Topics 2
Role of Assessment and evaluation
in Language Teaching
Definition of assessment:
Assessment is how we identify our learners’ needs, document their progress, and determine how we are doing as teachers and planners. That being said, how do we know we are doing it right? How do we know that the assessment tools we are using measure what we intend them to?
Reasons of Assessment:
Assessment shows the teacher the role of progress testing in the classroom and the importance of matching testing to instruction. I view testing as a tool that can help teachers identify student strengths and weaknesses and evaluate the effectiveness of their programs. I ensure that teachers must design or choose tests that are practical, reliable, and valid. Assessment is perhaps one of most difficult and important parts of our jobs as teachers. Ideally, it should be seen as a means to help us guide students on their road.
Tools of Assessment:
Assessment measures the learners' progress in learning through the teacher's portfolio that includes various tools like the following:
1-Oral discussion by the teacher.
2-Written tests done by the teacher.
3- The rate of participation played by the learner in class.
4- The involvement of learners in pair work and group work.
5-The role played by the learner in his group work.
6-Sharing in elicitation in class.
7-Self-expression and critical thinking by the learner.
8-The practical roles played by the learner in class.
9-The roles played by the learner in songs and games.
10-The activities done by the learner inside class .
11- The activities done by the learner outside classroom.
12- The activities done by the learner outside school.
13- The learner's involvement in using technology in class.
14- The tasks done by the learner in his workbook and his homework.
15- The area of the learner's interest in learning.
16- The learner's ability to think, pair, share, apply and analyze.
17- The learner's ability to do synthesis, evaluate and innovate.
18- The area of the learner's dialoguing with himself and with others.
19-Written exercises.
20-Observation forms to register learning outcomes.
21-Rubrics scale for self, pair and group work.
22- Feed-back sheets and observation sheet.
23- Learners' standards register and weekly reports.
24-Lesson plan and how the lesson objectives are connected with activities and assessment and how much the objectives are achieved through the selected methods and the teaching aids.
25- Classroom management and time management.
26- Learners' marks or grades register.
27-A Scope form.
28-The learner's portfolio.
29-Learner"s interaction with the teacher, course, peers and environment.
30-The learner's behavior.
Importance of assessment:
No single procedure can meet the needs of all learners
and situations, so we need to remember to incorporate a variety of tools
to help our students know how they are progressing and to gauge the
effectiveness of our own methodology and materials.
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. As Biggs (1999) maintains, two major functions can
be pointed out for classroom assessment: One is to show whether or
not the learning has been successful, and the other one is to clarify
the expectations of the teachers from the students .
Evaluation is a process that includes five basic components:
My personal attitude:
1-First, the teacher sets the objectives of the lesson accompanied by the method of teaching and the teaching aids for each timed objective.
2- During presentation, each objective must have an activity to implement such objective through guided and free practice.
3- There must be a kind of assessment for each objective, tied with with its related activity. I mean that each objective must have its own activity and its own assessment. The 3 items must be related to each other practically.
4-The assessment of learners must have its evidence
5-The members of a group work evaluate themselves asking how much each member contribute in the collaborative project they did as a kind of self accountability or evaluation.
6-3 groups in class can do their different projects. They present them in class and the fourth group can evaluate each of these projects and the teacher monitors and supports.
The teacher does a kind of self-evaluation for himself like the following:
A-The teacher asks himself if he achieved the objective or not.
B- If his learners mastered the new vocabulary well or not.
C-If his learners mastered the structure well or not.
D- If he had used the appropriate method and teaching aid or not.
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Practical Example for Assessment
In dealing with our education problems, the American EDX
program, Harvard university, USA :(Introduction to Data Wise: A
Collaborative Process to Improve Learning & Teaching)taught me the
following steps to solve the problem of poor listening and speaking
skills:
Example:
1-Organizing collaborative work:
We formed a group work to exchange work, experience and guide.
2-Creating data:
We did diagnostic tests collaboratively and collected data using our senses, observation and statistics.
3-Digging into students' data:
We studied data to find the evidence that refers to the problem reasons and the way of remedy.
4-Finding evidence:
Learners
couldn't speak well because of the lack of language practice and
communication. The GTM method(Grammar Translation Method) that depends
on grammar and translation was not good for learners to use listening,
speaking or communication.
5-Deciding the problem:
Learners were poor at listening and speaking skills.
6-Developing the action plan:
Speaking
English through authentic situations, guided and free practice was the
remedy. Teaching rules can't help learners to develop their speaking
skill.
6-Acting and assessing progress:
We started our
remedial work plan collaboratively through focusing on using real
situations and free practice for learners to work in pairs to ask and
answer questions through using gestures, pointing, acting, CDs, songs,
music, games, realia and authentic material and situations. Assessment
went side by side.
8-Solving the problem.
Learners became good speakers when they used and functioned the language.
I can pass EDX experiences, experiences of my study in England and my work experiences in Egypt on to my colleagues in the USA.
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Prepared by: G.H.H.