snanoi6 ‘Assessment matters: Whats assessment? | Onestopongl sh Welcome Mahmoud] My account| Subscribe now| Tog out Number one for English language teachers Assessment matters: What is assessment? By Adrian Tennant ‘Type: Article, Reference material Adrian Tennant takes a look at what is meant by assessment. Many people assume that assessment is simply another word for testing but this article outlines its role as an important aspect of teaching and learning. Introduction What do we mean by assessment? Are tests a valid form of assessment? When should assessment take place? Helping students become comfortable And finally: Anchor Point:1Introduction ‘When people see, or hear, the word assessment they normally react in a fairly negative way. It might bea deep sigh ora cry of Oh no!, but rarely will it be a smile ora ery of joy. Why is it that people fecl this way at the mention of assessment? I think the first problem is that people don’t really understand what is meant (or should be meant) by assessment. A second issue could be that they have had fairly bad experiences in the past and this has an influence on them. And, thirdly, it could be that assessment is often seen as a pass or fail thing — and nobody likes to fail. Anchor Point:2So, what do we mean by assessment? assessment, noun [U] the process of making a judgement or forming an opinion, after considering something or someone carefully Lthink the most interesting thing here is the word process. The purpose of most forms of assessment in the English Language classroom should be to inform people of how much progress a student is making. Assessment can take many different forms and does not need to be limited to tests and exams. Here are two types of assessment: 1. Activity assessment a) Did you like that activity? b) Was that activity easy or difficult? ©) What was the hardest part of that? d) Was the activity useful? How? Why? 2. Self-assessment a) Now Ican ... b) Istill need to work on... ©) Eve improved in. d) Today Heart... e) In the test I got X and ¥ wrong. I'm going to study these for homework. As you can sce, the onus here is on the students to think about what they've done. Unlike tests which are handed out, collected in and marked by a teacher and then handed back, these forms of assessment are about the process of learning rather than only on the product. Anchor Point:3Does this mean that tests are not a valid form of assessment? No, not at all. But they are not the only form of assessment. If students only think of assessment in terms of a formal test or exam then it is likely that they will have negative feelings towards the idea of assessment. It’s also important to emphasize that assessment shouldn't be about how good or bad someone is at a particular point in time, it should be about the progress they have made, the work they've put in and the learning that has taken place. In other words, it should be about the process of learning and not simply the results. Inipihwwwanestapenglsh.comiexamsiassessmert-mattorshwhat-Is-assessmert! 18snanoi6 ‘Assessment matters: Whats assessment? | Onestopongl sh One thing that is quite useful to do with formal tests is to actually analyze the process as well as the product. Here area couple of ideas that can be used for this purpose: 1. After collecting in the test, hand out a blank copy to each student. Ask them to look at the test and a) say how well they think they did on each particular question; b) say which questions were easy, ok, difficult; and, c) say what score they think they got. Then, when you hand back the marked tests ask them to compare their thoughts to the actual test, i.e. Did they get the questions right that they thought they had?, ete, 2. After collecting in the test, hand out a blank copy to each student. Ask them to look at the test, choose ‘two questions and tell a partner how they worked out the answer. Anchor Point:4When should assessment take place? The simple answer is that it should take place at every stage of the learning process and that it should be fairly frequent. Of course, there are many different forms of assessment. So, at the start of a course some form of diagnostic assessment should take place to see how much students know. This can then be used as a form of ‘benchmark used later on to see how much progress has been made. ‘Throughout a course various forms of assessment can be used, from homework, project work, in class activities to more formal tests. If you are required to give students a certain number of tests each year — say three — then one thing you could do is give them five and tell them that only the best three will be used. This kind of flexibility not only helps students be a little less worried but also takes into account that people have bad days sometimes. In fact, we will see this idea of selection again when we look at portfolios. Anchor Point:5Helping students become comfortable One of our first tasks as a teacher has got to be to help our students become more comfortable with the idea of assessment. Because assessment often has a negative connotation and is equated with tests, passing, failing and scores, this can be quite a challenge. But if we can make our students understand that assessm: actually beneficial then it will make the whole process easier. Here are a few simple ideas aimed at thi 1, Talk about assessment with your students a) What is assessment? b) Why do weassess students? ©) How are we going to them? d) What are the criteria used? Are these criteria clear? 2. Get students involved in assessment. a) Use self-assessment, i.e, ‘Can do’ statements. b) Use peer assessment. ©) Get students to come up with assessment criteria / agree criteria with students. d) Get students involved in picking or designing assessment tasks. 3. Make assessment part of the teaching and learning process. a) If you can build in a form of assessment regularly, maybe even every lesson, then your students will become used to it and therefore more comfortable. b) Make sure you include the results of any assessment into your teaching, For example, ifstudents have a particular problem with an aspect of grammar then go back over the grammar in a lesson making it clear that you are doing this because it was identified as a problem from the assessment. If students can see that you actually take notice of the assessment, and not simply the score, it will become more meaningful and positive for them. ‘Welll give more specific ideas in some of the subsequent articles. However, the key here is to make students see assessment as part of the teaching and learning process that has a direct influence on what is taught. If students understand that assessment is about the process and not simply about a product (i.e. a score), then they will start to havea more positive attitude towards it Anchor Point:6And finally ... In this series of articles well take a closer look at the following areas of assessment: + Diagnostic tests + Portfolios + ‘Can do’ statements, self-assessment and peer assessment + Assessing skills + Assessing tasks and lessons + Preparing students for tests and exams + Assessing Young Leamers Readers’ comments (3) Inipihwwwanestapenglsh.comiexamsiassessmert-mattorshwhat-Is-assessmert! 28snanoi6 ‘Assessment matters: Whats assessment? | Onestopongl sh © LiM| "Tue, 5 Aug 2014 12:59 pm ‘This is nice. bright light given to the word assessment. It is really true that this word has been given a heart pounding image to students. + ramozo | Wed, 9 Jan 2013 4:32am ‘Thanks alot + Anonymous | Sun, 7 Oct 2012 10:59 pm Iwanted to rate it 5, but I couldn't. It’s difficult to point the stars. Powered by Webstructure. NET Intpihwwwanestapenglsh.comioxamsiassossmert-mattosIwha-Is-assessmert! 38