This unit of self assessment was very interesting because we learned the advantages and disadvantages of using self assessment in the classroom. It was very interesting and challenging to prepare a self assessment instrument for students to evaluate themselves, but as the authors said, the problem is that sometimes teachers don’t find coherence between the student’s self evaluation and their own evaluation of the student.
We really liked the idea of using a diary and self assessment; we think they give students a voice because students get the opportunity to tell the teacher how they feel about their progress and whether their expectations get fulfilled.
We totally agree that self assessment at the beginning of a course helps the teacher to get to know his/her students’ problem areas and their overall opinion about language learning/their language experience while learner diaries and self assessment of learning styles show the teacher and the students where the learning process can be improved.
Regarding to unit 1 2- You did all the definitions of assessment in language learning and teaching and also you understood their roll. 1- Did between 75 & 50 % of all definitions and assessments. 0- Did less than half of them. Regarding to units 2 and 3 3- You did all the instruments, plans, and techniques to design an informal assessment; besides, you read and analyzed all the information about the different types of exams. 2- Only did half of the work in one of the units. 0- I didn’t do one unit. Regarding to units 4 and 5 2- Did you design a good taste with the four abilities, with appropriate techniques an adequate method and monitoring through reading and tasks? 1-We designed a test, but we had doubts if it would really work 0- We did it because it was an obligation, but we didn’t know how to do it. Regarding to unit 6 2- Did you design an instrument that allows students to assess their own performance in the course including at least 1 or 2 of the techniques seen in this unit? 1- We designed an instrument that allows students to assess their own performance in the course, but with no techniques at all. 0- we didn’t do any instrument. 1- Did you respond by giving good comments, defending your/the classmate point of view, or by giving insight? 0- Did you respond just because you needed to respond something? Total: 10 points
ü It can provide us with information about students’ expectations and needs.
ü Also self- assessment can tell us what Students’ problems are in the learning process of the new language and their reactions to the material that is used in class.
ü Besides that it can tell us what they think about their progress, what is their opinion about our class strategies, and what do they think about the course in general.
ü Self-assessment can give us direct information about how Ss’ react when they answer our assessments and also self-assessment can give us information about their weak and strong areas.
ü One of the most important benefits of all is that self-assessment is related to its impact on learning. We should remember that in the in the learning-base model both the teacher’s assessment and the Ss’ self assessment have direct effect in the learning process.
Disadvantages of using self-assessment in classroom
· Self-assessment can take us a lot of time, which is very important in class.
· Self-assessment implies knowledge about language and learning which most secondary learners do not have.
· It can work if there is a training of learners which can be difficult for some teacher or once again the lack of time.
· Many teachers doubt about the maturity of the Ss’ when they are asked to give themselves a mark with a higher score or lower depending on their expectations, so it could make self-assessment an unreliable influence on assessment.
· The most important disadvantage is that self-assessment can not work in a context where marks have an intrinsic value and there is a competition between Ss’ for them. In fact most self-assessments should have nothing to do with marks.
Alfonso L.
There are many possibilities for the implementation of self-assessment in language learning. I think that self assessment at the beginning of a course can really help the teacher to get to know his/her students’ problem areas and their overall opinion about language learning/their language experience. Also learner diaries and self assessment of learning styles can really show the teacher and the students where the learning process can be improved.
Advantages of using self-assessment in the classroom
Students are taken seriously because they get the opportunity to tell the teacher how they feel about their progress, whether their expectations get fulfilled and their needs covered.
Students are more active because they have to be aware (think) of what they learned and what they did not learn in order to be able to assess themselves, improve/correct themselves, and learn more. Self assessment is an integral part of learning.
Students can explain the problems they have encountered and express how they felt about materials/methods that were used and how they liked the course in general.
Disdvantages of using self-assessment in classroom
It can take up a lot of time and students need to have knowledge about language and learning in order to be able to assess themselves correctly; therefore, self assessment can only work if it is accompanied by learner training.
Many teachers have their doubts about the maturity of students when they are asked to give themselves a mark. Self assessment does not work when there is a competition between students because progress should be seen individually and students should not compare with other students while assessing themselves.
Melanie L.
Advantages and disadvantages of self-assessment
Advantages:
Ø Diagnosing problems and measuring the progress of the students.
Ø Give feedback to the teacher about his method of teaching.
Ø Students are involved in the process of assessment.
Ø If students are encouraged to assess their own work, they are more likely to improve.
Disadvantages:
Ø It can take up a lot of time.
Ø Self-assessment implies knowledge about language and learning which most secondary learners do not have.
Ø Many teachers may have their doubts about the maturity of students when they are asked to give themselves a mark, which will be taken into account in their overall assessment.
Ø Self-assessment cannot work in a context where marks have an intrinsic value in themselves and there is competition between students.
This was definitely one of the most interesting chapters because we could see our progress as team and the result, the test. We think that the last activity was a lot of work and quite complicated because there was a lot to think and decide. Even though almost all the elements were prepared beforehand, it was hard to put them all together. We learned a lot! We noticed that assessment needs a lot of reflection because it is not easy to "invent "an exam. We also remembered that sometimes students fight over the content of the exam, so we were aware that everything must be thought through carefully. We also noticed how important it is to teach students how they should answer the different parts of the test and give them examples.
In this assignment, we prepared an English unit test for children in fourth grade primary school. The order of the following test is as follows: first comes the introduction, then learning objectives and contents to be assessed with the test, content, the test, the answer key and rating guide, test specifications. At the end comes developing the test: description of the process and the comments of our moderator.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND CONTENTS TO BE ASSESSED WITH THE TEST
Students will be able to write, ask and answer about future plans and celebrations and their dates, using ordinal numbers and future tensebe+ going to.They will also be able to understand vocabulary in a text from context, comprehend a short dialogue in order to answer some questions, and comprehend and write ordinal numbers correctly.
·Exam (40 points)
oWriting: Students will write a short text (50 words) about what they are going to do at the next celebration like Christmas, Easter, Mother’s day, etc. (Grammar: be+ going to, ordinal numbers) [16 points]
oWriting: Students will ask and answer questions, using be+ going to and ordinal numbers. [4 points]
oReading: Students will read a text and choose the meaning of the highlighted words. (Meaning from context) [10 points]
oListening: Students will listen to a short dialogue and answer some questions about the future plans of then speakers. (Grammar: ordinal numbers, be+ going to and wh-questions) [6 points]
oListening: Students will listen to some sentences and will write down the ordinal numbers they hear. [4 points]
CONTENT
Future tense be+ going to+ verb.
Wh- questions
Getting meaning from context
Ordinal numbers
Narrating, asking and answering questions about holidays
TEST
A) Writing(16 points)
Instructions:write a short text (at least 50 words) about what you are going to do in the next celebration. (Use“be going to” and ordinal numbers.Spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, and grammar count!)
Ex: On December 24th, I am going to bake a cake and …….
Use the words in brackets to ask and answer a question. Use the structure “be+ going to” and write the ordinal numbers in written form. Spelling, punctuation, and grammar count!
Example: (when, celebrate Christmas /24th)
When are you going to celebrate Christmas? I am going to celebrate Christmas on December twenty-fourth.
Instructions: read the following sentences about birthday traditions and circle the correct meaning of the underlined words(definition, synonym).
Example: Everyone’s birthday is celebrated on New Year’s Day. Not only is “Tet” the beginning of a new year, it is also everyone's birthday. The Vietnamese do not know or acknowledge the exact day they were born. (Kim, Vietnam)
a) end b)startc) middle d) celebration
1. People pull on your earlobe, one pull for each year. (Maria, Brazil)
2. Your nose gets greased with butter for good luck. (Tom, Canada)
3. We have noodles for lunch and every one wishes you a long life. (Ping, China)
4. You are blindfolded and have to break a piñata. Everyone shares the treats. (Jose, Mexico)
5. You get a birthday pie not a cake. (Vladimir, Russia)
6. Little ones sit on a chair and grown-ups lift them up, once for each year and one more time for good luck. (Amy, Israel)
7. You wear a colorful dress and pass out chocolates at school. (Deepa, India)
8. Birthday cakes candles are lit at sunrise and burn all day. At dinner, you blow out the candles and make a wish. If you blow out the candles in one try, your wish comes true. (Katrina, Germany)
9. The birthday child is lifted upside down and "bumped" on the floor for good luck. The number of bumps given is the age of the child plus one for extra good luck. (Sally, Ireland)
10. The birthday person sits in a chair and friends and family lift the chair one time for each year. The traditional birthday cake is a yellow cake called "klingeris". (Karina, Latvia)
1.a) part of the earb) earringc) balloond) clothing to protect the ear
2.a) color for grassb) food for cows c) apply athick oily substance d) a salad
3.a) a trainb) a long thin strip of pasta c) a sandwich d) a direction
4.a) to cover the eyes with a piece of cloth b) extreme happy c) fool d) dance
5.a) a nice presentb)a type of coat c) a baked fruit in a dish with pastry on the bottom d) a chocolate
6.a)an adult b) a person playing to be an adult c) a tall person d) to become bigger or taller
7.a) hand outb) faintc) eatd) buy
8.a) to remove a flame with the breath b) to make a mark c) to lightfire d) to cut something
9.a) a sweet b) to hit a part of your body against or on something c) a flower d) to give marbles
10.a) to sell b) to paint c) to raised) to cut
D) Listening Comprehension (6 points)
Instructions: listen to the dialogue and answer the questions below. (Try to write in complete sentences and spell correctly even though it will not be evaluated.)
CD:
A: Hi, how are you going to celebrate your birthday?
B: My parents are going to bring me a cake and some presents. And you, how are you going to celebrate your birthday?
A: I’ m going to visit Disneyland.
B: What are you going to do there?
A: Well, I’m going to spend two days in a beautiful hotel, I’m going to dance with Cinderella, and I’m going to take a photograph of Mickey Mouse.
B: And, what are you going to do for Christmas?
A: Well, I’m going to visit my grandparents.
B: Are you going to give them presents?
A: No, I won’t because I don’t have any money.
Questions:
1.When is student A.going to photograph Mickey Mouse?
Students get 1 point for each correctly written answer or question.
Correct spelling
Correct punctuation
Correctly spelled ordinal number
Correct use of the structure“be + going to”
Sentence number 1
0,25 point
0,25 point
0,25 point
0,25 point
Sentence number 2
0,25 point
0,25 point
0,25 point
0,25 point
Sentence number 3
0,25 point
0,25 point
0,25 point
0,25 point
Sentence number 4
0,25 point
0,25 point
0,25 point
0,25 point
C) Reading (10 points)
1.a)
2.c)
3.b)
4.a)
5.c)
6.a)
7a)
8.a)
9.b)
10. c)
Students get one point for each correct answer.
D) Listening Comprehension
1. He/she is going to photograph Mickey on his/her birthday
2. He/she is going to visit his/her grandparents.
3. He/she is going to eat cake.
4. He/she is going to dance with Cinderella.
Words in bold must be part of the answer in order to get the points. Students get 1, 5 points for each correct answer. Incorrect spelling and grammar do not take away any points.
E) Listening
1) Seventh
2) Twentieth
3) Ninth.
4) Thirty-first
Students get 1 point for each correct answer if the spelling is correct and 0,5 points for each correct answerif the spelling is not correct.
TEST SPECIFICATIONS
Writing A) (17 minutes)
lFormat: prompt for short text
lTask: students write about their plans for their favorite celebration.
Writing B) (9 minutes)
lFormat: prompt for questions and answers.
lTask: students write questions and answers with given information
Reading C) (15 minutes)
lFormat: text
lTask: students choose synonyms or definitions for underlined words.
Listening D) (8 minutes)
lFormat: dialogue (40 seconds)
lTask: students answer comprehension questions
Listening E) (6 minutes)
lFormat: sentences(20 seconds)
lTask: students write down ordinal numbers
The total exam takes 55 minutes.
DEVELOPING THE TEST: DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS
First of all we decided for which level we wanted to write the exam. Then we thought about the children’s needs and we put ourselves in their “shoes”.Then we considered the environment and the type of school where young children usually learn L2. Besides, we revised the objectives of the program and all the topics that were seen before and will be seen after our assessment. Then we tried to make a test with which children would feel comfortable. We chose topics that would make them remember pleasant events such as birthdays or their favorite dates such as Christmas.When we were preparing the test, we noticed that most items were testing something else indirectly, and we decided to change one item to make it direct. We decided to leave the other indirect items the way they were because we liked the idea of having some items that test grammar/spelling indirectly. We added our expectations to the instructions, so that students would know what will be expected of them. When we were preparing the rating guide, we decided not to give too much weight to the indirect testing of spelling of the ordinal numbers. That is why we will give 0, 5 points if the student understood the ordinal number even though he was not able to write the number correctly.
We decided to prepare easy and short test items because we are supposed to teach a group of fourth graders, and we did not want to make the items complicated. We have taught the students not only the language skills but also how to answer these kind of items.When we decided which skills to assess informally and formally, we decided to assess speaking informally. Therefore, we will focus only on these skills: writing, reading, and listening. We tried to prepare an exam that has very clear instructions, easy examples, and above all that is coherent with the program and topics seen during the class. We also tried to make the items as objective as possible, with just one possible answer. We know that item A) is not very objective, but we think that free writing is very important, so we included it in our test. We tried to write very clear instructions and give an easily understandable rating sheet.We changed the reading item because we noticed that it would be too difficult for kids to define the words. In this item multiple choice is a better option. We avoided using multiple choice items for the listening part because we believe that it is better that students write what they hear, even though it might not be correct in order to avoid guessing.
After these processes, we analyzed the scoring of each exercise, the manner how students could understand the instructions, the type of example in each skill, and we read the test many times, trying to think the same way children of that level might think. We also discussed what the most convenient exercises for them were, and we revised our teacher’s (Rocío Dominguez) advices.
We decided to score the first part of writing with 16 points because it is a free writing exercise and is more challenging. The semi controlled exercise of writing has only two exercises, so we gave it only four points. After this skill, there is a reading section where students have to find the meaning of words and we scored this exercise with ten points, one per word. Then there is the listening exercise where students have to scan and focus on important words. We decided to give students six points for this item because they will have to pay close attention to what they hear. In the second part of the listening, students will listen to four sentences and will write down the ordinal numbers they hear. It is an easy exercise, but we will check their spelling indirectly, so for this reason we gave this exercise four points.We decided to give one point for each correctly written ordinal number and half a point if the ordinal number is not spelled correctly.
We decided to give students a lot of time for each item. The whole test was given the maximum duration of 55 minutes, but we expect most students to be able to do it much faster.
We think students might believe this test is valid because we tried to make it as easy and clear as possible. We decided to test only the most important skills, and students have practiced everything that we want to test. We believe that the instructions are clear to understand, especially because we included an example for each item. Even though the test is a little long (five pages), we think that it is a practical test. We think that the rating guide is easy to use and that the whole test has face value because it is testing what we wanted it to test and nothing else. We decided that after having handed out the corrected tests to the students, we would correct the test with the whole class in order to give feedback to the students and answer any questions that might arise.
COMMENTS BY MODERATORS
This test was moderated by Moisés López Orozco.
Is the English grammatically correct?
Yes
Is the English natural and acceptable?
Yes
Is the English in accordance with the specs?
Yes
Does the item test what it is supposed to test?
Yes
The correct response cannot be obtained without the appropriate grammar knowledge?
Don’t really understand.
Is the item economical?
Yes
Multiple choice- is there only 1 correct answer?
Yes
Gap filling – are there just one or two correct responses?
One
Multiple choice – are the distractors really going to distract?
Yes, but not in a bad way
Is the key complete and correct?
Yes
Are the instructions complete? Not too long?
Are short and clear
Is there an example?
Yes, good examples.
Comments: The test is very easy to understand because all the items are related there is nothing left out. It has a good variety of exercises and that’s a good thing because students will not get frustrated or bored because of the test.
