Lisa Goodwin

Assessment Philosophy

“Tests have a way of scaring students” (Brown & Abeywickrama, 2019, p.1). The
students typically have strong negative feelings when the teacher announces, “we will have a test
or an exam.” The students may experience stress or anxiety. I, as a teacher, do not want them to
suffer; I want them to feel confident with their test-taking skills. My assessment approaches
consist of informal/formal and formative/summative assessments.
Informal assessments include self/peer assessment and teacher observation. Students are
encouraged to do peer interactions with their classmates. Instead of getting a grade, they will
earn participation points based on their efforts through teacher observation. For the formal
assessment, I will have a one-on-one conference with each student in regards to their ASL skills.
The students will then do the self-assessment performance video blog (VLOG) which will be
considered video journal assignment. The students will do the vlog once every two weeks in
order to build and refine their signing skills along with confidence. The formative and summative
assessment includes a portfolio that reflects and documents students’ work along with journals,
vlogs, peer feedback, and self-assessments. For the final assessment, students will respond to the
question, “Do you see yourself improve and why?” along with the rubric that will measure their
ASL skills. In turn, the teacher will evaluate their video and provide feedback based on both the
portfolio and the final video assignment.
Overall, the assessment approaches will aid with the students’ confidence issues. Once
they have confidence, their signing skills will improve. They will get opportunities to interact
with Deaf people, which boosts the students’ motivation in acquiring ASL skills, starting at the
beginning of the course.

References

Brown, H. D. & Abeywickrama, P. (2019). Language assessment: Principles and classroom

practices. (3rd ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson.

Brown, H. D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language

pedagogy. (4th ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson.