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Roles of assessment in learning
Roles of assessment in learning
Roles of assessment in learning
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1. Introduction
Assessment refers to the process of making a judgement or forming an opinion, after considering something or someone carefully. 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.
2. What are some of the ways in which language assessment can be used for improving the standards of teaching and learning?
Before discussing the different ways of language assessment, it would be pertinent to look into the purposes of assessment. Language assessment is done
• To provide feedback to learners on their progress i.e. what they have done well and what they need to improve.
• To provide feedback to learners on their achievement i.e. how much they have learned at a particular point in the course
• To get information about learners’ ability to understand or use target language structures or vocabulary
• To help teachers know how to help their learners.
• To find out whether learners like or dislike specific classroom activities
• For diagnostic purposes: to use information about learners’ strengths and weaknesses to provide information which can feed into planning.
• To let learners know what standards they need to reach.
• To provide records for schools
• To provide information to parents
• To get feedback on your teaching
Language assessment can take on different forms and may involve a huge variety of tasks/items. The commonly used ways of assessment are:
2.1. Formative assessment
This is developmental. It provides information about learners’ understanding and helps to iden...
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The Senate Standing Committee on Education and Employment (SSCEE, 2014) handed down its findings on the effectiveness of the National Assessment Program (NAP) in March 2014. While supporting the Australian governments’ ‘efforts to improve educational outcomes for all students’, they concluded that NAPLAN tests were not an appropriate measure for students where English is not their first language and students whose background was culturally diverse from mainstream Australia (SSCEE,2014 ).
There are a lot of students being placed whose primary language is not English. Students walk into a mainstream classroom not being able to speak English. Students in this situation are call English Language Learners(ELLs). These students are not receiving appropriate language support to succeed in their language development which is causing them to not have the ability to acquire language.
Build on learners' prior knowledge; (4.) Provide constant review; (5.) Simplify language; (6.) Build other skills while developing English. The use of standardized testing to identify and assess the progress of English language learners with special needs is problematic. Normally designed for native English speakers, many assessment instruments do not reliably assess speakers of other languages because they ignore differences among linguistic and cultural groups (Schwarz & Burt, 1995). Assessment of English language learners with special needs should...
Savage, J. & Fautley, M. (2008). Assessment for Learning and Teaching in Secondary Schools. Dawsonera [Online]
In this assignment I will be analysing the purpose of assessment whilst demonstrating my understanding of the different assessment methods used. I will also be giving a brief explanation of my understanding of VACSR describing my understanding of what each element means and its importance when used in assessment. Furthermore I will be describing two assessment methods that I have used whilst teaching evaluating each method using VACSR identifying strengths and areas of improvement. Finally I will justify the reasons for using the two assessment methods chosen.
However, a formative assessment is ongoing and is used to check for students’ understanding throughout a lesson. Both work samples “matched learning objectives” and I was able to identify the students’ strength and weaknesses. I was also able to “analyze assessment data to understand patterns and gaps in learning” to guide my future instructions. In the word problem assessment, I recognized where the student was struggling and gave “effective and descriptive feedback” to address the area that she needs work in.
Assessment methods – some centres would have standardised format in place for you to follow when assessing learners. This will usually tell you what methods to use to assess various units and what level of flexibility you are allowed as an Assessor to make changes where required.
In the past, assessments were popularly conducted for the purpose of accreditation, but with the growing change in the quality of education, it has become evident that assessments aren’t just products to qualification but as Sieborger (1998) identifies, is that assessment is the process of gathering and interpreting knowledge to make valid and justifiable judgements about the learners performance and the assessors ability to transfer and establish knowledge to the learners. What is pivotal in assessment is that it enhances teaching and learning; it is also the crucial link between learning outcomes, the content that is taught and learning activities. Furthermore, Sieborger (1998) states that assessment is a reciprocal process; as it is used by both learners and teachers to decide where the learners are at in their learning and where they need to go and how best to get there. The characteristics that Sieborger identifies to be contained in assessment are made up of: tasks, exercises, tests and exams, which are set and assessed by educators. There are different methods and uses of assessment that are used in the Education system, the reason for this, is that not all assessments serve the same purpose for its methodologies, the feedback that learners receive needs to correspond with the purpose of the assessment.
Although there are various types of assessment approaches, the three key ones that are used in Spanish language subject are the following: Assessment for learning or formative assessment, summative assessment and ipsative assessment or self-assessment.
First and foremost, Jones and McLachlan (2009) argue that the acquisition of a new language within the classroom setting is best achieved when key linguistic competences such as, speaking, listening, writing and reading are interlinked to create a whole language experience (Jones and Coffey 2013; Kirsch 2008). Gardner (1983) researched into cognitive processes and suggested in his seminal theory that there is the existence of seven forms of intelligence, which are regularly targeted within the MFL lessons, such as kinaesthetic, visual, musical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, logical and verbal-linguistic learning (Goswami and Bryant 2007; Jones and Coffey 2013; White 2005). This suggests that if teachers provide opportunities for the pupils to access and participate in the learning, and make available ample opportunities for pupils to contribute their understanding (McCallum et al. 2000; Pachler et al. 2007) that children can be assessed using different assessment strategies suited to the learning style (LGfL 2011). As a result the scheme of work (Appendix 1) adopts a range of kinaesthetic, visual, audible learning strategies throughout and using a range of resources also allows assessment to consider the l...
The ability to test a student’s language skills is essential to have as a teacher. Over the years, classrooms have become much more diverse with a wide variety of impairments being presented on a daily basis. Often, these disabilities contain a language impairment that appears as a side effect of the main disability. Unfortunately, assessing language is not as easy as one may think because it is not clearly defined and understood. Kuder (2008) writes that “…language is not a unitary phenomenon- it is ‘multidimensional, complex, and dynamic; it involves many interrelated processes and abilities; and it changes from situation to situation” (pg. 274). Language also develops at different times for different individuals, thus making language assessment an even harder task for test administrators to grade and evaluate. In order to further understand the language impairment that students present, teachers need to be aware of appropriate language tests that could be administered. In order to assure that the best language test is being issued to a student, several various tests exist to choose from. To test a student’s overall language capability, a comprehensive language test, such as the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL) or the Oral and Written Language Scales (OWLS), could be administered. If a teacher wanted to test a specific language skill such as pragmatics, phonology, syntax, or semantics, the teacher would need to find the best test for the student’s unique situation.
The minimum core skills provide the essential knowledge, skills and understanding. That enables learners to function confidently, effectively and independently in life. I am required to include the three functional skills within my assessment method to help improve the literacy, numeracy, and ICT skills of my learners. For example to promote literacy/language I do reading and writing. For speaking: discussions, question and answer, etc. For numeracy: time conversion, numbers. For ICT: e-mail, web-based researches, presentations, etc (Grevells, 2012). When learners summarise what they have learnt during the lesson, I could assess their speaking skills and writing skills because to summarise the lesson they need to take notes, so writing skills embedded as well as speaking skills. With choral reading strategy, I assessed reading and speaking skills. In addition I assessed their ICT and numeracy skills by asking my learners to do a lesson plan for their home studies. In this way, through my assessment strategies literacy, numeracy and ICT skills are being
Assessments allow for teachers to monitor the progress and growth of his/her students, help engage students and help guide teachers as well as students in their decision making. Teachers should know that tests are not the only way to assess students in the classroom. It is important for educators constantly assess their students on comprehension and progression.Teachers can take use of both formal and informal assessments so that they can engage students in their own learning, as well as monitor their comprehension and progress.
As teachers, we have to monitor the progress our students make each day, week, quarter and year. Classroom assessments are one of the most crucial educational tools for teachers. When assessments are properly developed and interpreted, they can help teachers better understand their students learning progress and needs, by providing the resources to collect evidence that indicates what information their students know and what skills they can perform. Assessments help teachers to not only identify and monitor learners’ strengths, weaknesses, learning and progress but also help them to better plan and conduct instruction. For these reasons, ongoing classroom assessment is the glue that binds teaching and learning together and allows educators to monitor their efficacy and student learning.
All methods in language teaching are a pre-designed set of description of how the teacher should teach the learner and how the learner should learn obtain from a specific theory of language and a theory of language learning. These theories are attain from the parts of linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and are the origin of theory and applying in language teaching. Language teaching methods is divided into many methodologies. For example: The Direct Method, Grammar-Translation Method, Audio-Lingual Method, Total Physical Response, Audio-Lingual Method, The structural Method etc. Each method has its own rules, history, and different from one another. For example: The direct method was the reply to the disapproving with the