The principles of Language assessment are principles that are used to evaluate a test, to create a new test or to make a better test. According to Brown (2004) these principles should be applied in formal tests and all sorts of tests as well. One of the main points in this book “Language assessment: Principles and classroom practices. London: Longman” is how to use these principle to develop a new test for students, but what are these principles? These cardinal criteria are practicality, reliability, validity, impact and finally authenticity. My main focus in this essay is how is Observation related to these five criteria? And what kind of settings can Observation be useful or harmful for ESL students? Brown stated an interesting point …show more content…
In my opinion Observation is closely related to the principles of assessment because while observably assessing students, the teacher must first ensure that the student is visibly fit to take the test and that the assessment is consistent which means that there is a clear indication of grades, rubrics and scoring tools. Observation assessment must be reliable which means that the settings has to be in good conditions for this assessment to take place , also the instructions must be clear and tools are not biased . Accuracy and validity of tests are very important step that the teacher has to keep in mind. The teacher should set clear objectives while assessing students on certain units. The observation assessment must also be authentic, which means that it is more beneficial for the student to have a realistic test that reflects and demonstrates the world. Sometimes students go through test that will simply discourage them and will not have any beneficial impact on their learning. Which leads the test taker to have a negative perception towards the test. As it is known that the perception of the test taker is an important factor in designing a test. The main objective of these principles in my opinion is to improve the student’s language development and learning abilities and also to …show more content…
Observations take place in different settings. Its main objective is to focus on the student performance during an activity or during classroom activities. Teachers will have to plan how to record their observations. Observations should be recorded in order to improve the student skills through feedbacks. There are different possibilities for recording information from students, the teacher has to make sure that these observations are consistent for all classroom. Some recording options include the following (Checklists, Anecdotal records, and rubrics). The question is what makes observations beneficial for students and what makes it
The topic for today’s reading was, Interpreting the Language Assessment. In one of the assigned readings, Interpreting the Behavioral Language Assessment, emphasized that the purpose of the behavioral assessment is to provide the tester with enough information to design an individualized language intervention program for a specific child. Therefore, to establish an effective intervention program for particular child the tester must identify the most appropriate starting point for initial training. The tester should review each skill in relation to the entire set of skills identified in the assessment. It is usually best to focus on the development of a few key language areas at one time, even though the child may have weaknesses in several of the areas reviewed by the assessment. Also, it is important that the tester not simply pick the areas with the lowest scores and recommend training begin in those areas, because is very important to ensure that the instructor is able to observe the learner acquiring skills relatively short period of time, in order to maintain his motivation to continue conducting language training activities. Only a few areas are selected for the initial intervention, and the focus of the intervention will be continuously changed as the student acquires new skills. Finally, the language intervention program develops the child’s skills such that he could score at least a five on each of the areas of the assessment. This score of five in a specific area may indicate that a particular skill area may not require as intensive intervention as those skills with a lower score. Furthermore, for the second reading, The Benefits of Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior for Children with Autism, stated t...
Observations are most used when a child’s development is causing concern. These can be taken during lesson time and in the playground and record what the child is doing in an informative way.
The district is now making all teachers use an assessment tool called iReady. It is a website that assesses students in math and reading. They are first tested on a kindergarten through fifth grade range to find out what they know. Then the program takes that score and determines the right level for the child and they are tested again on the level. Once all students have been assessed the program orders the students from highest to lowest and by average grade level skill they are on: early second grade, middle second grade, late second grade or any other grade. The teacher uses those scores to create her reading groups, math groups and the students she will give extra assistance to. They haven’t officially established how many times and when they will do this iReady assessment but for now they are doing it once a week for forty five minutes. The test also flags if they spent too long or too little time on a question. The ones that spent less than 15 seconds per problem are to go back and do the assessment again.
Observations are carried out to collect information such as: how a child is progressing; how they learn; their interests; and what they are learning through their play. Along with their unique abilities, talents and needs. Observations can be holistic or focused to one area and indicate whether children are at the expected stage (Early Years Matters, 2015). They can also identify possible SEN. Afterwards, the information retrieved from observations are used to assess and plan for
Using the data collected to monitor and adjust instruction, demonstrates understanding of APS 7. This step is vital to ensure that the student will be successful in the classroom. An effective teacher constantly monitors and assesses their students to ensure that they can be their best under their guidance in their classrooms. When a student progresses, a teacher who has effectively monitored their students will understand when to move their students to more challenging tasks and skills. This is the goal of monitoring and assessing
Observation is very important in young children because that is how you get to know a child better. While observing how a child interacts with their peers, adults, and how they behave in different settings, you are getting to know the child without speaking to them.
There are three key components when determining systematic observations (a) establish that the behavior is significantly important to be observed (b) determine how the information will be gathered, organized, and examined (questions such as who, where and for what length of time, under what circumstances, and on how many occasions should be determined) and (c) clarify under what conditions which behavior will be assessed whether natural, obtrusive or unobtrusive, and mechanical. The various data collection of instruments used is (a) documenting procedures & practices (b) experimental testing (c) dependability and validity (d) protocol. It is extremely important that staff is trained to be effective observers.
Within this paper we will take a brief look at the Language Acquisition Principles and how they work on the behalf of ELL students. We will see how these principles can be applied within our own learning environment. There is much information from Walqui article that gives a brief overview of ELL students and how things looked in the past for these students. Now that times has change we will see how educators can make the requirements for ELL students better and more effective for teacher and students. Hopefully, as we look at ways of changing learning for our ELL students we must remember that every student learns differently. Even if you follow the principles from 1-8 we must keep in mind that everyone is unique and process things within their own time table.
In the context of education, testing refers to “a method to determine a student’s ability to complete certain tasks or demonstrate mastery of a skill or knowledge” (Danuri 2012). Assessment is “the process of gathering information to monitor progress and make any decisions necessary” regarding curriculum and teaching (Danuri 2012). Assessment is a process that measures growth over time whereas testing is a form of evaluating what a student knows at...
Observation is important as the practitioner can find out what the child is interested in and what motivates them to learn alongside their progress and how they behave in certain situations, additionally at the same time it identifies if children need assistance within certain areas of learning or socially (DCSF, 2008). Furthermore the observations check that the child is safe, contented, healthy and developing normally within the classroom or early years setting, over time the observations can be given to parents as they show a record of progress which helps to settle the parent and feel more comfortable about their child’s education. Observations are not only constructive within learning about an individual child, they can be used to see how different groups of children behave in the same situation and how adults communicate and deal with children’s behaviour (Meggitt and Walker, 2004). Overall observations should always look at the positives of what children can complete within education and not look at the negatives and all observations should become a fundamental part of all practitioners work alongside reflection (Smidt, 2009).
Likewise, the use of this peer observation will allow students to have an insight the techniques they are displaying that are improper and offer advice on how to correct these errors. The use of these learning theories and research based instructional strategies increases the probability of successful student learning within this instructional unit.
Assessments in the classroom are ongoing. Assessments are important for teaching in the classroom and for assisting in continuing the learning process of the students. Three purposes of assessment are to measure the amount of information a student has learned and retained, identify a students’ learning needs in and outside the classroom, and gather evidence to help increase learning for the students.
It is important that teachers give children a fair chance to show their knowledge when assessing. “The purpose of assessment is to provide feedback that can be used to improve student performance” (Orange 2000). Teachers assess children to ensure that they are understanding the material, and to make sure they are learning. For young children, tests should never be the only criteria for assessment. Instructors should always make sure that their assessment is fair.
In spite of the importance of assessment in education, few teachers receive proper training on how to design or analyze assessments. Due to this, when teachers are not provided with suitable assessments from their textbooks or instructional resources, teachers construct their own in an unsystematic manner. They create questions and essay prompts comparable to the ones that their teachers used, and they treat them as evaluations to administer when instructional activities are completed predominantly for allocating students' grades. In order to use assessments to improve instruction and student learning, teachers need to change their approach to assessments by making sure that they create sound assessments. To ensure that their assessments are sound they need include five basic indicators that can be used as steps to follow when creating assessments. The first of these indicators and the first step a teacher must take when creating a sound assessme...
I believe that education should be looked as as a desire to acquire all possible knowledge, not as a requirement or something that can be formally examined by standardized tests. There are numerous ways that children learn and I want to be able to encourage as much learning as possible for each child. I believe that using many methods of instruction is the most effective way of teaching to these various ways of learning. These methods include group work, hands-on activities, buddy work, etc. Assessment of children should follow the same idea. When children get the chance to perform on different assessments, they can adequately show their strengths and weaknesses. I do not wish to rely on tests only to assess the students in my class. Some types of assessment that I think should be inlcuded in a classroom are journals, presentations, projects and interviews. I also think that the classroom should be run with the help of the children. By distributing jobs among the children and everyone participating in the classroom, the students will form a sense of togetherness. This will eventually create a community within the classroom. I feel that this community of learners is essential for the students to perform effectively and efficiently. They will feel comfortable in the environment and will not be afraid to take risks or ask questions. The teacher will also be a member of this community and will not be seen as unapproachable or as the only leader.