This blog is designed exclusively for students who are taking the course Planning and Evaluation from the Masters in Education with mention in English Teaching, Ulatina. The purpose is to get involved into the topics related to the main competencies and become better professionals.
domingo, 21 de octubre de 2012
THIRD DISCUSSION 5%
Based on the readings Assessing Oral Language and Literacy Development and Documenting Performance Assessment, post your reactions. The activity has to be completed before Wednesday, Oct. 24th. Then, you need to reply to your partners.
I am going to start my comment by using a quotation from the reading: "Our assessment must match best instructional practice, reflect the characteristics of English language learners, and yield useful information" (Gottlieb, 2006). Notwithstanding, assessment is an overriding mainstay in our daily life as teachers; since it is a group of processes and procedures used to gather preeminent data, utilizing a variety of factors about students' performance. An educational professional must be able to effectively evaluate and assess the students' progress and knowledge of the subjects being taught, in our case English. A teacher must also be able to assess how a student learns and whether the methods, materials he is using are effective or not.
Assessment is a pivotal tool in a classroom that all teachers must master. Thus, performance assessment and grading rubrics are both means of assessing pupils' performance, and they are effective for use within a classroom.
Performance assessment is a very common and useful method of evaluating the progress of a student. This method of evaluating a student's performance does not rely only on tests grades so that pupils who are not always good at tests can reflect their understanding of the material. On the other hand, it is very relevant to point out that grading rubrics are essential in order to assess the retention of a leaner's knowledge of the classroom work. Grading rubrics are not only useful for the teacher, but they can be useful for the student as well. With grading rubrics a learner is aware of exactly what a teacher is looking for in an assignment or task, and a teacher can easily judge an assignment or task by comparing it to the standards set in the grading rubrics.
To sum up, as a teacher it is preeminent to be aware of a student's performance in the classroom for many reasons. If a teacher is accurately able to assess a student's progress, he will know if the teaching methods are working and where the students need help. Undeniably, assessment is a necessary factor in any educational system, and all teachers should be aware of the many means and methods of assessing in order to make our students thrive in their teaching-learning process.
As I stated in the previous comment: "Assessment is a pivotal tool in a classroom that all teachers must master. Thus, performance assessment and grading rubrics are both means of assessing pupils' performance, and they are effective for use within a classroom." Hence, a series of preeminent questions arise: What's the purpose of assessing our pupils in their daily learning process? What should we assess? How should we assess?
I do deem a growing number of teachers, who have studied assessment in-depth, are interpreting documentation as part of their daily work, rather than only at the end of a unit, project, or extended period of time. However, I reckon that the traditional pattern is still to assess at the end, rather than as an integral part of the ongoing process of learning. Why? Because the practice of assessment is most often thought of as synonymous with evaluation and, in a Costa Rican context, evaluation is a process of judgment, measuring, and placing one work in relation to the others’ works. So, I could explain why many Costa Rican educators, who collect documentation, wait to interpret and use it (as if it were evaluation data) to judge or describe the final learning outcome at the end of a series of experiences, rather than as part of the everyday teaching-learning process, that is why daily feedback is really a mainstream when teaching.
Doubtlessly, there is a link between assessment processes and students’ motivation to learn. When feedback and assessment lay emphasis on progress and achievement, pupils are motivated to keep learning. Therefore, feedback that is specific, respectful, timely, and constructive is likely to enhance learning and performance. To conclude, undeniably, teachers must engage in developing better understanding of what assessment is and for and to gain confidence in their assessment practice.
Assessing Oral Language and Literacy Development According with this reading I understood that assessment is important because of all the decisions we will make about children when teaching and caring for them. All of our assessment decisions taken as a whole will direct and change children’s learning outcomes, because if we use assessment procedures appropriately, we will help all children learn well. Is important take into account that assessment should bring about benefits for children. Assessment should be designer to a specific purpose and should be reliable, valid, and fair for that purpose. In our classrooms when we assessment speaking, reading or writing the methods of assessment should recognize that children need familiar contexts to be able to demonstrate their abilities. Abstract paper-and-pencil tasks may make it especially difficult for young children to show what they know. That´s why we as a teacher have to identify children's skills, abilities, and needs, make lesson and activity plans and set goals, create new classroom arrangements, select materials, make decisions about how to implement learning activities and monitor and improve the teaching-learning process.
Documenting Performance Assessment Most standardized tests are not designed to evaluate the individualized growth and development taking place in our classroom. But there are assessment tools that do! In preschool for example many early childhood educators are uncomfortable with the idea of testing the young children they work with. This is because the assessment tools they know were designed primarily for older elementary-school students. But my opinion, the known as "performance" or "authentic" assessment, these new tools have many benefits. For example they systematically document what children know and can do based on activities they engage in on a daily basis in their classrooms, also they permit an individualized approach to assessing abilities and performance. That´s why for me documenting performance assessment comprehensive should contain some variation of the following components like developmental checklists, portfolios or summary report. The three basic components of performance assessment — developmental checklists, portfolios, and summary reports — are all necessary. Without ongoing checklists, teachers could not keep track of children's progress toward widely accepted curriculum goals. Without portfolios, differences in the quality of one child's work over time might be hidden, and children's ability to take an active role in evaluating their own work ignored. Without summary reports, easily understandable information for parents, teachers, and school administrators would be unavailable. Together, the three components constitute a dynamic, authentic performance system.
In regards to the reading "Documenting Performance Assessment" , I consider that it is strictly necessary that teachers should know how to implement an assessment as well as designing rubrics because if they do not do it well, students are not going to be assessed in the correct way.
Indeed, in my opinion, a good teacher is one who applies assessment constantly during the development of a class as a way to use pedagogical strategies, and not only use assessment for giving a final grade at the end of a certain period. In other words, what I want to portray is the idea that evaluation should be an integral process and not a single one.
Aditionally, what really cares regarding assessment is to measure the progress and development of the learners making them feel relaxed and motivated about the process of learning and not the other way around. There are many students who feel anxious and scared when they have to be assessed, and it has to be avoided. That is why, teachers should know how to use assessment from a constructivist point of view and definitely to put all these skills into practice.
I personally enjoyed this article since it describes many important factors which participate in the complex process of listening. For a fact, I can mention that listening in another language is a hard task. Furthermore, even being a native speaker, listening to his or her mother tongue can be difficult if one is not used to listen. To me listening is almost an art, but we can make it easier by applying what we know about activating prior knowledge, helping students organize their learning by thinking about their purposes for listening. Also, by reading these articles I learned that speaking is communicating, but communicating effectively. Speaking means being brave, and being able to take and understand feedback. Mistakes are an important part of learning. I also learned that teachers need to encourage students to develop self control when speaking before a group, or participating in group discussions, just to give a few examples. All of this can be done by means of leading the students through the path of self confidence by creating clear and direct communication skills.
Regarding the reading "Assessing Oral Language and Literacy Development", I have to say that once again to know how to assess is extremely important because each of the activities carried out in order to evaluate students play a very significant role for the process of learning.
For example, assessing by using strategies that make students feel motivated as well as relaxed is considered appropiately because in this way, they are learning in the right atmosphere and at the same time, teachers are doing an integral assessment of the development and oral performance of the students.
Also, another important aspect that should be taken into account is that in order to bring a reliable and useful assessment, it has to follow specific objectives. As a way to illustrate this, a teacher can not assess students at random, this person has to point out which skill wants to assess or what kind of abilities wants to measure.
Also, in my opinion, regular assessment in the classroom has to change, otherwise, the students are not going to learn as they are supposed to do it.
Finally, it is the teacher`s responsibility to implement different learning strategies that help students to enjoy the class, to learn, to be involved during the development of the class, to explode their abilities and simultaneously, to be able to assess students in order to test their improvement as well as their performance.
"Documenting Performance Assessment" Performance assessment is a method of teaching and learning. It is not just a testing strategy. It measures what students can do with what they know, it is based on what is most essential in curriculum and what is interesting to a student. All learning styles are important also performance assessment involves cooperative learning because this skill stimulates the teaching learning process and it gets the students to spend more time actively thinking.
I think that as teachers we need to provide opportunities for self evaluation by students and provide them real life situations in the classroom and use criteria that evaluate the essentials of students performance against well defined standards of performance.
Performance assessment provides opportunities for students to be active participants in their own learning; they can create real products and solve problems in a meaningful context.
"Assessing Oral Language and Literacy Development"
There are various styles and strategies that we as teachers can use in assessing our students' skills, it is important to know and understand how students develop their skills in to identify their weaknesses and strenghts, however it is quite difficult to assess these certain skills. We should use creative methods of assessment to determine if the students are really learning and absorbing what we teach. We don't have to forget that the motivation is extremely important and that we have the big resposibility to project it every day to our students. I'm sure we will achieve good results.
Assessing Oral Language and Literacy Development I really like this reading because it gives us various styles and strategies that we as teachers can use in assessing our students skills . I think that is essential to know and understand how children develop their skills in to identify their weaknesses and strengths . However , it is quite difficult to assess these certain skills . Also I think that teachers should use creative methods of assessment to determine if the students are really learning and absorbing what they teach . Teachers should also be very careful and accurate in assessing the children’s progress in school to be able to determine the areas where students excel and experience difficulty . In assessing the listening comprehension of a student , a teacher can use different styles to do it there are many learning strategies that allow teachers improve their kids listening skills. Also I belive that in the case of the speaking skills of students , they may be very difficult to evaluate and check , especially if the student is a bilingual . However , in assessing their speaking skills , there are different applied exercises a teacher can use to determine and evaluate the speaking ability of their students .
In this reading we can take so many aspects that are very important and useful in our field I think that most standardized tests are not designed to evaluate the individualized growth and development taking place in our classroom. But there are assessment tools that do, and that we as teachers can have into account. Since many years ago teachers are uncomfortable with the idea of testing the young children they work with. This is because the assessment tools they know were designed primarily for older elementary-school students or these tools are out of context. In recent years, however, a new approach to assessment has been gaining acceptance among early childhood and primary grade teachers. Known as "performance" or "authentic" assessment, these new tools have many benefits that standardized tests do not.
Gracy, I really like your comment and the fact of teachers in the past trying to teach English and the four skills in isolation. We as the new generation of teachers have to innovate, and what is more important to change not only the way we teach English but also the way we approach different skills to develop in our classrooms and to integrate all the skills plus culture which is something we must consider in our lesson plan.
According to what I read and what I think about assessing on different skills, it is very important to expose our learners as much as possible to the target language. When we as teachers want to develop and teach listening and speaking skills, it is a must for us to give and maintain real-life contexts of language to make the process of learning more interesting and of course more appealing. Taking into consideration that there are several purposes for listening can help us to develop better learners and of course it is a must to expose learners to different sources in which the teacher is not going to be the only person students are going to listen to. Remember to consider different accents and pronunciations. Whenever our students are listening they are making associations between their prior knowledge to what they are listening to. On the other hand, speaking involves a two way process because there is a turn taking role to express ideas or listen to the other person talking. Assessing speaking in the classroom becomes an easier task than assessing listening because you can hear your students and even gives feedback if necessary. Reading in our contexts, is the main goal for MEP´s policies. Students have to be able to read a text and answer questions about this text in order to get a good grade to approve a test. So the main goal is for comprehension purposes. But we have to struggle with some reading difficulties, that’s why I´d like to encourage my colleagues to teach first of all reading techniques to make the process of reading more appealing and easier for our students. And finally, it is a must to think about student´s prior knowledge on writing to make then establish a connection between what they know, and what are they go to learn. It is also a must to select appropriate writing assignments to challenge them (ZPD theory). To conclude, let´s consider the appropriate rubric or evaluation strategy to measure student’s knowledge and even the way they are getting better in a specific period of time. Student´s needs, abilities a weaknesses are very important to consider when we are assessing students performance in class. JUST IN CASE
In a fragment of the Andrea's comment regarding Assessing Oral Language and Literacy Development, she stated: " I think that it is essential to know and understand how children develop their skills in order to identify their weaknesses and strengths." I strongly agree with Andrea's opinion. Why? Because it is pivotal for us (teachers) to bear in mind that pupils vary enormously in their concerns, needs, and skills. Thus, we can help all students feel safe and be successful learners when we understand their concerns and figure out how to meet their needs and skills. Likewise, a goal of any teacher should be getting to know his students in the classroom on an academic level as well as a personal level. When learners know that their teacher is getting to know them and is building relationships, the students will know that the teacher cares.
All humans have a basic need to belong. So it is preeminent to pay attention to students' skills in forming relationships and making a place for themselves in the classroom. Hence, to teach students effectively, we also need to understand their learning styles and their academic strengths and weaknesses. It is especially important to unravel this puzzle when the learner is struggling. For instance, so often, pupils misbehave because they do not feel academically successful. If we can figure out how to help learners succeed academically, their behavior will often improve.
To sum up, it is of paramount importance to know and understand how learners develop their skills, since it will give us the necessary tools to carry out our teaching labor meaningfully. That is why, we should develop certain steps, strategies, methods, and assessments in order to ascertain whether a student is learning effectively or not.
In a fragment of the Edi's comment concerning Documenting Performance Assessment, he stated: " It is very important to expose our learners as much as possible to the target language." I am strongly in agreement with Edi's point of view. Why is it that?
Firstly, the use of the Target Language (TL) in the classroom greatly increases the students' exposure to the target language. This is very preeminent, especially in foreign language classrooms where the TL is not heard outside of the classroom context. The goal is to make the context as close to a second language context (where the TL would be heard outside of the classroom) as possible in order to give students maximum exposure to the language.
Secondly, by using the TL in the classroom, students are receiving more comprehensible input, thus leading to more complex language structures. By using the TL, students are not only learning "about" the language but also learning "through" the language.
Lastly, using the TL in the classroom can provide a source of modeling for the students both in regards to the production of the language and the attitude toward the language. If the teacher is able to show proper use of the language daily, students can use that teacher as an example or model for production. In addition, if the teacher treats the language as more than just a subject for study but shows the value of the language by using it, students will be more likely to gain a better appreciation for the language.
To conclude, there is no doubt that learners cannot learn the four skills in a new language without hearing it and having opportunities to speak it. In a classroom context the main provider of the TL is the teacher. Notwithstanding, the teacher must consciously be aware of when he is using the TL and when not and why.
I really like Jorge´s comment and mainly what he stated in his conclusion "there is no doubt that learners cannot learn the four skills in a new language without hearing it and having opportunities to speak it" it is trivial for us to exposed our students to the target language, and provide them with opportunities to practice it.
Integrating the “Four Skills” For many years in the past, second language teachers tried to teach the four skills separately. Nowadays, the tendency in a lesson is to integrate the four skills which are listening, reading, writing and speaking. Through this approach, the lesson pretends to model for the students the real life integration of the language skills and allows the teacher more flexibility to create interesting lessons. Good interaction in the class involves more than one skill for the students to be able to send and receive messages. If we want to teach our students written and oral language, all the skills should be reinforced. Actually, they reinforce each other. We learn to speak from what we hear, and to write from what we read. I personally liked all the models the article presents those which integrate the four skills. But definitely, the one that really called my attention was the Task-Based Language teaching because it organizes a course around the communicative tasks learners need to engage in outside of the classroom. It focuses on a whole set of real world tasks such as exchanging opinions, reading newspapers and menus, writing letters and e-mails. All this, without any doubts, involves all four tasks. I am very interested on investigating more about it and use it in our school’s curriculum.
Performance Assessment for English Language Learners I found this very interesting because I think it is a clear humanistic view on how language can be approached. When people learn a second language, they obtain content knowledge, acquire skills, and develop habits as they practice the application of all three to “real world” situations. They fulfill this through the performance of tasks that are meaningful and engaging to them. According to the reading, English Language learners, play authentic performance-based assessment when they use natural language according to their levels of proficiency, work on projects that represent real-world experiences, and connect the language between the tasks and their lives and cultures. While investigating on this topic, I found two charts which helped me get a better view of the difference between performance assessment and traditional testing. I learned that Performance-based learning and assessment are not a curriculum design. Meanwhile teachers decide what to teach, performance-based learning and assessment constitute a better way to deliver their curriculum. It was important for me to learn that teachers do not have to quit using units of study or favorite activities in a performance-based classroom because authentic tasks are rooted in curriculum, teachers can develop tasks based on what already works for them. If we did this, assignments would become more authentic and more meaningful to our students. I can now explain that Traditional testing helps answer the question, “Do you know it?” and Performance assessment helps answer the question, “How well can you use what you know?” Through Traditional testing, students recall, identify, list and match. Through Performance assessment, students classify, compare, analyze, and evaluate. We need to visualize these two ways of looking at our students'literacy do not compete; the challenge is to find the right balance between them. On the other hand, I agree with the fact that Rubrics as Traditional testing are important because they describe the goals for learning and identify the extent to which students have met them. Through our many years of experience, we have met many, many students who decide to quit our program because they do not like to be evaluated using rubrics. They usually drop school and go find some tutors. Right before they leave Costa Rica, they come back to get their formal fluency level results by taking the Oral Proficiency Interview with us. The results are fairly low. Too bad for them! Definitely, the learning process requires both, Performance Assessment and Traditional Testing. It is our job to find the perfect balance to get the best of it all.
Assessing Oral Language and Literacy Development I agree with the author. He thinks it is better to treat the four skills separately when assessing students because through this process, teachers may be able to design a profile of English Language Learners receptive and productive. In my opinion, it would be great to have the opportunity and to have the time to assess each skill separately every day or every week. This would help us visualize clearly the fluency levels and the needs our students have to improve their language. In terms of oral assessment, I like the fact that communicative assessment uses the real-world or authentic text to promote natural interaction. For me, the best of this article is all the charts that we are presented. They give us the exact topics that should be evaluated in each skill and I loved the ones that show us long lists of activities that can be implementing for each skill too. This is truly helpful for us language teachers. It is definitely adequate to acknowledge we have to connect oral language with literacy. We need to help our students activate their schemata and their level of literacy in their own language. And finally, we need to concentrate on implementing the four language domains using different activities to make literacy succeed taking our students to a higher level of knowledge.
I agree with Graci´s comment i think that we as teachers we need to have a period of the class to asses our students individually, but we have to take in consideration the disadavatages of our educational system in where there are like 30 or more students per class , but i also like the way how there are many activities that can help us to try to do our job in better way.
In agreement to the author of the reading "Assessing Oral Language and Literacy Development" and also I agree with Andrea and Graciela about the importance of assessing students separately because in this way, the teacher can find out which are the weaknessess as well as strenghts in each of the different skills: listening, speaking, writing, and reading. However, focusing in our context, the comment of Andrea made me think about Costa Rica´s reality; what I mean is that eventhough it would be nice to prepare nice ane well structured materials and activities for assessing each of the students in every single skill, the fact of having so many students in every classroom will difficult this proposal; however, teachers should give it a try in order to help students to be assessed in the best way possible using both a pedagogical and a functional approach.
I strongly agree with Maria Laura Brenes, because we have to create different kind of rubrics for evaluate our students because we have to take account about the different abilities of our students , a good teacher asses every single day and not pay attention of the score of the exam we have to take account the students process of a learning a language. That is part of constructivism that we as a teacher are going to be easy
I agree with Maria Laura Calvo. She says we need to understand how students develop their skills in order to identify their weaknesses and strengths. We can do this through assessment. I think assessing our students in the four different skills has to be performed every day. We will be able to visualize their needs in the language learning process. That way we can develop strategies to create activities to help them correct their mistakes and improve their levels.
Assessing Oral Language and Literacy Development
ResponderEliminarI am going to start my comment by using a quotation from the reading: "Our assessment must match best instructional practice, reflect the characteristics of English language learners, and yield useful information" (Gottlieb, 2006). Notwithstanding, assessment is an overriding mainstay in our daily life as teachers; since it is a group of processes and procedures used to gather preeminent data, utilizing a variety of factors about students' performance. An educational professional must be able to effectively evaluate and assess the students' progress and knowledge of the subjects being taught, in our case English. A teacher must also be able to assess how a student learns and whether the methods, materials he is using are effective or not.
Assessment is a pivotal tool in a classroom that all teachers must master. Thus, performance assessment and grading rubrics are both means of assessing pupils' performance, and they are effective for use within a classroom.
Performance assessment is a very common and useful method of evaluating the progress of a student. This method of evaluating a student's performance does not rely only on tests grades so that pupils who are not always good at tests can reflect their understanding of the material. On the other hand, it is very relevant to point out that grading rubrics are essential in order to assess the retention of a leaner's knowledge of the classroom work. Grading rubrics are not only useful for the teacher, but they can be useful for the student as well. With grading rubrics a learner is aware of exactly what a teacher is looking for in an assignment or task, and a teacher can easily judge an assignment or task by comparing it to the standards set in the grading rubrics.
To sum up, as a teacher it is preeminent to be aware of a student's performance in the classroom for many reasons. If a teacher is accurately able to assess a student's progress, he will know if the teaching methods are working and where the students need help. Undeniably, assessment is a necessary factor in any educational system, and all teachers should be aware of the many means and methods of assessing in order to make our students thrive in their teaching-learning process.
Written by: Jorge Paniagua Vargas
Documenting Performance Assessment
ResponderEliminarAs I stated in the previous comment: "Assessment is a pivotal tool in a classroom that all teachers must master. Thus, performance assessment and grading rubrics are both means of assessing pupils' performance, and they are effective for use within a classroom." Hence, a series of preeminent questions arise: What's the purpose of assessing our pupils in their daily learning process? What should we assess? How should we assess?
I do deem a growing number of teachers, who have studied assessment in-depth, are interpreting documentation as part of their daily work, rather than only at the end of a unit, project, or extended period of time. However, I reckon that the traditional pattern is still to assess at the end, rather than as an integral part of the ongoing process of learning. Why? Because the practice of assessment is most often thought of as synonymous with evaluation and, in a Costa Rican context, evaluation is a process of judgment, measuring, and placing one work in relation to the others’ works. So, I could explain why many Costa Rican educators, who collect documentation, wait to interpret and use it (as if it were evaluation data) to judge or describe the final learning outcome at the end of a series of experiences, rather than as part of the everyday teaching-learning process, that is why daily feedback is really a mainstream when teaching.
Doubtlessly, there is a link between assessment processes and students’ motivation to learn. When feedback and assessment lay emphasis on progress and achievement, pupils are motivated to keep learning. Therefore, feedback that is specific, respectful, timely, and constructive is likely to enhance learning and performance. To conclude, undeniably, teachers must engage in developing better understanding of what assessment is and for and to gain confidence in their assessment practice.
Written by: Jorge Paniagua Vargas
Assessing Oral Language and Literacy Development
ResponderEliminarAccording with this reading I understood that assessment is important because of all the decisions we will make about children when teaching and caring for them. All of our assessment decisions taken as a whole will direct and change children’s learning outcomes, because if we use assessment procedures appropriately, we will help all children learn well.
Is important take into account that assessment should bring about benefits for children. Assessment should be designer to a specific purpose and should be reliable, valid, and fair for that purpose. In our classrooms when we assessment speaking, reading or writing the methods of assessment should recognize that children need familiar contexts to be able to demonstrate their abilities. Abstract paper-and-pencil tasks may make it especially difficult for young children to show what they know.
That´s why we as a teacher have to identify children's skills, abilities, and needs, make lesson and activity plans and set goals, create new classroom arrangements, select materials, make decisions about how to implement learning activities and monitor and improve the teaching-learning process.
Documenting Performance Assessment
ResponderEliminarMost standardized tests are not designed to evaluate the individualized growth and development taking place in our classroom. But there are assessment tools that do!
In preschool for example many early childhood educators are uncomfortable with the idea of testing the young children they work with. This is because the assessment tools they know were designed primarily for older elementary-school students.
But my opinion, the known as "performance" or "authentic" assessment, these new tools have many benefits. For example they systematically document what children know and can do based on activities they engage in on a daily basis in their classrooms, also they permit an individualized approach to assessing abilities and performance.
That´s why for me documenting performance assessment comprehensive should contain some variation of the following components like developmental checklists, portfolios or summary report.
The three basic components of performance assessment — developmental checklists, portfolios, and summary reports — are all necessary. Without ongoing checklists, teachers could not keep track of children's progress toward widely accepted curriculum goals. Without portfolios, differences in the quality of one child's work over time might be hidden, and children's ability to take an active role in evaluating their own work ignored. Without summary reports, easily understandable information for parents, teachers, and school administrators would be unavailable. Together, the three components constitute a dynamic, authentic performance system.
Marìa Laura Brenes M.
ResponderEliminarIn regards to the reading "Documenting Performance Assessment" , I consider that it is strictly necessary that teachers should know how to implement an assessment as well as designing rubrics because if they do not do it well, students are not going to be assessed in the correct way.
Indeed, in my opinion, a good teacher is one who applies assessment constantly during the development of a class as a way to use pedagogical strategies, and not only use assessment for giving a final grade at the end of a certain period.
In other words, what I want to portray is the idea that evaluation should be an integral process and not a single one.
Aditionally, what really cares regarding assessment is to measure the progress and development of the learners making them feel relaxed and motivated about the process of learning and not the other way around. There are many students who feel anxious and scared when they have to be assessed, and it has to be avoided. That is why, teachers should know how to use assessment from a constructivist point of view and definitely to put all these skills into practice.
I personally enjoyed this article since it describes many important factors which participate in the complex process of listening. For a fact, I can mention that listening in another language is a hard task. Furthermore, even being a native speaker, listening to his or her mother tongue can be difficult if one is not used to listen. To me listening is almost an art, but we can make it easier by applying what we know about activating prior knowledge, helping students organize their learning by thinking about their purposes for listening. Also, by reading these articles I learned that speaking is communicating, but communicating effectively. Speaking means being brave, and being able to take and understand feedback. Mistakes are an important part of learning. I also learned that teachers need to encourage students to develop self control when speaking before a group, or participating in group discussions, just to give a few examples. All of this can be done by means of leading the students through the path of self confidence by creating clear and direct communication skills.
ResponderEliminarMarìa Laura Brenes M.
ResponderEliminarRegarding the reading "Assessing Oral Language and Literacy Development", I have to say that once again to know how to assess is extremely important because each of the activities carried out in order to evaluate students play a very significant role for the process of learning.
For example, assessing by using strategies that make students feel motivated as well as relaxed is considered appropiately because in this way, they are learning in the right atmosphere and at the same time, teachers are doing an integral assessment of the development and oral performance of the students.
Also, another important aspect that should be taken into account is that in order to bring a reliable and useful assessment, it has to follow specific objectives. As a way to illustrate this, a teacher can not assess students at random, this person has to point out which skill wants to assess or what kind of abilities wants to measure.
Also, in my opinion, regular assessment in the classroom has to change, otherwise, the students are not going to learn as they are supposed to do it.
Finally, it is the teacher`s responsibility to implement different learning strategies that help students to enjoy the class, to learn, to be involved during the development of the class, to explode their abilities and simultaneously, to be able to assess students in order to test their improvement as well as their performance.
"Documenting Performance Assessment"
ResponderEliminarPerformance assessment is a method of teaching and learning. It is not just a testing strategy. It measures what students can do with what they know, it is based on what is most essential in curriculum and what is interesting to a student. All learning styles are important also performance assessment involves cooperative learning because this skill stimulates the teaching learning process and it gets the students to spend more time actively thinking.
I think that as teachers we need to provide opportunities for self evaluation by students and provide them real life situations in the classroom and use criteria that evaluate the essentials of students performance against well defined standards of performance.
Performance assessment provides opportunities for students to be active participants in their own learning; they can create real products and solve problems in a meaningful context.
"Assessing Oral Language and Literacy Development"
ResponderEliminarThere are various styles and strategies that we as teachers can use in assessing our students' skills, it is important to know and understand how students develop their skills in to identify their weaknesses and strenghts, however it is quite difficult to assess these certain skills. We should use creative methods of assessment to determine if the students are really learning and absorbing what we teach.
We don't have to forget that the motivation is extremely important and that we have the big resposibility to project it every day to our students. I'm sure we will achieve good results.
Assessing Oral Language and Literacy Development
ResponderEliminarI really like this reading because it gives us various styles and strategies that we as teachers can use in assessing our students skills . I think that is essential to know and understand how children develop their skills in to identify their weaknesses and strengths . However , it is quite difficult to assess these certain skills . Also I think that teachers should use creative methods of assessment to determine if the students are really learning and absorbing what they teach . Teachers should also be very careful and accurate in assessing the children’s progress in school to be able to determine the areas where students excel and experience difficulty .
In assessing the listening comprehension of a student , a teacher can use different styles to do it there are many learning strategies that allow teachers improve their kids listening skills. Also I belive that in the case of the speaking skills of students , they may be very difficult to evaluate and check , especially if the student is a bilingual . However , in assessing their speaking skills , there are different applied exercises a teacher can use to determine and evaluate the speaking ability of their students .
In this reading we can take so many aspects that are very important and useful in our field I think that most standardized tests are not designed to evaluate the individualized growth and development taking place in our classroom. But there are assessment tools that do, and that we as teachers can have into account.
ResponderEliminarSince many years ago teachers are uncomfortable with the idea of testing the young children they work with. This is because the assessment tools they know were designed primarily for older elementary-school students or these tools are out of context. In recent years, however, a new approach to assessment has been gaining acceptance among early childhood and primary grade teachers. Known as "performance" or "authentic" assessment, these new tools have many benefits that standardized tests do not.
Gracy, I really like your comment and the fact of teachers in the past trying to teach English and the four skills in isolation. We as the new generation of teachers have to innovate, and what is more important to change not only the way we teach English but also the way we approach different skills to develop in our classrooms and to integrate all the skills plus culture which is something we must consider in our lesson plan.
ResponderEliminarAccording to what I read and what I think about assessing on different skills, it is very important to expose our learners as much as possible to the target language. When we as teachers want to develop and teach listening and speaking skills, it is a must for us to give and maintain real-life contexts of language to make the process of learning more interesting and of course more appealing. Taking into consideration that there are several purposes for listening can help us to develop better learners and of course it is a must to expose learners to different sources in which the teacher is not going to be the only person students are going to listen to. Remember to consider different accents and pronunciations. Whenever our students are listening they are making associations between their prior knowledge to what they are listening to.
ResponderEliminarOn the other hand, speaking involves a two way process because there is a turn taking role to express ideas or listen to the other person talking. Assessing speaking in the classroom becomes an easier task than assessing listening because you can hear your students and even gives feedback if necessary. Reading in our contexts, is the main goal for MEP´s policies. Students have to be able to read a text and answer questions about this text in order to get a good grade to approve a test. So the main goal is for comprehension purposes. But we have to struggle with some reading difficulties, that’s why I´d like to encourage my colleagues to teach first of all reading techniques to make the process of reading more appealing and easier for our students. And finally, it is a must to think about student´s prior knowledge on writing to make then establish a connection between what they know, and what are they go to learn. It is also a must to select appropriate writing assignments to challenge them (ZPD theory).
To conclude, let´s consider the appropriate rubric or evaluation strategy to measure student’s knowledge and even the way they are getting better in a specific period of time. Student´s needs, abilities a weaknesses are very important to consider when we are assessing students performance in class.
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ResponderEliminarIn a fragment of the Andrea's comment regarding Assessing Oral Language and Literacy Development, she stated: " I think that it is essential to know and understand how children develop their skills in order to identify their weaknesses and strengths." I strongly agree with Andrea's opinion. Why? Because it is pivotal for us (teachers) to bear in mind that pupils vary enormously in their concerns, needs, and skills. Thus, we can help all students feel safe and be successful learners when we understand their concerns and figure out how to meet their needs and skills. Likewise, a goal of any teacher should be getting to know his students in the classroom on an academic level as well as a personal level. When learners know that their teacher is getting to know them and is building relationships, the students will know that the teacher cares.
ResponderEliminarAll humans have a basic need to belong. So it is preeminent to pay attention to students' skills in forming relationships and making a place for themselves in the classroom. Hence, to teach students effectively, we also need to understand their learning styles and their academic strengths and weaknesses. It is especially important to unravel this puzzle when the learner is struggling. For instance, so often, pupils misbehave because they do not feel academically successful. If we can figure out how to help learners succeed academically, their behavior will often improve.
To sum up, it is of paramount importance to know and understand how learners develop their skills, since it will give us the necessary tools to carry out our teaching labor meaningfully. That is why, we should develop certain steps, strategies, methods, and assessments in order to ascertain whether a student is learning effectively or not.
Written by: Jorge Paniagua Vargas
In a fragment of the Edi's comment concerning Documenting Performance Assessment, he stated: " It is very important to expose our learners as much as possible to the target language." I am strongly in agreement with Edi's point of view. Why is it that?
ResponderEliminarFirstly, the use of the Target Language (TL) in the classroom greatly increases the students' exposure to the target language. This is very preeminent, especially in foreign language classrooms where the TL is not heard outside of the classroom context. The goal is to make the context as close to a second language context (where the TL would be heard outside of the classroom) as possible in order to give students maximum exposure to the language.
Secondly, by using the TL in the classroom, students are receiving more comprehensible input, thus leading to more complex language structures. By using the TL, students are not only learning "about" the language but also learning "through" the language.
Lastly, using the TL in the classroom can provide a source of modeling for the students both in regards to the production of the language and the attitude toward the language. If the teacher is able to show proper use of the language daily, students can use that teacher as an example or model for production. In addition, if the teacher treats the language as more than just a subject for study but shows the value of the language by using it, students will be more likely to gain a better appreciation for the language.
To conclude, there is no doubt that learners cannot learn the four skills in a new language without hearing it and having opportunities to speak it. In a classroom context the main provider of the TL is the teacher. Notwithstanding, the teacher must consciously be aware of when he is using the TL and when not and why.
Written by: Jorge Paniagua Vargas
I really like Jorge´s comment and mainly what he stated in his conclusion "there is no doubt that learners cannot learn the four skills in a new language without hearing it and having opportunities to speak it" it is trivial for us to exposed our students to the target language, and provide them with opportunities to practice it.
ResponderEliminarGraciela Arguedas23 de octubre de 2012 16:08
ResponderEliminarIntegrating the “Four Skills”
For many years in the past, second language teachers tried to teach the four skills separately. Nowadays, the tendency in a lesson is to integrate the four skills which are listening, reading, writing and speaking. Through this approach, the lesson pretends to model for the students the real life integration of the language skills and allows the teacher more flexibility to create interesting lessons. Good interaction in the class involves more than one skill for the students to be able to send and receive messages. If we want to teach our students written and oral language, all the skills should be reinforced. Actually, they reinforce each other. We learn to speak from what we hear, and to write from what we read. I personally liked all the models the article presents those which integrate the four skills. But definitely, the one that really called my attention was the Task-Based Language teaching because it organizes a course around the communicative tasks learners need to engage in outside of the classroom. It focuses on a whole set of real world tasks such as exchanging opinions, reading newspapers and menus, writing letters and e-mails. All this, without any doubts, involves all four tasks. I am very interested on investigating more about it and use it in our school’s curriculum.
Graciela Arguedas24 de octubre de 2012 20:22
ResponderEliminarPerformance Assessment for English Language Learners
I found this very interesting because I think it is a clear humanistic view on how language can be approached. When people learn a second language, they obtain content knowledge, acquire skills, and develop habits as they practice the application of all three to “real world” situations. They fulfill this through the performance of tasks that are meaningful and engaging to them. According to the reading, English Language learners, play authentic performance-based assessment when they use natural language according to their levels of proficiency, work on projects that represent real-world experiences, and connect the language between the tasks and their lives and cultures.
While investigating on this topic, I found two charts which helped me get a better view of the difference between performance assessment and traditional testing. I learned that Performance-based learning and assessment are not a curriculum design. Meanwhile teachers decide what to teach, performance-based learning and assessment constitute a better way to deliver their curriculum. It was important for me to learn that teachers do not have to quit using units of study or favorite activities in a performance-based classroom because authentic tasks are rooted in curriculum, teachers can develop tasks based on what already works for them. If we did this, assignments would become more authentic and more meaningful to our students.
I can now explain that Traditional testing helps answer the question, “Do you know it?” and Performance assessment helps answer the question, “How well can you use what you know?” Through Traditional testing, students recall, identify, list and match. Through Performance assessment, students classify, compare, analyze, and evaluate. We need to visualize these two ways of looking at our students'literacy do not compete; the challenge is to find the right balance between them.
On the other hand, I agree with the fact that Rubrics as Traditional testing are important because they describe the goals for learning and identify the extent to which students have met them. Through our many years of experience, we have met many, many students who decide to quit our program because they do not like to be evaluated using rubrics. They usually drop school and go find some tutors. Right before they leave Costa Rica, they come back to get their formal fluency level results by taking the Oral Proficiency Interview with us. The results are fairly low. Too bad for them! Definitely, the learning process requires both, Performance Assessment and Traditional Testing. It is our job to find the perfect balance to get the best of it all.
Assessing Oral Language and Literacy Development
ResponderEliminarI agree with the author. He thinks it is better to treat the four skills separately when assessing students because through this process, teachers may be able to design a profile of English Language Learners receptive and productive. In my opinion, it would be great to have the opportunity and to have the time to assess each skill separately every day or every week. This would help us visualize clearly the fluency levels and the needs our students have to improve their language.
In terms of oral assessment, I like the fact that communicative assessment uses the real-world or authentic text to promote natural interaction.
For me, the best of this article is all the charts that we are presented. They give us the exact topics that should be evaluated in each skill and I loved the ones that show us long lists of activities that can be implementing for each skill too. This is truly helpful for us language teachers.
It is definitely adequate to acknowledge we have to connect oral language with literacy. We need to help our students activate their schemata and their level of literacy in their own language. And finally, we need to concentrate on implementing the four language domains using different activities to make literacy succeed taking our students to a higher level of knowledge.
I agree with Graci´s comment i think that we as teachers we need to have a period of the class to asses our students individually, but we have to take in consideration the disadavatages of our educational system in where there are like 30 or more students per class , but i also like the way how there are many activities that can help us to try to do our job in better way.
ResponderEliminarMaría Laura Brenes
ResponderEliminarIn agreement to the author of the reading "Assessing Oral Language and Literacy Development" and also I agree with Andrea and Graciela about the importance of assessing students separately because in this way, the teacher can find out which are the weaknessess as well as strenghts in each of the different skills: listening, speaking, writing, and reading. However, focusing in our context, the comment of Andrea made me think about Costa Rica´s reality; what I mean is that eventhough it would be nice to prepare nice ane well structured materials and activities for assessing each of the students in every single skill, the fact of having so many students in every classroom will difficult this proposal; however, teachers should give it a try in order to help students to be assessed in the best way possible using both a pedagogical and a functional approach.
I strongly agree with Maria Laura Brenes, because we have to create different kind of rubrics for evaluate our students because we have to take account about the different abilities of our students , a good teacher asses every single day and not pay attention of the score of the exam we have to take account the students process of a learning a language. That is part of constructivism that we as a teacher are going to be easy
ResponderEliminarI agree with Maria Laura Calvo. She says we need to understand how students develop their skills in order to identify their weaknesses and strengths. We can do this through assessment. I think assessing our students in the four different skills has to be performed every day. We will be able to visualize their needs in the language learning process. That way we can develop strategies to create activities to help them correct their mistakes and improve their levels.
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