Embed Doc
Copy Link
Readcast
Collections

CommentGo Back

Download

T A S K

CHAPTER

Assessment

Many teachers are worried about the question of assessment, particularly whenit comes to mixed-ability classes. We will look at when and how students can beassessed.

1Assessing at the

You may or may not be given information about students coming into your class.

beginning of the year

If not, you will certainly want to find out something about their language level tosee whether you are dealing with a very mixed-level class or not. If you havebeen given assessment records, for example, it is probably still a good idea togather some information yourself to complement this.

Cover the list below. What information do you usually want about the students’language level? How do you obtain this?

You may want information about:…their knowledge of grammar …their knowledge of vocabulary…their ability in listening…their ability in reading…their ability in writing…their ability in speaking.In general terms you need to know if they are at the right level to begin the newyear’s work.In addition you will want information about:…their behaviour in class…their motivation…their learning style…their awareness of effective learning strategies…their interests and strengths in other areas.We have seen ideas for gathering information about these things throughout thebook.

SEEPHOTOCOPIABLEPAGES

1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 15You can find out about their language level in the following ways.

Give them a formal test

Make up a test yourself or (preferably) with the help of colleagues. Alternatively,you may be able to use a published test, perhaps one from the end of theprevious year’s coursebook.You may want to include sections on grammar and vocabulary, a readingcomprehension, a listening comprehension and a writing task. A formal speakingtest is more difficult to administer with a large class, although this could be donein small groups while the rest of the students are working on their own. You couldask the students being tested to carry out a short

ROLEPLAY

or a task in which theyhave to find out information from the other students by asking questions.

The test content should aim to assess whether students are at the required levelfor the beginning of this year. That is, it should test those language items andskills that you identified as things the students should already be able to dobefore beginning on the new year’s work.

SEEPAGE

63Give them a series of

MINICHECKTESTS

corresponding to their remedial work list.

SEEPAGE

76You could give students some choice over these. Give them the remedial workchecklist first and get them to identify the two areas they are most confidentabout and the two they are least confident about. Then get them to do thecorresponding

MINICHECKTESTS

. It will be evident if they have seriously over- or underestimated their abilities from the results they get.

Test them informally through different classroom activities

Observe and keep a note of how students perform in different activities that youuse. You will need to monitor their work carefully. Pay attention to any studentsyou think may be particularly weak or strong to check your impression. This willtake longer than giving a formal test but may give you a fairer picture of eachstudent in the end.A combination of the two approaches above is probably best.If you discover that some students are extremely weak, and really not up to thelevel in any area, perhaps because they suffer from particular learningdisadvantages such as hearing or sight problems or come from verydisadvantaged backgrounds, then you need to see whether it is possible to putthem in a special class for tuition or organise extra classes for them.If these solutions are not possible, you will have to try to at least give them extraremedial work to do. You will need to give them guidance (via checklists andindividual counselling) about what exactly they need to do.You should be able toprovide them with materials and resources from the self-access collection for this.If you find that some students are very strong (for example, bilingual children),then it is also worth exploring the possibility of different classes so that they arenot held back. If this is not feasible or allowed within your school system, youwill need to provide extra work for these students to challenge themappropriately. Students like this should be regarded as an asset to the class, notas a threat to you. Take advantage of their knowledge! Again, the use ofchecklists with extra study areas and tasks listed, individual counselling andlibrary or self-access resources will be useful.

Individual counselling

As soon as possible in the year, you should try to have an individual counsellingsession with all the students. This offers opportunities for:…getting to know the students…showing them you are aware of them as individuals and concerned abouttheir progress…involving them in self evaluation and assessment…motivating them…advising them…checking their work, homework records, etc.…answering individual questions.

Assessment

Explaining assessment procedures

You also need to introduce students to the assessment criteria that will be usedduring the year, e.g.… how often will formal tests take place?… what form will continuous assessment take?… what criteria will you use in assessing students’ work?You may need to explain some of this in L1, particularly when explaining therationale behind the assessment procedures. You should show them examples ofcriteria used in the assessment of different kinds of work, e.g. written work, oralwork or groupwork (behaviour, etc.).Here is an example.

Assessment

You may need to introduce the students to the idea of self evaluation andassessment if they have not done this before. Again, you can show them whatthey will use for this, e.g. self-access record sheets (

PHOTOCOPIABLEPAGE

13),

PROJECTWORK

(

PHOTOCOPIABLEPAGE

16), end-of-lesson summaries and checklists.

2Testing throughout

You need to keep track of students’ progress and achievement throughout the

the year

year. This is probably best done through a mixture of formal testing and

CONTINUOUSASSESSMENT

. The following points are of particular relevance to mixed-ability classes.

Record-keeping

It is essential that both you and the students keep a record of work they havecovered. For example, if you have used graded tasks, you should know whichlevel of difficulty was done each time. It was suggested before that colour coding is the best way of doing this. Similarly, with self-access activities,records should be kept of what students have done.

Counselling

Individual counselling should be carried out. Students can contribute to this ifthey have been asked to keep records of work and evaluate their ownperformance as a matter of course (e.g. at the end of lessons, blocks of work,after self-access activities). Counselling can take place during self-accesssessions or outside class time.

SEECHAPTER

13,

APPRAISALSANDPERFORMANCEREVIEWS

EVALUATING YOUR STUDENTS

FROMTHESAMESERIES

GROUPWORKUsuallySometimesRarely

Uses English as much as possibleTakes an active role in discussionListens to othersGets on well with other group membersCarries out tasks as allocated by groupOverall comment: