LALS 523

Week 1: Approaches to Assessment

WORKSHEET ON CRITERION-REFERENCED ASSESSMENT

PART A

Let us say that you need to assess whether your learners have achieved the
following objective:

The learners should be able to listen to some simple directions and then carry them
out.

Here are three possible formats that you might use. Discuss which would be the
best one for assessing the objective. Give reasons for your choice.

1. The test-takers come individually to the testing room. The teacher gives
10 simple directions, such as:

Give me the red pen.

Go to the window and open it.
Take the blue book from the table and put it on the top shelf, etc.

The teacher gives one mark for each action that the test-taker does
correctly.

2. The teacher gives every student a copy of a written timetable of the class
activities for the following week, with a number of details missing from it.
The teacher then gives a talk in which she/he provides the missing details
and the test-takers write each piece of information in the appropriate
space on the timetable.

The teacher collects the papers and gives one mark for each detail that is
correctly written in the right place on the timetable.

3. The test-takers all receive a blank sheet of paper. The teacher then reads
aloud a set of 15 directions, such as:

Write your name at the top left corner of the page.

Underline your family name.
Draw a circle in the centre of the page.
Write the number 5 inside the circle. etc.

The teacher collects the papers and gives one mark for each correct item.
PART B

Now choose one of the following objectives and work out how you would assess it
using a criterion-referenced approach. Depending on the objective you choose, you
could draft the test format, write some sample items or prepare a rating scale.
You may find that you need to further specify the scope of the objective before you
can decide how to assess it.

a) The learners should be able to form yes/no questions correctly, using both
the present and past tenses.

b) The learners should be able to determine the approximate meaning of an

unknown word in a reading text by using context clues.

c) The learners should be able to give a five-minute prepared talk to the class
on a familiar topic, using appropriate visual aids.

d) The learners should be able to fill in a form clearly and accurately, giving
information about themselves.