby is cry so loudly! I can’t do my homework!
5.Jackie walking to the park right now with her friends.
V. Complete the sentences with your own ideas, in the Present Continuous Tense:
(0,20×5=2p)
Right now he ………………………………….
We …………………………………………….
Are …………………………………………….?
I’m not ………………………………………….
Is ……………………………………………….?
Note: 1 point granted.
Key:
1. is reading; 2. are listening; 3. are drinking; 4. are you studying; 5. am eating; 6. is she speaking; 7. aren’t watching; 8. is sleeping; 9. am I wearing; 10. are going.
I’m looking for my glasses.
What kind of book are you reading?
Why is Susan crying?
Are you waiting for me?
John is working in Sweden at the moment.
1 – b; 2 – b; 3 – a; 4 – b; 5 – c.
1. is reading; 2. are eating; 3. am watching; 4. is crying; 5. is walking.
All sentences that are grammatically correct; spelling mistakes – 0,05p each.
The test was perceived by the students in the 5th grade as being rather difficult and the results, although satisfactory, showed me that I must place more emphasis on the practice of the present continuous tense. The time limit was of 50 minutes, during which they managed to finish solving all the items. The grade of the class was 7,20. The exercises tested:
students’ability to use the correct form of the present continuous tense
students’ability to use all forms of the tense: affirmative, interrogative, negative
students’ ability to make correct meaningful sentences in the present continuous tense
students’ability to use the vocabulary they have previously learnt.
The grade of the class is good, although there is a 9,52 percentage of students who were not able to complete the tasks and 19,04% of the students solved the items only partially.
The most frequent errors were:
Most of the students do not use either the auxiliary to be in forming the present continuous tense, or the –ing ending.
Some students do not know the typical word ordet of the English sentence: subject, predicate, direct object, place, time.
Some students failed to make correct meaningful sentences, which leads the teacher to the conclusion that this type of exercise is to be used more frequently in the future.
In order to remedy these errors, I must practise more the affirmative form of the present continuous tense, laying stress on the presence of the auxiliary verb to be and the presence of the –ing ending, leting the students create as many sentences as possible, using the vocabuary they already know to activate those words they may have forgotten and to make them feel secure about the usage of this tense.
Written test paper
The written test paper is another important form of assessing. The written test paper is different from the off- hand paper, as it is announced in time for the students to be able to prepare themselves for it. Teachers choose to use this kind of assessing in order to discover the way in which students have assimilated the study material, to have students prepared for the entrance exams, to verify the maximum efficiency of the students, as well as other reasons.
Testing has long been one of the most common assessment methods. In this respect, Bachman and Palmer believed that “language testing may be considered a valid manner to interpret individuals’ language abilities” (Bachman and Palmer ,1996: 8) , but they also claimed that professors must to be aware of the importance of tests’ formulation.(Bachman and Palmer,1996). This way, they forwarded their language testing philosophy:
A good teacher should relate language testing to both language teaching and use.
A good teacher should design his/her tests in order to encourage and enable learners to perform at their highest ability levels.
A good teacher should make considerations of fairness into test design.
A good teacher should humanize the testing process.
A good teacher should demand accountability for test use; hold himself/herself, as well as any others who make use of his/her test, accountable for the way his/her test is being used.
A good teacher should recognize those decisions that are based on test scores and are fraught with dilemmas
Also, in Earl’s opinion, “a test can only contain a limited amount of what has been taught with the instruction” (Earl, 2003:22 – 23), while according to Weeden, Winter and Broadfoot, the results only highlight “what the student can do at the exact time the test is completed”. (Weeden, Winter, & Broadfoot, 2002: 29).
Classroom tests may be given every two or three week. Such tests may be constructed to last the entire class period; in this case optimum learning efficiency requires the teachers to return and discuss the correct test as soon as the class meets again. I have chosen as an example a progress test I used with the students in the 3rd grade (III C) – school year 2017-2018. The test is designed to observe the progress of students after finishing talking about food and drink items and telling the time. They should also integrate proper grammar in order to obtain a high score.
The grading will be made, of course, by means of qualifications, standard verbal expressions which designate certain degrees of accomplishment. There are 4 different qualifications: very well, well, sufficient, insufficient. Each qualification is delineated through performance descriptors. Used at primary level, this kind grades are more easily understood by children.
Progress Test (UNIT 11)
NAME:……………………………………………………….. DATE: …………………………
CLASS: …………………………………………………….. MARK: ……………………….
(Time: 30 minutes)
10 points granted
1. Look, read and match. (10 x 2= 20p)
2. Look and write the word under the picture: (6 x 2p = 12p)
1. 2. 3.
………………………… ………………………… ………………………
4. 5. 6
………………………… …………………. …………………………….
3. Read and circle. (6 x 3p = 18p)
1. Is there some / any milk in the fridge?
2. There aren’t some / any chairs in the room.
3. There is some / any bread on the table.
4. Are there some / any birds in the tree?
5. There are some / any children in the park.
6. There isn’t some / any butter in the fridge.
4. Read and draw lines: (4 x 5p = 20p)
5. Answer the questions: (4 x 2p =8 p)
6. Write a short paragraph about your favourite meal. (12p)
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Key:
1. (10 x 2 = 20p)
2. (6 x 2 = 12p)
bread
sandwich
tea
ice cream
pineapple
hot dog
3. ( 6 x 3 = 18p)
any
any
some
any
some
any
4. ( 4 x 5 = 20p)
7:00
3:30
9:15
10:45
5. (4 x 2 = 8p)
1. – 4 : Yes, I do. / No, I don’t.
6. proper grammar and appropriate expressive vocabulary. (12p)
0-40p =Insufficient (I)
41-60= Sufficient (S)
61-80= Well (B)
81-100= Very Well (FB)
LESSON PLAN
Name: Coman Valentina
School: Mihai Eminescu Pitești
Date: June 2nd 2016
Grade: 3rd C
Level: Beginners
No. of students: 30
Time of lesson: from 9:00 to 9:45
Coursebook: Fairyland 3B
Objectives:
By the end of the lesson the pupils should be better able to express ideas about meals, food and drink items integrating proper grammar and appropriate expressive vocabulary.
By the end of the lesson the pupils should be better able to tell the time.
Aims:
To apply previously learnt concepts;
To give students practice in using the structures;
To provide written consolidation.
To obtain feedback
To monitor pupils’ progress.
Materials:
The test paper sheets
The whiteboard
Issuing homework: 1’
Ex. 3,4 page 69
Next lesson:
Alvin’ Day
Quizzes
The essence of the quiz is brevity. In contrast to the test, it may be given unannounced. Frequent quizzes encourage students to devote time regularly to their (language) study moreover; the quiz enables the teacher to acquaint students with types of items that can be used later in tests. Students may be told to expect a quiz every period; although on some days the quiz may be omitted. A written or oral quiz may be given at the end of the period (to highlight work done in class).
After teaching numbers I use quizzes in order to get feedback. An example can make use of numbers and money.
Money Quiz
Write the amount of money as a number, as shown in the example.
Example: Fifty-five pounds thirty-three = £55.33
1. One pound twenty = £_______________
2. Four pounds fifty = £_______________
3. Nine pounds ninety-nine = £_______________
4. Twelve pounds fifty-two = £_______________
5. Seventeen pounds and three pence = £_______________
6. Thirty-five pounds sixty= £ _______________
7. Forty-eight pounds eleven = £_______________
8. Ninety-nine pounds sixty-three = £_______________
9. Three hundred and fifty pounds seventy = £_______________
10. Eight thousand and fourteen pounds eight- nine = £_______________
Alternative forms of assessment
Some of the most important forms of alternative assessment are being described next:
Portfolio
Journal entries
Dialogue journals
Project work
Conferencing
Self-assessment
Peer-assessment
Portfolio Assessment
Applebee and Langer (Applebee, Langer, 30) define the portfolio as ‘the cumulative collection of the work students have done.’ The portfolio is the traditional ‘writing folder’ in which students keep their work, which is to be presented to the teacher at a time fixed in advance. The portfolio is most commonly used when assessing the skill of writing, since it contains papers written by the student on different subjects, or reviews, or research papers, etc. If necessary, the skill of reading and listening could be assessed by means of portfolio if the students are asked to deliver papers on reading and listening comprehension, but this, involves mostly writing.
Currently, portfolio assessment is one of the most popular alternative methods “where instruction and assessment are integrated” (Hamp-Lyons, 2007:493). According to McKay, portfolios are still considered very important in assessment in secondary level and they are “widely advocated” (McKay, 2006: 159). In some schools, portfolios are the unique method that is being used for assessment while in others, they are used in combination with other ones (Gronlund, 2003:157). Portfolios are advantageous for assessment because there is a variety of evidence they can show in order to judge students’ performance, as following:
“Learning progress in time.
Learners’ current best work.
Comparison between best and past work.
Self-assessment skills development.
Reflective learning development.
Students’ level and pace of work.
Learning’s clear evidence to parents.
Collaboration between teachers and students.” (Gronlund, 2003: 158).
However, in Gronlund’s opinion, applying portfolios represents time consuming and “demands substantial teacher-student conferencing if it is supposed to be a useful tool” (Gronlund, 2003: 159). He emphasized that “portfolio’s structure and students’ overall performance” (Gronlund, 2003: 163) need to be evaluated.
Project work
Such activities have students working on some projects, involving them in doing research on certain subjects. Since it is a project, it takes a larger amount of time and it sends students to the library to search for information. This type of assessment could assess the student’s ability in writing and reading, and has been used quite commonly lately.
Self-assessment
Self-assessment is the type of assessment that should never cease to be performed by the student. The student ought to permanently focus on the information he receives, on the way he receives it, on his ability to prove his knowledge. The student should consider himself to be his own ‘first judge’ and treat this now position as objectively as possible. In the recent years, portfolios of student performance and products have gained support from teachers, who view them as a way to collect evidence of a student’s learning. For many teachers, portfolios are an attractive alternative to more traditional assessment methods. They engage the student in the investigation of a real- world problem by gathering and sharing information, communicating ideas and findings, refining perceptions and creating artifacts.
Self-assessment is the most important strategy which formative assessment is founded on, and in fact, in Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, and Wiliam’s opinion, “it is of esential value for formative assessment development that self-assessment be practiced by learners” (Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, Wiliam, 2003:18). According to McKay (2006), this type of assessment is a manner to persuade students for focusing on their own learning in order to understand the process in a better way and to accept its’ responsibility” (McKay, 2006:165 – 166). In case of any learning, students must understand their learning goals as well as how best to work for reaching them and “self-assessment enhances learning” (Black and Wiliam, 2006a:15).
Peer-assessment
Peer-assessment is also one of the methods used in formative assessment, and as Black et al. considered, it is “uniquely valuable” (Black et. al, 2003:50) and “may represent a prior requirement for self-assessment” (Black et. al, 2003:50). Many researchers suggested that peer collaboration during classroom activities brings benefits to student learning, and they sustain with evidence from various research. Additionally, evidence highlights peer-assessment’s beneficial effects; however, it also supposes that in order to use peer-assessment, “learners have to know its manner of execution” (Saito, 2008:553 – 554).
The use of self-assessment in my own didactic approach is permanent and it goes from verbal self-appreciation to more or less controlled self-evaluation. To build self-evaluation capacities, I use the peer-scoring in the sense of consulting colleagues of the evaluated student, and the self-grading of the evaluated one who motivates his/her choice. At first, they encountered difficulties, but resuming their assessment they became accustomed and everything went well.
In order to achieve an effective self-evaluation, it is necessary for the student to know, even at a minimal level, the specific competences and the curricular performance standards to be able to properly direct the learning effort.
The alternative approach to assessing a foreign language is a new fashion in the teaching-learning process, since it involves many coordinates. The teacher and the students, find it rather difficult to deal with the changes ‘imposed’ by the new methods of assessment, but, still, they approve to it and support it as they find it to be the natural way to go about. Yet, one should bear in mind that no change is produced overnight and that such a process might need time and patience. In the meantime, an interaction, a blending the two methods, the traditional one and the alternative one could be the best solution.
3.2. Testing the four skills
When we say that a student speaks a language fluently, we usually mean that they have a high level in all four skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing. But, as any teacher knows, learners often have strengths or weaknesses in particular skills, and in some cases they can achieve high levels in, for example, reading and writing, while not being able to speak or listen at a comparable level.
The ability to use English in a variety of contexts involves multiple language skills and therefore testing the four skills enhances the accuracy of a test. If we want to assess the student’s speaking ability, we must get them to speak and the best way to test their writing ability is to get them to write. The same applies to all the other skills. We can’t infer ability in one skill (e.g. speaking) from performance in another (e.g. listening), or from using tests of language knowledge, e.g. grammar, vocabulary, as proxies for communicative language ability. Therefore, if we want to accurately assess communicative language ability, we need to include tasks which elicit a wide range of skills related to communicative language.
The Common European Framework of Reference (2001) extends the definition of communicative language ability into five skills, and divides speaking into two skills: spoken production and spoken interaction. This is based on the evidence that these two skills are different, since one involves only monologue-type speech and the other involves being both a speaker and a listener at the same time. A test of communicative language, therefore, needs to include both spoken production and spoken interaction.
Learners’ development in the four skills is often unbalanced and testing only some language skills may give an inaccurate picture. It is usually common for language abilities across the four skills to be interrelated.
Learners’ development of the four skills can be unbalanced, e.g. a learner could be strong in reading, but weak in listening or writing or speaking. Research has suggested that the ability to speak is distinct from the ability to read/listen/write (Powers 2010, Sawaki et al 2009). Therefore, a proficient reader/writer/listener may not necessarily be a proficient speaker.
In order to check the student’s communicative performance we need to devise tests which actually measure his capacity to communicate. A structuraily competent leamer can be communicatively incompetent. He may have developed the ability to produce grammatically correct sentences, yet he is unable to perform a simple communicative task, such as, making a phone call or asking for directions.
There are some aspects which must be taken into account while preparing a pragmatically vald item:
the authenticity of the material used;
the contextualization: who is communicating to whom, where and when;
the purpose: why and what for;
the information gap: students should be allowed to have a free choice on what they are
going to say, pictures should be unknown to them, information should be new.
Teaching and assessment methods used will differ between instructors and be largely dependent upon then needs of the students. The four skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking) are important in any classroom and the role of the four skills is vast and constantly developing. In relation to the second language learning classroom, it is important that instructors consider these four skills separately and consider the students underlying knowledge of each skill, as well as ways in which student proficiency may be assessed
In the next part of the paper we shall see pragmatically valid tasks involving the four skills.
a) writing activities:
letter writing (replies, applications for jobs or for courses, magazine subscriptions, personal letters about one’s holidays, etc.);
summaries;
paraphrases (provide a much simpler version of a passage);
narratives (first day at school);
note-taking.
b) reading activities:
proof reading;
reading for enjoyment;
reading for information: telephone directory, dictionaries, manuals, guide books, trave1 brochures, newspapers, magazines, journals, etc.;
reading aloud: radio broadcasts, stories for children;
c) speaking and listening activities:
oral interviews: narrating previous experience, holiday travels;
making and answering a phone call;
asking for information (how to get to the police station, etc.);
discussing one’s point of view on a variety of topics (divorce, marriage, nuclear weapons, etc.);
describing the education system of our country, etc.
For the present paper I have chosen some examples of communicative test items involving the four skills and some tests tests that I used to evaluate my students
Testing Listening
The following is a useful example I use with the first graders towards the end of the school year to get them used to tests. The test is taken from Fairyland Starter – Resource Pack, written by Jenny Dooley and virginia Evans.
The listening skill is very important in teaching young learners, being part of every single lesson I teach. Pupils receive the sheets of paper and the most important is that I usually explain more than once what they have to do.
The pupils focus on the first exercise and listen to my instructions. They circle the correct picture.
one – cat
two –cow
three –dog
four –hen
five –sheep
six- horse
(6 marks)
Then, for the next exercise the pupils listen to my instructions and draw lines to match.
one – I can run.
two –I can fly.
three –I can swim.
four –I can jump.
(4 marks)
It is important to note that listening is not a passive skill. Listening is difficult to assess qualitatively, but is a key factor in authentic assessment as it is used as a device for the other three task-based assessment types. Listening often requires interaction between speakers; the listener must interpret what is being said and assign meaning to the grammar and vocabulary used.
Testing Speaking
Speaking is probably the most difficult skill to test in that it involves a combination of skills that may have no correlation with each other, and which do not lend themselves to objective testing. In addition, what can be understood is a function of the listener's background and ability as well as those of the speaker. Another difficulty is separating the listening skill from the speaking skill. In spite of the difficulties in testing speaking, it can be very beneficial in that it encourages the teaching of speaking in class. Reading aloud, conversational exchanges, and tests using visual material as stimuli are common test items for testing speaking. Oral interviews, role play tests, and group or pair activities are also useful. One of the great difficulties in testing speaking is the assessment and its scoring. If possible, the speaking tasks should be recorded and the scoring done from the tape. Aspects of speaking that might be considered in the assessment scale are grammar, pronunciation, fluency, content, organization, and vocabulary.
There are different types of conversional exchanges I use in the classroom. A type of test that my students really enjoy is when they are given a particular situation and instructed to respond in a certain way or another type without guidance and they can respond freely.
Situations
Ex. Mary has been working for the same company for ten years. She is tired of her job and would like to do something more interesting. (She wishes she could find a more interesting job.)
Ex. It has been raining since yesterday. I want to go to the swimming pool this afternoon. (I wish it would stop raining.)
Ex. A friend of yours has been tired a lot recently. What do you say to her? (Maybe you should be getting more rest.), etc.
A great opportunity to test speaking is by using visual aids: pictures, maps, diagrams, and other types of visual material can be used to test speaking without requiring the student to comprehend written or spoken material. Through careful selection of the material, the teacher can control the vocabulary and, to some extent, the grammatical structures required. Various types of material are appropriate for this type of test, depending on the language I want to elicit. One common type of stimulus material is a series of pictures which tell a story, often with a few sentences of. This requires the student to put together a coherent narrative. A variation on this is to give the pictures in random order of the narrative to a group of students.
The following pictures show what happened to Jim when he decided to take his pet to the vet. Look at the pictures and tell the story using the past simple. (The source of the pictures: Reading and Writing Targets)
The main objective was to get them to speak, but I also intended to include grammar by making them recall the past tense simple, which was previously taught.
Another type of test is a role play. In a role play the students are given information on which to base a role play, and they are evaluated on their ability to carry out the task in the role play. For example, the role play might be getting information about course requirements. Role plays require the student to use various functions that he/she might need in real communication.
An example of such an activity is The Wedding Party. In the text book Reward for Intermediate students, there is a lesson All Dressed in Red about weddings and vocabulary related to them. As a form of assessment I use a role play test. Each student is given a role card and as they are doing the role-play I take notes of language errors and good use of the target language. After they finish, I do a quick feedback on the errors or language I have taken notes of.
ROLE CARDS
(www.onestopenglish.com)
One of the great difficulties in testing speaking is, of course, the assessment. It is necessary to develop a system of assessment that can be applied as objectively as possible, though it is probably never possible to avoid some subjectivity in assessment. The scale can be one general scale for overall speaking ability, or it can be divided between several aspects of the skill of speaking, such as pronunciation, grammar, organization, etc. The scale also depends on the speaking task that is used for the test. A test that uses public speaking as the task would be different from one that uses a group discussion.
A general scale might be as follows:
There is no communication possible
The communication is limited to short utterances, almost entirely memorized conversational elements.
The student's communication is limited to short utterances and depends in part on previously memorized conversational elements with hesitations and grammatical errors.
The student produces numerous grammatical errors and hesitations, and these occasionally interfere with communication. The utterances are short and connected.
The student produces numerous grammatical errors and hesitations, but these do not interfere greatly with communication. The utterances are long and connected.
The communication is generally fluent and grammatically correct with only occasional errors in grammar or pronunciation.
The student’s spoken communication is fluent, appropriate, and grammatically correct, with few if any errors.
Testing Reading
Good readers enjoy reading, get better at it, read more, and consequently improve both their reading skills and their general language ability. Although when children have difficulties with reading, they start to dislike it, read less, don’t improve, and they have more reading problems and grow to dislike it even more.To prevent these negative attitudes, we need to help children to improve their reading skills and learn to enjoy reading from the very beginning.As I believe the assessment should be a continuation of the work done in the classroom, I recommend that reading assessment be done in an interesting, contextualized, fun, and authentic way. If reading is assessed in a positive and child-friendly way it will not create negative feelings in children. On the contrary, it can help them realize that it is important and may result in more extensive reading in the English lesson.
I like lollipops
Level: beginners
Class: 2nd C
Time: 10 minutes
Description: The children read the sentences and match them to the appropriate picture
Language: Food vocabulary: jam, chocolate, sweets, lollipops, cake, carrots, potatoes, peas, tomatoes
Skills: Reading-comprehending simple sentences
Assessment criteria: The children should be able to recognize the written form of the previously taught vocabulary and understand sentences.
Text book: Fairyland 2B
Read and match in your notebook.
A I don’t like chocolate. I like jam.
B I like cake and lollipops.
C I don’t like cake. I don’t like sweets.
D I like carrots. I like chocolate.
E I like jam. I don’t like potatoes.
F I like carrots. I don’t like cake.
G I don’t like peas. I like lollipops.
H I don’t like jam. I like tomatoes.
Reading is a difficult skill to assess. However Valencia (1990) gives a practical example of an effective assessment method. She provides a portfolio approach, and in this way, reading is developed in conjunction with writing skills. Valencia states “it encourages us to use many different ways to evaluate learning, and it has the integrity and validity tha[t] no other type of assessment offers (p. 338). In this approach, students are able to select their best work to include in their portfolio, which also leads the student to self-assess and consider their strengths as well as areas where they need further guidance.
Testing Writing
Writing in a foreign language is very difficult. It presupposes mastery of a number of language areas such as spelling, grammar, and vocabulary, as well as skills like handwriting and punctuation. This is probably why writing is usually not a favourite activity with young learners. For this reason writing needs to be made creative, communicative, and enjoyable.This is especially important for young children, who are motivated by interest in the language, what they can do with it, and by how much fun they have in their language class.
Tasks for assessing primary and secondary children’s writing abilities should be based on interesting and creative writing activities. They should represent realistic and authentic situations and generate interest and enjoyment. It is relatively easy to assess writing because in most cases the writing is done by a large number of children at the same time and does not require any other materials or technology. A piece of paper is often all they need. As a bonus, much of what is produced as part of the assessment is immediatly ready to be included in the portfolio.
What are you wearing?
Level: beginners
Class: 3rd C
Time: 10 minutes
Description: The children write sentences about what they are wearing
Language: Clothes vocabulary previously taught
Skills: Writing: guided writing
Aim: to check if students can describe what they or their classmates are wearing at the moment of speaking
Assessment criteria: The children should be able use the vocabulary about clothes.
Text book: Fairyland 3B
Draw a picture of yourself.
Write sentences:
My Clothes
I am wearing …………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………….
My deskmate is wearing………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Although instructors must be able to separate and assess each task-based type alone as well as different types of input, they also must remember that the different types can be used in connection with one another, and listening is often a device used in reading, writing, and speaking. While spoken and written language, as well as reading usage, is important to fluency and acquisition of vocabulary, it is equally important to note that each of these tasks require the learner be able to listen and construct meaning based on the vocabulary and syntax being provided.
Test Techniques for Testing Overall Ability
For the present paper I have chosen two test techniques that I often use with my students in order to assess their overall ability. A communicative test is one which is based not only on a selection of items chosen on linguistic grounds alone, but on the learner’s needs and requirements to use the language. For example, if I use an item such as: “In the following list tick the words that rhyme: sit -seat -feet -sheet” (Davies, 1979), the ability to distinguish sounds is being used only for the sake of it and not to perform a communicative task. Whereas in a dictation, for instance, the testee must be able to understand the meaning of what is being dictated so as to write it appropriately.
There are severa1 situations in real life where dictation takes place: dictation of letters, addresses, telephone messages, instructions, notes, etc. Dictation, therefore, can be considered a communicative procedure and it has the advantage of involving listening ability. Although they are easy to create and administer, they are …
… not easy to score and…
…they are time-consuming.
With poorer students scoring becomes tedious.
Partial-dictation may be considered as a better alternative since it is easier for both the test taker and the scorer.
Oller (1979: 267) suggests that dictation can be used in varied forms:
a) standard dictation;
b) partial dictation, one which combines dictation with cloze procedure: some portions of the text are deleted and the examinee must fill in the missing parts while listening to the complete version;
c) dictation with some kind of background noise;
d) dictation-composition, one in which the student listens to a passage, takes down
some notes and then tries to rewrite it.
Another valid form of testing is the cloze technique. There are always situations when one has to read a letter with illegible handwriting or a photocopy whose printing has not come out very well or listen to people talking in a noisy place, or understand the words of a song. The procedure consists of deleting every 5th, 6th, 7th, etc. word of a text and making the student fill in the gaps with appropriate words, such as in the following example:
It is true that persons . . . view the treatment of mental . . . from a clinical perspective tend . . . explain socioeconomic and ethnic differences . . . biological terms (Oller, 1979:341).
For the 5th and 6th graders the words are given for them to use appropriately. This is an example of a cloze test used for 5th graders.
Fill in the text with the correct missing words: lying, riding, suntan, lovely, dangerous, photos, bored, waves, first, having. (20 points)
Dear Chris,
The weather is ……(1)……………on the island of Zakynthos. You can’t get ………(2)…….here and I’m taking lots of …………(3)……for you. Take the……(4)…… one, for example. Can you see me there? I’m ………(5)………an inflatable dinghy with my mum. Can you see the big……(6)………. that are crashing the dinghy? Don’t worry, they are not………(7)……. In the second photo, we are at a restaurant ………(8)……….seafood. And in the last picture I am ……(9)………….on the beach and I’m getting a…(10)……….. Aren’t holidays a treat? I must go now but I’ll write again soon.
Take care.
Love, Jack.
The 7th and 8th graders are not given the words. The examples below are the ones I suggested for the Olympiad in May 2017, the first one for Standard English and the second one for intensive study.
Example 1
I. Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only ONE word in each space. (10 x 2,5p = 25 points )
Who hasn’t heard of Robinson Crusoe? The main character of Daniel Defoe’s novel, Robinson Crusoe, is a young sailor, who is shipwrecked on a desert (1) ………………, where he spends the next twenty-eight years.
Robinson’s appearance, after years on the island, shows (2)……………………. difficult his life is. His face is rough and sunburnt from years in the hot (3)……………….., while his fair hair and beard are dirty. His ragged (4)……………. are made from animal skin.
Crusoe’s personal qualities (5) ………………… him overcome the difficulties he faces. Firstly, he is full of imagination. He finds clever ways to make (6)………….. things he needs. (7) ……………………..example, he uses coconut shells for pots and (8) …………………………. a house from wood and stone. He is also very determined and brave, and never gives (9)……………….. the struggle to survive. He shows his bravery when he saves a prisoner, Man Friday, from (10) ……………………killed by savage natives.
Key:
I. Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only ONE word in each space. (10 x 2.5p = 25 points )
Who hasn’t heard of Robinson Crusoe? The main character of Daniel Defoe’s novel, Robinson Crusoe, is a young sailor, who is shipwrecked on a desert (1) ….ISLAND…, where he spends the next twenty-eight years.
Robinson’s appearance, after years on the island, shows (2)…..HOW…. difficult his life is. His face is rough and sunburnt from years in the hot (3)….SUN…, while his fair hair and beard are dirty. His ragged (4)…CLOTHES… are made from animal skin.
Crusoe’s personal qualities (5) ….HELP…. him overcome the difficulties he faces. Firstly, he is full of imagination. He finds clever ways to make (6)….THE…. things he needs. (7) ….FOR….example, he uses coconut shells for pots and (8) …..BUILDS…… a house from wood and stone. He is also very determined and brave, and never gives (9)…..UP…… the struggle to survive. He shows his bravery when he saves a prisoner, Man Friday, from (10)…..BEING….killed by savage natives.
Example 2
I. Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only ONE word in each space. (10 x 2.5p = 25 points )
The shadows were growing longer and the sky was getting dark as we walked through the jungle. My two friends and I felt hot and exhausted. We were looking for a small village in the wilderness.
As the sun was setting, we began to feel frightened and apparently we were lost.
We tried to find (1) ………………way to the village, but it was not easy to (2)……………………. which path we should follow (3)……………….. the darkness. Strange creatures made terrifying noises all around (4)……………., as they woke (5) ………………… and began to (6)………….. for food. We only hoped they (7)…………………….. want to eat us.
Then, Bill, who was in front, stopped suddenly. We froze in (8) …………………………. He was right. We could see the black stripes and shining yellow (9)………………..of the most dangerous animal in the jungle. We stared at the tiger (10) …………………… scared to move.
Key:
I. Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only ONE word in each space. (10 x 2.5p = 25 points )
The shadows were growing longer and the sky was getting dark as we walked through the jungle. My two friends and I felt hot and exhausted. We were looking for a small village in the wilderness.
As the sun was setting, we began to feel frightened and apparently we were lost.
We tried to find (1) ….OUR….way to the village, but it was not easy to (2)…..TELL….. which path we should follow (3)…..IN…. the darkness. Strange creatures made terrifying noises all around (4)….US…, as they woke (5) ….UP….. and began to (6)…HUNT/LOOK…. for food. We only hoped they (7)….WOULDN’T…. want to eat us.
Then, Bill, who was in front, stopped suddenly. We froze in (8) …..HORROR….. He was right. We could see the black stripes and shining yellow (9)…EYES….of the most dangerous animal in the jungle. We stared at the tiger (10) …TOO…. scared to move.
Although there are always some suggested answers, all the possible correct answers are taken into account. The cloze procedure involves the ability of guessing, of using redundancy and applying background information. All of them are valuable and they need to be developed through this procedure.
In my teaching career I have used a wide variety of tests and I believe that assessing the students using different techniques over a period of time is always better than simply testing them at regular times.
CHAPTER 4. STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ASSESSMENT METHODS AND TECHNIQUES USED AT PRIMARY AND SECONDARY LEVEL
Research regarding the effectiveness of testing and evaluation methods and techniques used at primary and secondary level
The process of teaching is a complex one, requiring proper methodologies, in order to inculcate useful information in students’ minds to transfer knowledge to other generations. Therefore, secondary education represents a turning state and in this respect, teachers should adopt effective teaching methodology in accordance with students’ needs so that they can receive proper guidance.
In classroom assessment, since teachers themselves develop, administer and analyze the questions, they are more likely to apply the results of the assessment to their own teaching. Therefore, it provides feedback on the effectiveness of instruction and gives students a measure of their progress.
Statement of the Problem
The experimental activity carried out between September 2017 and June 2018 within the School “Mihai Eminescu”, Pitesti aimed at investigating the evaluation strategies used in the English language classes in the primary and secondary school classes and finding those strategies meant to streamline the teaching – learning – assessing process.
The purpose of the research was to measure the students ‘cognitive process when taking tests, as well as the students' feedback capacity on the evaluation process. The present research is also designed to investigate the effective use of teaching methods at secondary level.
Objectives
motivating students to study
measuring improvement over time
evaluating students' progress as far as their knowledge, ability, and attitudes are concerned
identifying the students’ attitude towards the evaluation process
Study’s significance
In general, this study is very important for teachers, but in particular, for secondary level teachers as it has collected plenty of information concerning teaching methods, their effectiveness and appropriateness in secondary level English. Furthermore, it will guide teachers in exploring adequate methodologies for teaching, while its significance may also be for planners and education managers in policy formulation of teacher education programs at secondary level.
Method
In order to carry out the study, there was adopted the following method:
Starting from the objectives pursued within the experimental activity, the following working hypotheses were established:
The level of English language learners becomes higher by focusing students on different types of tests;
The pupils' interest in English and especially in reading and projects will be stimulated by using alternative assessment methods
The research methods used are the following:
pedagogical experiment: the method of tests aimed at evaluating students’ progress through the use of tests and the use of portfolios
mathematical methods of data processing and interpretation (counting, drawing up the result tables and recording in observation sheets after sampling and performance recording, analytical tables, synthetic tables, and graphical representations.
Population
The examined group consisted of a total of 27 pupils, boys and girls, all studying at secondary level at the School ”Mihai Eminescu” in Pitești, 6th grade.
Sample
The boys and girls, students at the School”Mihai Eminescu” in Pitești served as sample for the study. Subjects have normal intellectual development and different academic results. The questionnaire was attended by 100 students.
The sample includes students aged 12-13 years, and in terms of psychosocial development, “the growing independence leads first thoughts on identity” (Cosmovici 1999: 46), and in terms of cognitive development view, at this age "increases children’s mental ability to analyze and to test deductive assumptions”. (Cosmovici, 1999: 46). Besides these purely psychological reasons, there was taken into account the fact that students in discussion are studying English since the 2nd grade, having, at the moment, a total of two classes a week.
For a better understanding of my students, I also considered the social dimension and the psychological dimension. Student's relationships within the social group to which he/she belongs (the class of students, in this case) have a special importance on the evolution of his/her personality, as well as on the learning efficiency. The existence of group cohesion (the degree of unity and integration of the group) has strong effects on the members of the group. As a type of experiment, our research did not seek to change the reality of the school nowadays, but to gather facts that could lead us to the need to choose optimal evaluation strategies.
Instruments
Different types of tests: initial test, formative test, summative test; portfolios
Questionnaire with opened, closed and mixed questions represented the main instrument of the present research, being used for collecting the data. The questionnaire was developed for students of School”Mihai Eminescu” in Pitești The questionnaire is characterized by anonymity and it was applied to the whole group at once, not individually, to give subjects a setting where they feel protected at this age – own entourage.
Data Collection
The questionnaire was personally administered to secondary students of School”Mihai Eminescu” in Pitești. Data were collected back after respondents’ completion.
Data Analysis
Collected data were tabulated, analyzed, interpreted and presented at the end of the present research.
Evaluating students' progress as far as their knowledge, ability, and attitudes are concerned
At the beginning of the first semester of the school year 2017-2018 the students had their initial test, considered to be of average level. The results were centralized in both grades and percentages, so that we can highlight the level of knowledge we have stated.
.
Name ______________________________
Monday, 19th September 2017
INITIAL TEST 6th grade (L1)
2017-2018
PARTEA I____________________________________________________ _60 points
Read the following letter and mark the sentences as T(True) or F(False):
Dear Jane,
My name is Jerry Brown. I am fourteen years old and I live in Sydney, Australia. There are four in my family. My father, George, is a pilot in the army. He’s a very clever person. My mother, Christine, is a doctor at a well-known hospital in the city. She’s a beautiful tall woman with dark brown hair and gorgeous blue eyes. She’s very kind and patient. My brother, Leo, is seventeen years old. He’s quite short with fair hair and green eyes. He’s very clever, too, but a bit bossy sometimes.
Well, that’s all about me.
Write back and tell me about your family.
Best wishes,
Jerry
Jerry is Australia. __________
There are three people in Jerry’s family. __________
Jerry is seventeen years old. __________
Jerry’s father is a doctor. __________
Jerry’s mother is a doctor. __________
Jerry’s mother is a kind and patient. __________
Jerry’s brother is short with green eyes. __________
Jerry’s mother is short with green eyes. __________
Jerry’s brother has dark brown hair. __________
Jerry’s brother is clever. __________
(10 x 1p =10p)
Use Present Tense Simple or Present Tense Continuous of the verbs in brackets to fill in the sentences:
1. You (not / like) ____________________________________________________ chocolate.
2. She (not / study) ____________________________________________________ at the moment.
3. They (not / eat) ________________________________________________ rice every day.
4. We (not / play) __________________________________________chess every night.
5. (You / like) ____________________________________________________ spicy food?
6. (he / eat) ___________________________________________________________ now?
7. They (swim) ___________________________________________in the pool now.
8. I (clean) _______________________________________________ the kitchen every day.
9. She (work) ________________________________________________ every Sunday.
10. We (not / sleep) _________________________________________________ now.
x 2p =20p)
Use the comparative or the superlative:
The red dress is……………………………………….than the black one
cheap b) cheaper c) the cheapest
I am ………………………….. than you
taller b) tall c) tallest
Who is …………………………….student in your class?
gooder b) good c) the best
My bed is …………………………………than this sofa.
more comfortable b) comfortable c) the most comfortable
Jerry is as…………………………..as his brother.
fat b) the fattest c) fatter
This exercise is not as ………………………………as that problem.
more difficult b) difficult c) much difficult
In summertime the days are…………………………..than the nights.
long b) longer c) as long as
July is …………………………month of the year.
hot b) the hottest c) hotter
A crocodile is ………………………………….than a snake.
more dangerous b) dangerous c) most dangerous
This car is (expensive)………………………………than the other one.
more expensive b) most expensive c) expensive
(10 x 2p =20p)
Choose the correct phrase from the list to fill in the dialogue below.
How old are you?
Thanks. And your phone number?
Can you spell it, please?
What’s your name, sir?
What’s your home address?
A: Good morning! Can I help you?
B: Yes, I’d like to join the sports club, please.
A: ……………………………………………….
B: Jeremiah Johnson.
A: …………………………………………………
B: J-E-R-E-M-I-A-H J-O-H-N-S-O-N.
A: ……………………………………………….
B: I’m thirty-three years old.
A: ……………………………………………….
B: 13 Pine Street.
A: ………………………………………………..
B: 658342
A: Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Here’s your card.
(5 x 2p =10p)
PARTEA a II-a ______________________________________________30 points
Write a paragraph about your favourite season.
Name the season
Describe the weather
Name your favourite activities
10 points granted
Key:
INITIAL TEST 6th grade (L1)
2017-2018
PARTEA I____________________________________________________ _60 de puncte
Read the following letter and mark the sentences as T(True) or F(False):
T
F
F
F
F
T
T
F
T
T
(10 x 1p =10p)
Use Present Tense Simple or Present Tense Continuous of the verbs in brackets to fill in the sentences:
don’t like
is not studying
don’t eat
don’t play
do you like
is he eating
are swimming
clean
works
are not sleeping
(10x 2p =20p)
Use the comparative or the superlative:
b
a
c
a
a
b
b
b
a
a
(10 x 2p =20p)
Choose the correct phrase from the list to fill in the dialogue below.
d
c
a
e
b
(5 x 2p =10p)
PARTEA a II-a ______________________________________________(30 de puncte)
Write a paragraph about your favourite season.
2 points for appropriately beginning and ending:
2 points for an appropriate beginning/title
2 points for the ending:
6 points for correct grammar structures and connectors
4 points for the use of appropriate vocabulary
10 points for covering the aspects demanded by the task
2 points for a balanced structure (introduction, content, conclusion)
2 points for the general impression
10 points granted
Teacher: Coman Valentina
School Year: 2017-2018
INITIAL ASSESSMENT
Date: September 19th 2017
Grade: 6th E
Level: Elementary
No. of students: 27
Type of assessment: INITIAL
COMPETENCES:
C1- to prove the understanding of a written text by solving a True / False exercise;
C2-to fill in the correct form of the verbs in brackets;
C3- to choose the correct variant of the adjective;
C4- to choose the right question to fill in a text;
C5- to write a short text, in which to use simple phrases, familiar vocabulary about their favourite season;
RESULTS:
Analyzing data and results we can state that:
Horizontal data informs us about the situation of each student, both about his / her knowledge and about his / her gaps;
Vertical data gives us information about the points obtained at each item; it states that only some students can:
to prove the understanding of a written text by solving a True / False exercise;
to fill in the correct form of the verbs in brackets;
to choose the correct variant of the adjective;
choose the right question to fill in a text;
write a short text, in which to use simple phrases, familiar vocabulary about their favourite season;
The following table reflects the students' results for this initial test.
74.07% of the students received a promotion mark.
The average grade per class is 6.14 (six and 14%).
In order to establish the level of knowledge achieved in the previous class, the results showed that this class has a weak level. There were difficulties in verbal use, students not knowing how to form and when to use them. It has also been observed that some students have problems in formulating statements / sentences in English and writing some paragraphs. Among the most frequent difficulties or mistakes we can mention:
Some students lack vocabulary notions
Unrecognizable English words / phrases
The impossibility of expressing themselves in English
Not knowing the use of essential verbal endings in English
Thus, the following measures will be taken:
Revising and consolidating knowledge from previous years;
Oral and written exercises for verbal form and adjectives
Worksheets for developing / strengthening the written expression skills;
Using the dictionary for new words and vocabulary exercises.
Exercises to write short paragraphs and letters on a given plan.
Of the percentages distributed to each individual grade, we found that 74.07% of the students received promotion grades, and the average grade of the class was 6.41. Surprisingly, no student scored 10, which showed that it was necessary to pay a lot of attention to students who scored over 9 because they could pass the threshold of that grade. More attention should also be given to the 7 pupils who did not get 5.
The formative assessment test applied to the same experimental sample in the first semester of the 2017-2018 school year aimed to master the formation of the simple past (in an evaluation test designed to identify the gaps in learning the knowledge in preparing for the final test). The very simple scoring scheme of the test facilitated immediate correction – the tests were brought to the next class, and the error correction was done in open class.
The results of the experimental sample on the formative assessment test were recorded in the percentages distributed to each grade.
Teacher: Coman Valentina
School Year: 2017-2018
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Date: November 7th 2017
Grade: 6th E
Level: Elementary
No. of students: 27
Type of assessment: Formative
Time: 20 minutes
Objective:
By the end of the lesson the pupils should be better able to use the forms of past tense simple.
COMPETENCES:
C1-to fill in the correct form of the verbs in brackets;
C2- to write sentences in the negative and interrogative using the correct form of past tense simple;
Name:_________________________________
Date: 7th November 2017
6th Grade
TEST PAPER
A. Put the verbs in brackets in the Past Simple Tense: (10 x 4p =40p)
1. You________________(to stop) in front of our car yesterday.
2. Our friend________________(to try) to help us two hours ago..
3. The neighbour________________(to eat) all the cherries yesterday.
4. John________________(to walk) in the park last week.
5. They________________(to visit) Romania last month.
6.Henry ________________(to bring) them cookies.
7. I ________________(to listen) to you last Monday.
8. Their teacher________________(to give) them a test last week.
9. They ________________(to be) at the theatre last night.
10. You ________________(to finish) the test ten minutes ago.
B. Write the following sentences in the negative and interrogative forms:
(10 x 4p =40p)
1. He cut the bread for us.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Our parents arrived last week. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Your friends played tennis yesterday. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. She wrote a book in 2005. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. I slept in your room last month. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
20 points granted
KEY:
TEST PAPER
A. Put the verbs in brackets in the Past Simple Tense: (10 x 4p =40p)
1. stopped
2. tried
3. ate
4. walked
5. visited
6. brought.
7. listened
8. gave
9. were
10. finished
B. Write the following sentences in the negative and interrogative forms:
(10 x 4p =40p)
1. He cut the bread for us.
He didn’t cut the bread for us.
Did he cut the bread for us?
2. Our parents arrived last week.
Our parents didn’t arrive last week.
Did our parents arrive last week?
3. Your friends played tennis yesterday.
Your friends didn’t play tennis yesterday.
Did your friends play tennis yesterday?
4. She wrote a book in 2005.
She didn’t write a book in 2005.
Did she write a book in 2005?
5. I slept in your room last month.
I didn’t sleep in your room last month.
Did I sleep in your room last month?
20 points granted
Data Analysis and Findings:
Most students were able to use the correct form of past simple, but some had difficulties in completing the correct form of the irregular verbs. As a form of improving this aspect, they will practice more focussing on the weak points and giving more examples. The students will have to practice their weak points within their homework assignment
The test was considered by the students in the 6th grade one of a medium difficulty. The results were just as I expected; the class grade was 7, 81, which is relatively satisfactory for me and my students. The main objectives of the test were:
To be able to distinuish between regular and irregular verbs;
To be able to use the forms of the past simple in the given sentences;
To be able to use the correct negative and interrogative forms in given sentences;
The most frequent errors were:
Some students still do not make the difference between was / were, the singular and the plural forms.
Some students forgot about the spelling problems when adding the –ed ending: stopped, tried.
A part of the students did not remember the forms of the irregularverbs, which is a signal for the teacher to revise them in a near future lesson.
The results of the formative assessment test applied to sixth grade pupils revealed an improvement in achieved performance compared to the initial test, 25.92% of the students were able to get the mark 10 (7 students) and over half managed to get over 7.
The summative assessment test applied to the experimental sample at the end of the first semester of the 2017-2018 school year was aimed at evaluating the basics studied during the semester.
The results of the experimental sample on the summative test were recorded in the percentages distributed to each grade, a positive fact being that over 70% of them were able to get higher grades, and only one got a grade under 5.
Teacher: Coman Valentina
School Year: 2017-2018
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Date: January 23rd 2018
Grade: 6th E
Level: Elementary
No. of students: 27
Type of assessment: Summative
Time: 50 minutes
COMPETENCES:
C1- to prove the understanding of a written text by solving a True / False exercise;
C2-to prove understanding by rearranging the words in sentences;
C3- to choose the correct variant in order to fill in the sentences;
C4- to write a short text, in which to use simple phrases, familiar vocabulary about their last winter holiday;
FINAL EVALUATION TEST
Name……………………………………
I. Read the following text. Then read the sentences below and say if they are CORRECT or WRONG. Correct the wrong sentences. (30 points)
My favourite city is Amsterdam, the capital of Holland. The correct name for Holland is the Netherlands. Although Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, the government is in the Hague and the Queen lives in Soestdijk.
There is something for everyone: you can visit museums and art galleries, go for a canal trip, hire a bicycle, go shopping in the street markets, listen to a classical concert or enjoy night clubs and discos.
I’ve been to Amsterdam three times, twice in the summer and once in the winter. I’m interested in art, so I enjoyed visiting the Rijksmuseum and seeing the Rembrandt paintings. I also visited the house where Rembrandt lived from 1639 to 1658 which was fascinating.
Next summer I’m going back to Amsterdam. I’m going to work in a restaurant in Dam Square, which is in the centre of the city. It’ll be hard work but it’ll be interesting and I’ll meet a lot of tourists.
The government is in Amsterdam.
The city offers everyone a lot of things to do when it is visited.
Lizzie visited the city only twice.
Rembrandt had lived in the house, which Lizzie visited, for 19 years.
From the author’s point of view, the main advantage when working in a restaurant is meeting people who visit the city.
II. Put the words in the right order to make correct sentences. (20 points)
1. Friday?/ at/ did/ who/ meet/ last/ the/ you/ concert __________________________________________
2. up/ time/ morning?/ what/ did/ wake/ you/ this _____________________________________________
3. grandparents/ week./ lunch/ a/ my/ have /I /with / twice ______________________________________
4. lot/rains/it/autumn/usually/a/in. ___________________________________________________
III. Circle the correct answer: (10 points)
1) My friend ……… me at night. A. don’t call; B. doesn’t call; c. doesn’t calls
2) ……. you often go to parties? A. Don’t; B. Doesn’t; C. Aren’t
3) Take your umbrella! It … outside. A. is raining; B. rains; C. raining
4) I …….. a red ball when I was six. A. have; B. has; C. had
5) Why… no milk in the fridge? A. there is; B. isn’t there; C. is there
IV. Write a composition entitled “My last winter holiday”. Write 120-150 words. (30 points)
KEY:
FINAL EVALUATION TEST
Name……………………………………
I. Read the following text. Then read the sentences below and say if they are CORRECT or WRONG. Correct the wrong sentences. (30 points)
Wrong
Correct
Wrong
correct
Correct
II. Put the words in the right order to make correct sentences. (20 points)
1. Who did you meet at the concert last Friday?
2. What time did you wake up this morning?
3. I have lunch with may grandparents twice a week.
4. It usually rains a lot in autumn.
III. Circle the correct answer: (10 points)
1) B
2) A
3) A
4) A
5) C
IV. Write a composition entitled “My last winter holiday”. Write 120-150 words. (30 points)
2 points for appropriately beginning and ending:
2 points for an appropriate beginning/title
2 points for the ending:
6 points for correct grammar structures and connectors
4 points for the use of appropriate vocabulary
10 points for covering the aspects demanded by the task
2 points for a balanced structure (introduction, content, conclusion)
2 points for the general impression
10 points granted
The final test was of a medium difficulty and the results were just as I expected; there were very few students who only partially understood text and of course, there were difficulties at the composition. The time limit of the test was of 50 minutes, and it was enough for all the students to finish solving the exercises. The class grade was 8.07, which is higher than the average grade of the initial test . The main objectives of the test were:
To prove the understanding of a written text by solving a True / False exercise;
To be able to rearrange the words in a sentence so as to make sense;
To choose the correct variant in order to fill in the sentences;
To write a composition, in which to use simple phrases, familiar vocabulary about their last winter holiday.
. There were difficulties in verbal use, students not knowing how to form and when to use them. It has also been observed that some students have problems in formulating statements / sentences in English and writing some paragraphs. Among the most frequent difficulties or mistakes we can mention:
Some students lack vocabulary notions
Unrecognizable English words / phrases
The impossibility of expressing themselves in English
Thus, the following measures will be taken:
Revising and consolidating knowledge from the first semester;
Oral and written exercises for verbal forms;
Worksheets for developing / strengthening the written expression skills;
Exercises to write compositions on a given plan.
In order to remedy the errors, the teacher must encourage the students to practise grammar more in contexts than in individual sentences to express themselves in English better.
Portfolios
Student portfolios are a collection of evidence, prepared by the student and evaluated by the teacher, to demonstrate mastery, comprehension, application, and synthesis of a given set of concepts. To create a high quality portfolio, students must organize, synthesize, and clearly describe their achievements and effectively communicate what they have learned.
Portfolio assessment strategies provide a structure for long-duration, in-depth assignments. The use of portfolios transfers much of the responsibility from the teacher to the student.
The overall goal of the preparation of a portfolio is for the learner to demonstrate and provide evidence that he or she has mastered a given set of learning objectives. More than just thick folders containing student work, portfolios are typically personalized, long-term representations of a student’s own efforts and achievements. Whereas multiple-choice tests are designed to determine what the student doesn’t know, portfolio assessments emphasize what the student does know.
For the 6th graders I have chosen examples of worksheets, project work, which will help students in their learning.
English Language Portfolio
6th Grade
Student: _________
From:_________
Teacher: Valentina Coman
2017 – 2018
Portfolio Content 6th Grade
Present Simple and Past Simple of the verb to be
The Present Simple
Have / Have Got
Possessive Case of Nouns
There is / There are
The Article
Degrees of Comparison
Present Continuous
On Monday, in August, in winter, at 5 o’clock
WHERE, WHO, WHEN, WHAT
Plural of Nouns
Personal Pronouns
Past Simple WAS/WERE
Past Simple Tense (with regular and irregular verbs)
1st, 2nd, 3rd, …./ the 25th of September …, 1993, 2010
CAN, MAY, MUST, SHOULD
Adjectives and Adverbs
Regular and Irregular Verbs
Present Perfect
Future Simple
Tag Questions
Vocabulary List
Pronunciation guide
Autumn, Winter, Spring, Easter Breaks Tasks
Test Papers (1st and 2nd semester)
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
Projects (1st and 2nd semester)
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
Compositions (1st and 2nd semester)
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
In the first semester of the school year 2017-2018, the portfolios showed the students’ increased interest in the English classes and language. The percentages distributed to each grade reveal the pleasure with which they worked on this portfolio. No student has scored less than 8. The gradess obtained in the first semester by the target pupils have highlighted a very good level of knowledge, skills and attitudes towards English language.
As far as the second direction of the problem is concerned, that of the students' attitude towards the evaluation, at the end of the second semester of the school year 2017-2018 I extended the sample applying a questionnaire to 100 students . The questionnaire was structured on 12 questions, which aimed at finding out the students 'attitude to the evaluation process, the influence of the teacher on the pupils, the pupils' opinion on the conformity between the grades and the knowledge, the preferences for an evaluation form or the other, the opinion about the most efficient traditional evaluation methods, the argumentation of preference or rejection for a traditional evaluation method, the opinion on alternative assessment methods.
QUESTIONNAIRE
Choose one response or complete the empty spaces with an appropriate one. The questionnaire is anonymous and the data below are necessary for a study. Thank you for your cooperation!
Do you like how the English class unfolds?
Yes
No
Do you have an English textbook?
Yes
No
How do you get along with your classmates?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
What activity do you enjoy most during the English lessons?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
How do you appreciate the collaboration between you and your English teacher?
Very good
Good
Satisfactory
Unsatisfactory
Which seems to be the most appropriate teaching methods? (multiple choices)
Dictation
Summarizing
Educational games
AEL (e-learning)
Documentation sheets
Practical works
What do you think it is important for the English teacher when she evaluates the students?
the initiative
the creativity
the logic
the accuracy of information
the ability to communicate
thorough learning
something else
How do you appreciate the English language assessment?
Positive
Negative
Your English teacher’s evaluation influences you
To a very great extent
To a great extent
To a satisfactory extent
To a small extent
Not at all
Do you think your grades reflect your knowledge of English?
To a very great extent
To a great extent
To a satisfactory extent
To a small extent
Not at all
What is your favourite way of assessing your knowledge?
Initial tests
Progress tests
Final test
Which seems to be the most appropriate assessment method?
Oral examination
Written tests
Reports and essays
Portfolio
Class activity
Bringing arguments to a new lesson
Thank you!
Analysis of the present research results
Analyzing the results of the present research, starting with the first question, one could observe that 80% of the respondents gave a positive answer, while 20% of them said that they do not like how the English class unfolds. These responses may be influenced by the level of their knowledge.
Talking about the possession of an English textbook, of the 100 respondents, only 5 gave negative answers. In this respect, one may consider that those five respondents are not interested in English class. In order to improve this aspect, the English teacher will make five photocopies to her textbook from her own funds and she will give them to those five children.
Being questioned about the way children of secondary school get along with their classmates, 70 said that they have a good relation, 9 of them considered that they have best friends among their classmates, while 8 children recognized that they fight sometimes. At the opposite pole, there were 4 respondents saying that they do not care about their colleagues and 2 of them do not even know the names of their classmates. Also, there were 7 students who did not give an answer. They were asked about their relationship with their classmates in order to see how effective the group evaluation may be.
Being interviewed about the most enjoyed activity during the English class, 50 students preferred to watch documentary movies without subtitle, 35 respondents said that they would like to listen to audio tales, while 10 of them enjoy completing worksheets. Of all respondents, only 5 enjoyed correcting the homework.
Regarding the collaboration between students and their English teacher, 66% of the respondents agreed its level is a good one. At the opposite, 2% of them considered that they have an unsatisfactory collaboration.
Analyzing the most appropriate teaching methods, educational games are the winner with 30 answers. At the opposite, there is dictation with only 8 answers. In this respect, one may observe that children prefer innovative methods instead of traditional ones.
When the English teacher evaluates the secondary school students, the most important element is their creativity (from the point of view of 35% students). Creativity is followed by student’s logic (20%), their ability to communicate (15%), their initiative (13%), the accuracy of information (9%) and their thorough learning (8%).
It has been noticed that a large number of students ( 60% ) consider the teacher a factor that correctly and objectively appreciates the school results, which is a rather good level of credibility, not necessarily granted to the teacher herself, but rather to the concept and methodology of school assessment , which is largely in line with student expectations. The remaining students, 40%, consider that the assessment strategies used are damaging their identity.
Analyzing if students are influenced by the teacher’s evaluation, it has been noticed that their attitudes towards the teacher are much better than towards the assessment, and they appreciate that the teacher's evaluation influences them significantly.
As far as the value of the English mark is concerned, students appreciate that the grades reflect very much their school performance. In a proportion of 80%, students say the grades matter a lot to them and their parents. We appreciate that less than 20% of pupils’ interest in grades may be because of their exaggerated independence at the adolescence, but also because of the concept and methodology of assessment, and then the fact that teacher evaluation partly captures students' school performance.
The majority of interviewed secondary school students (56%) considered that formative assessment is the most important, followed by the summative one (30%), and the initial one, which is essential for the teacher in the following didactic approach, occupies 14% of the students' preferences. The explanation might be the inappropriate moment of applying the initial test.
For secondary school students, the most appropriate assessment methods are portfolios (30 answers) and reports & essays (26 answers).
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