formative assessment

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C H A P T E R F I V E

Classroom assessment of language use

Classroom assessment or teacher assessment refers to assessment carried out by teachers in the classroom. It may be formative when teachers are collecting information about children’s strengths and weak- nesses in order to provide feedback to learners and to make further deci- sions about teaching, or it may be summative, when teachers are collecting information at the end of a period of time, generally to report to others about children’s progress. Summative assessment carried out by teachers may also inform their own teaching, if, for example, the learners return to them in the following school year. Formative assessment is also called assessment for learning (e.g., Black and Wiliam, 1998). Not all assessment in the classroom is classroom assessment. If teachers are administering tests in the classroom prepared by others, this is not con- sidered to be classroom assessment because it is not prepared by the teacher but by others who are at least one step, and maybe many steps, removed from the learners and the learning situation of the classroom.

Teachers have opportunities to adopt performance assessment in its widest sense in the classroom, engaging children as active participants in assessment processes, assessing processes as well as products, col- lecting multiple sources of evidence over time, and working with parents and others in a collaborative assessment process. In classrooms there are many opportunities for assessment through language use tasks, when children are able to engage in language use in games, infor- mation gap oral tasks, story writing, question-and-answer tasks related to literature, project work and so on. Assessment can be embedded in instruction designed to achieve the curriculum objectives, and this

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enables teachers not only to check that learning is taking place, but also to use the feedback they receive through assessment to support learn- ing. In this way, assessment is able to become, for a large part of the teaching year, an essential part of teaching and learning, rather than a separate process.

This chapter will begin by looking at influences on classroom assess- ment, on why some teachers of young learners are more ready and able to carry out classroom assessment than others. External influences are very real for some teachers, causing them to avoid a strong commitment to classroom assessment, whilst others are free to prepare and carry out their own assessment and to use assessment to support their teaching and learning (Rea-Dickins, 2001). Before outlining strategies that teach- ers use in the classroom, I will discuss some of the processes of classroom assessment – when it happens, how it is planned and how it is incorpo- rated into teaching and learning. Classroom assessment is a continuous and integrated process that is both on-the-run and planned. On-the-run assessment is carried out by teachers for formative purposes to observe and note children’s relevant abilities as they happen – the unexpected question from a quiet child, the engagement in pairwork by two children and the response to a comprehension question of a beginning learner in a whole-class shared reading of a story – often followed up with feedback or strategic intervention. On the other hand, planned assessment may be formative and summative and involves forethought to ensure that infor- mation is collected about children, on relevant abilities, and that that information is valid and fair or ‘useful’. The role of support in classroom assessment is complex, since teachers need to offer help and encourage- ment in order for children to succeed and, at the same time, to assess their progress (see discussion in Chapter 4, pp. 125–6). A continuing theme of this chapter is that language use tasks are central to language assessment, and that the questions and frameworks described in Chapter 4 are relevant to classroom assessment, though with adjustments accord- ing to the purposes and context in which assessment is taking place.

Classroom assessment is dependent on record-keeping because there is so much that is observed during the course of teaching and assessment activities. Records need to keep track of the processes as well as the prod- ucts of learning, and need to be easily interpreted when final reporting to parents and others is due. The final section in this chapter gives sugges- tions on how children’s performance can be recorded, so that accumu- lated information can be used for either formative or summative purposes.

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Influences on classroom assessment

The classroom is not an island, and teaching and assessment practices are influenced by the requirements of others for information about the chil- dren’s progress. The following are three major influences on teachers’ assessment practices in the classroom: system requirements, parental and student expectations and teacher expertise. Any of these influences might cause teachers to draw back from classroom assessment and to rely on others to carry out their assessment. For example, a group of teachers in Hong Kong have told me recently how they tend to avoid classroom assessment, even for formative assessment purposes. They say that their class sizes are too big, that classroom assessment takes too much time and is too difficult. External tests are devised in their school, external to their classrooms, to check pupils’ progress on the request of the principal. These tests are used to report to parents. They therefore feel that their efforts are best placed in teaching children to pass the tests rather than carrying out classroom-based assessment that will be discounted. Apart from physical difficulties such as class size, the following are possible influences on teachers’ approaches to classroom assessment.

System requirements

The education system in which children are learning will include three components that will influence teaching and assessment practice: stand- ards, external tests and curriculum requirements.

Standards

The educational system may be organized around a set of standards that are mandated by a higher education authority (e.g., in the state or school dis- trict). These standards may be the reference point for curriculum require- ments. The system may require that schools and teachers report to the system for accountability. Accountability may be measured by external tests or by student portfolios based on classroom assessment. These system requirements may drive parental expectations, as not only do parents want their children to do well, they want their children to go to schools where they get high test scores. Thus system requirements have a strong influence on teachers’ flexibility with regard to classroom assessment.

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External tests

An external test may be used in younger learner language programmes when an overall ‘audit’ of children’s abilities is required by the education authority or school, or where a research programme is underway. Standardized tests are often norm-referenced. In norm-referenced tests, the information on how a child has achieved is compared with the achievement of the larger group of learners. This means that parents and schools are viewing the child’s performance in comparison to other chil- dren. Whilst it is helpful for parents to know if a child is behind the normal range of performance for his or her age, it is not helpful if comparisons with other children’s performance result in anxiety and pressure, and recriminations against the teacher and school.

The effect of high-stakes external testing on classroom-based assess- ment may be great. Teachers, parents and principals who are in such a teaching situation are anxious that the children pass the tests, and much of the teacher’s energy may be focused on teaching to the tests. Tests are not necessarily the best way to improve learning (Shohamy, 1993) yet they have a strong hold on many language classrooms around the world.

Curriculum requirements

It may be that teachers are faced with very closely defined curriculum content to be covered, because they are obliged to aim towards detailed and explicit curriculum outcomes and standards. The curriculum may be delineated very inflexibly, with textbook chapters to be covered by set times. Teachers in these situations may find themselves teaching the required content or chapters regardless of the actual internalization of the content by the children. In these situations teachers might not assess in the classroom to check that children are learning and to diagnose their needs (since there is no time to go back to review), but rather to give a mark on children’s work for accumulation towards the final mark at the end of the year. The nature of classroom assessment is fundamentally different in these situations to situations where teachers are using assessment to support learning. Education systems need to ensure that standards, exter- nal texts and other curriculum requirements are in alignment, so that teachers can be confident that their classroom assessment is relevant to their teaching and to the external tests that children are expected to take.

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Parental and student expectations

If teachers’ assessment decisions impact on students’ life chances (e.g., admission into a good secondary school), then parents and students are usually anxious that assessment is valid and reliable. This often results in pressure for classroom assessment to be supplemented by, or overridden by, school or external tests. The classroom teachers’ assessment may, in fact, be more valid than an external test – the teacher can, after all, observe performance over many tasks. However, in some high-stakes situations, classroom-based assessments lack credibility in the eyes of parents and children. Teachers, faced with pressure from parents (and therefore from the school administration) to make sure that their assess- ment is absolutely fair, often prefer not to be asked to make assessment decisions in the classroom.

In contrast there are situations in which the teachers’ professional judgments of young learners are trusted, and their assessment decisions accepted by parents, learners and others. This is fortunate, as young learners are not advantaged by pressure to pass tests developed by others who do not know them. Children need time to learn and enjoy their study in a safe, nurturing and anxiety-free environment. Education systems need to work towards a situation where teachers’ decisions have high status and are trusted in the community.

Teacher expertise

Many teachers have considerable training and experience in classroom assessment, whereas others are not trained and have not had experience in assessment. Given the essential role of assessment in teaching, there is clearly a critical need for classroom teachers to have training in assess- ment as part of their pre-service education. For teachers who have not had such training, it is important that they gain this as quickly as possible in their school. The amount of training and experience in class- room assessment that teachers can obtain depends, to a large extent, on the ‘space’ that they are given by the system (the education department, the principal, the parents) to learn how to use and develop their class- room assessment skills. Some teachers face more challenges than others in adopting classroom assessment strategies. The most effective way of improving classroom assessment skills is when teachers work col- laboratively with other teachers, engaging in an ‘assessment dialogue’

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with each other. Groups of teachers can help each other to develop classroom assessment skills when they plan assessment tasks together, share ideas on the procedures they have planned, try out ideas together, score children’s work together and analyse patterns of data from the procedures. They can also share ideas on how to present the value of classroom assessment to principals and parents. Those who advocate classroom assessment value the support it gives to teaching and learning, and to the ultimate achievement of the stated curriculum goals and objectives. Teachers need to build up skills together to understand that classroom assessment is not a diversion from the ‘real’ business of teaching and learning, but a foundation for successful teaching and learning.

Purposes of classroom assessment

Teachers carry out classroom assessment continuously through the school year. Classroom assessment might occur in the following ways and for the following purposes:

• initial diagnosis at the beginning of the year ( What are the strengths and weaknesses that need to be addressed from the start of the year?)

• ongoing diagnosis leading to decision-making about teaching during the course of teaching (How are they progressing? What feedback can I give right now? What do I need to teach next?)

• ongoing collection of evidence leading to information-sharing with children and their parents. What can I share with children about their ongoing progress and needs? What can I tell parents and others about children’s ongoing progress?

• ongoing collection of evidence of progress leading to reporting against externally developed criteria (How are the children progressing towards the criteria?)

• summative purposes ( What have they achieved? What do I report about their progress?)

Many assessment procedures for younger learners are embedded in classroom teaching and the purposes therefore reflect the purposes of teaching and learning.

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Three assessment phases that underpin all assessment processes

I will start here by outlining the phases that underpin all assessment processes and then discuss how these are adapted and applied in classroom assessment. These phases are presented in more detail at the beginning of Chapter 9. These three phases are likely to be more interconnected, iterative and subtle in classroom assessment than in formal testing. For summative assessment, these processes are fol- lowed quite explicitly; for formative assessment they are embedded within the instruction-assessment cycle, as I will discuss below.

Design phase

This phase lays the foundation for the sound development of the assess- ment procedure. In this phase the teacher decides on the purpose for the procedure, checks that the assessment is appropriate for the situations and tasks that learners need in their actual language use context, or that are specified in the curriculum, and checks the characteristics of the learners. The constructs to be assessed (e.g., ‘reading comprehension’, ‘writing a narrative’) are defined clearly in this phase, and a plan needs to be considered to ensure that assessment will be ‘useful’. ( The qualities of ‘usefulness’ are discussed in Chapter 4.) The teacher also checks to ensure that the resources that will be required are available (e.g., the materials needed, the room space required) and plans how best to allocate these.

Operationalization phase

In the operationalization phase, the teacher prepares the assessment tasks, or blueprints for assessment tasks that may be adapted in different ways. Instructions are prepared, as well as scoring methods (see Chapter 8). The formal tools for analysis described in Chapter 4 become part of a teacher’s professional framework and come into play in the selection of tasks.

Administration phase

In the administration phase the teacher is concerned with actually carrying out the assessment procedure and checking that the procedure

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has worked well. There may be a try-out of the assessment procedure first, when the test can be checked with individuals or with a group of children. For summative assessment, information on whether the proce- dure worked well or not can be done by collecting a variety of informa- tion, including marks from different teachers (to check reliability), information on children’s emotional response to the assessment (to check impact) and so on. In formative assessment, teachers need to know other information, such as whether the assessment task was successful in checking the children’s abilities and needs, and whether it was successful in promoting learning, as I will discuss below.

Embedding of these assessment phases in classroom assessment processes

These three phases of assessment inform classroom assessment, though the degree to which they are followed explicitly will depend on whether time is available, whether the assessment is planned (as opposed to on- the-run) and whether it is a high-stakes situation. The phases can be converted into a set of questions for classroom teachers as they follow through their classroom assessment processes.

• Why do I need to know, and who else needs to know? ( The purpose the assessment will serve.)

• What do I need to know? ( The constructs that will be assessed.)

• How can I find out? ( The tasks and strategies that will be used.)

• What will I do with the information? (How information will be used, assembled and stored.)

• How will I know that the assessment has been effective and how can I improve it next time? ( The evaluation of the assessment process.)

Whilst the principles and practices of assessment described in this book broadly apply to classroom assessment, there are some additional influences on assessment in the classroom, and particularly on formative assessment. Formative assessment processes are not simple and linear, but complex and iterative. McMillan (2003) reports from his research into classroom assessment that teachers tend to make their assessment deci- sions based on their foundational beliefs and values about education and learning. They also make decisions based on achieving goals for students that include non-cognitive outcomes (such as confidence and a sense of

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achievement) as well as those stated in the curriculum. They ‘pull’ for their students, in that they try to find ways that help their students succeed. They put great emphasis on promoting their students’ under- standing, and on accommodating individual differences among stu- dents. They vary assessments to accommodate these differences. Teachers believe it is imperative for students to be actively engaged in learning, and for them to be motivated to do their best work. These kinds of factors influence teachers as they undertake classroom assessment. Thus teachers undertaking assessment in the classroom need to under- stand the broader principles and practices of assessment outlined in this book, and at the same time, to adjust to the context of formative assess- ment and the needs of individuals in the busy-ness of the classroom. Further research is needed to help us understand these processes.

Two examples of classroom assessment processes in action

Teaching cycles can provide numerous opportunities for assessment. This is exemplified here in two different descriptions of how assessment works as part of a teaching cycle; both descriptions are concerned with the teaching of ESL in an elementary school context; the first is a teach- ing cycle that is being taught in an intensive language centre context and therefore relates closely to an EFL situation, the second is a study of teaching cycles in which ESL learners are learning English by participat- ing in mainstream classroom activities.

In the first example, illustrated in Figure 5.1, Lumley and his colleagues (1994) describe a teaching cycle around the topic of maps; the activities in the teaching cycle are focused on the teaching of English (e.g., follow- ing instructions, giving clear directions in both spoken and written form) but this is done under a social studies topic, so that children are also learning the study skills (e.g., map-reading) they need to enter into the mainstream classroom. Assessment is strategically planned to take place, in different forms, throughout the teaching cycle. The planned assessment activity ‘Giving directions’ is planned in more detail in advance, with descriptions of the activity itself:

Using the map, students work in pairs to give each other directions from one point to a final location (e.g., from the school to the local shopping centre, from the school to one’s home, from the shopping centre to the local swimming pool). (Lumley, Mincham and Raso, 1994, p. E15)

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149

Incidental Focused Discussion Analysis Peer-/self- observation observation of samples assessment

1. Following and giving directions – around * the classroom/the school.

2. Walking around/photographing features in local area, followed by building a simple model of the local area.

3. Teacher models giving a series of instructions.

4. Students follow instructions to move around * the model.

5. Pairwork: students give each other a series of * * instructions to follow.

6. As a class, discuss features of clear instructions.

7. Introduce street map of local area and familiarize students with map-reading.

8. Planned assessment activity: Giving directions. * *

9. Individual writing. Students write a series of * * directions to a ‘secret’ destination. Other students find the destination by following the directions.

Target group: Middle elementary. Proficiency level: Intermediate. Curriculum area: Social education. Topic: Maps.

Figure 5.1 Example of assessment embedded in a teaching cycle (Lumley, Mincham and Raso, 1994, p. E14).

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The language to be assessed is also planned in advance:

• Inclusion of relevant and accurate detail

• Response to interlocutor (e.g., clarifying questions)

• Grammar and vocabulary: directions, time phrases, specific vocabu- lary (e.g., intersection, parallel)

• Use of verbs (e.g., imperatives: turn, go)

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Stage 1: Planning

• Identifying the purpose for the assessment (why?)

• Choosing the assessment activity (how?)

• Preparing the learners for the assessment

• Who chooses/decides for each of the above?

Stage 2: Implementation

• Introducing the assessment (why, what, how?)

• Scaffolding during assessment activity

• Learner self-and peer- monitoring

• Feedback to learners (immediate)

Stage 4: Recording and dissemination

• Recording & reporting progress towards NC

• Formal review for LEA or internal school purposes

• Strategies for dissemination of formal review of learners

Stage 3: Monitoring

• Recording evidence of achievement

• Interpreting evidence obtained from an assessment

• Revising teaching and learning plans

• Sharing findings with other teachers

• Feedback to learner (delayed)

Figure 5.2 Processes and strategies in instruction-embedded classroom assessment.

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Lumley and his colleagues’ teaching cycle describe assessment-as-plan, that is, the teacher’s plans, in the design phase, for teaching and embed- ding assessment in the classroom.

The second example is from a study of good practice in a number of mainstream classrooms where second language learners are learning English and the mainstream curriculum together. Rea-Dickins (2001) describes assessment-as-action, showing how the phases of classroom assessment are incorporated into the assessment cycle. Rea-Dickins observes teachers carrying out assessment in the classroom and identifies four stages in the process (see Figure 5.2). In the first stage, the planning stage, teachers consider the purpose and the procedures they will follow. ( This stage incorporates both the design and the operationalization phases of test development since planning is undertaken and the materi- als are prepared in this stage.) In the next stage, the implementation stage, teachers introduce the tasks to the children and engage in scaffolding as required. They encourage learner self- and peer-assessment and provide immediate feedback to the learners. In the third stage, the monitoring stage, teachers revise their teaching plans, share findings with other teach- ers, give delayed feedback to learners and record evidence. In the fourth stage, recording and dissemination, teachers record and report and make plans for the dissemination of the findings of their assessment procedures. ( These three stages make up the administration phase in which the assess- ment procedures are put into action, and information analysed and used.) Rea-Dickins shows in this example how classroom assessment is integrally tied to teaching and learning, how teaching strategies are incorporated into the assessment procedure, how information from tests is shared with other teachers, and how teaching and learning plans are revised as a result of the assessment procedure. It also shows how information from the same assessment procedures is used for recording and formal reporting to others.

Rea-Dickins highlights several characteristics of classroom assessment processes.

• Teachers explain assessment tasks to children, introducing the purpose of the task, what the children will be doing during the activity. This reflects the procedures that are followed in teaching tasks.

• There is likely to be scaffolding and teaching during the assessment. It is rare that children are left to work alone on an assessment task in the classroom. Young learners are not usually left to struggle but are given help as they need it. Teachers do this to help children succeed in the

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task (the need for help is noted in the judgment of the child’s ability), and also because the teachers want to take up the opportunity to teach.

• Self- and peer-assessment is included in assessment; this helps chil- dren to learn and to take responsibility for their own learning.

• Feedback to learners is of two kinds. Feedback to individual children may be immediate, most likely during scaffolding within the assess- ment. Feedback may also be given to the child after records have been collected and evidence interpreted – perhaps in an individual confer- encing session or in written form on the child’s work.

• Record-keeping is an integral part of the assessment process. Records lead to delayed feedback for children but are also used for formal reporting purposes.

Only certain elements of the assessment process from these two examples have been outlined here, yet the full assessment process will involve design, operationalization and administration phases in some form. In the Lumley, Mincham and Raso example we see a procedure concentrating on the design phase, in which a variety of assessment methods are planned for a teaching cycle. In the Rea-Dickins example we see elements of the design, implementation and administration phases incorporated into the realities of classroom assessment. Both provide insights into classroom assessment at different phases of the assessment process. In these examples, processes of classroom assessment in young learner classrooms are closely tied to processes of instruction. As they do in their teaching, teachers transfer their knowl- edge of young learners’ needs in learning (e.g., their need for clear expla- nations of procedures, for scaffolding when in difficulty, for immediate feedback) to assessment. It is this kind of teacher knowledge, coupled with informed instruction-embedded assessment processes, that char- acterize much of classroom assessment in young learner classrooms.

Strategies in classroom language assessment

In classroom assessment, there are opportunities for on-the-run assess- ment as teaching proceeds and for planned assessment when teachers make a conscious decision to target specific abilities or skills. This section describes assessment strategies that are commonly used by teachers of younger learners in the language classroom.

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When language use is being assessed, the strategies available to class- room teachers pivot around the tasks that children are undertaking. When teachers are observing, they are observing children participating in language use tasks and other activities. What is the nature of the tasks children are involved in? Are the tasks in which they are engaged the best tasks to give the most helpful information about children’s abilities? For the following strategies to be effective, questions about the selection of the tasks, discussed in Chapter 4, remain as an important backdrop to classroom assessment strategies.

Much classroom assessment is done through continuous assessment practices, combining many strategies over time to assess children’s per- formance, of recording observations and of coming to a decision about progress from the use of these strategies. Observation (both incidental and planned) and on-the-run assessment are key components of continuous assessment, as are many of the strategies described in this chapter such as conferences, portfolios, contracts of work and the selec- tion of specific classroom teaching tasks for planned assessment leading to an aggregated mark.

Incidental observation

Incidental observation happens as part of teaching, as teachers move around to observe and work with children during teaching activities. Incidental observation occurs as the teacher circulates among students who are engaged in classroom tasks and activities. Puckett and Black (2000) describe how teachers engage in incidental observation in the ele- mentary classroom.

During story time, for example, the teacher scans the listeners for facial expressions and body language and listens for verbal responses indica- tive of enjoyment, language development, and comprehension. . . .The children are also observed as they interact with one another and with adults. There are innumerable incidental observations inherent in day-to-day interactions with children. These incidental observations provide valuable information about what individual students are feeling, thinking, understand, and can do and guide the responsive teacher in setting appropriate expectations and experiences for them.

(Puckett and Black, 2000, p. 217)

Incidental observation can take place, for example, during oral inter- action, during the drafting process in writing, and during reading,

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when there is a feedback and support process about the reading, and when questions and discussions take place on reading. Observation might take place outside in the playground (are the second language learners able to hold their own in the new language during play), or in the school assembly (do they appear to be understanding or are they ‘tuning out’?). Mental or written notes are made by the teacher to inform teaching decisions.

Planned observation

Planned observation can involve a number of techniques. Teachers may watch children’s performance in tasks and activities in the classroom and take notes of what they see in a regular and systematic way. They may use observation checklists or rating scales. These checklists may be developed externally (see the following section) or may be developed by teachers for their own particular purposes.

Mason (1992) suggests that teachers should have a schedule for observ- ing children:

Be consistent and systematic with your observations because young children’s learning about written language develops and changes very rapidly. Have a schedule for observing different chil- dren every day or every few days. In this way you will always have an up-to-date detailed record of every child’s learning.

(Mason, 1992, p. 117)

Observations become assessment only when they are recorded sys- tematically over time so that characteristics and changes in student per- formance are noted (O’Malley and Valdez Pierce, 1996, p. 14). Figure 5.3 is a simple example of an observation checklist developed by a teacher reflecting the objectives for a unit of work she is teaching. Note that chil- dren might achieve at different levels.

Other terms could be used, such as ‘low, high, not applicable’, ‘begin- ning, consolidating, established’, or a space could be left open for com- ments. Planned observation of this kind could relate to any aspect of language learning – to sound–letter correspondence, word recognition, reading skills and so on. For a full discussion of observation checklists, see Chapter 8.

Figure 5.4 shows an observation checklist for a whole class. A recording sheet for observations can be a simple grid on one page, with the names

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of each child in the corner of each box on the grid. Teachers can write very small notes on the sheet that can be transferred later to the child’s port- folio. For a full discussion of observation checklists, see Chapter 8.

Classroom assessment of language use 155

Name

Term:

Theme: The sea Always Sometimes Rarely

Uses the target language in language activities (e.g., in games, in painting activities)

Responds to questions and participates in whole-class discussions (Have you seen the sea? When did you go? What kinds of things were on the beach?)

Follows with his/her eyes as teacher reads and points to words and pictures as he/she reads individually with the teacher

Reacts to the story line in the storybooks about the sea read by the teacher to the whole class

Follows instructions in the games and other activities for this unit

Is able to write half a page about the sea without help

Figure 5.3 A teacher-constructed observation checklist for a unit of work.

Date ............................. Focus of observations (if applicable) .....................................

Figure 5.4 A class recording sheet for incidental or planned observation.

Annah Annabel Bella Etc.

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Observing to check progress against externally developed criteria

Observing against externally developed criteria is often the basis for planned observation. Education Departments provide teachers with externally developed criteria. Teachers are asked to make decisions about children’s progress – on which level they are performing – and to report during the school year to the school and the Education Department. Teachers will also take information from specifically designed assess- ment tasks and will combine this with observation data.

The following form (Figure 5.5) can be used by teachers to observe fea- tures of children’s language. On the left are criteria, developed externally, and chosen specifically for the planned unit of work, or perhaps because they are salient in the children’s learning at present (e.g., they may be working at Level 4, and the teacher is aiming to move them to Level 5).

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Externally developed Dated Dated Dated Possible criteria comments comments comments stage or

and and and level suggestions suggestions suggestions

Can respond briefly, with single words or short phrases, to what they see and hear.

Can give short, simple responses to what they see and hear. They name and describe people, places and objects. They use set phrases (e.g., to ask for help and permission). Their pronunciation may still be approximate and the delivery hesitant, but their meaning is clear.

Can understand the global meaning of short phrases clearly spoken.

etc.

Figure 5.5 Form for observing an individual learner against externally developed criteria (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority).

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Teachers have space to write comments and suggestions over time as they observe specified criteria. The value of this pro forma is that it helps teachers to check that a criterion is well-established before deciding on the level at which the child is working.

The very best way to assess children’ progress against externally devel- oped criteria is for the teacher to get a picture of the child, make sure that she knows the child’s abilities, then go to the checklist and fill in the form. Teachers observing against externally developed criteria might follow the guidelines set out in Figure 5.6.

On-the-run assessment

I have written so far about observation as though it were a separate activ- ity from teaching, when teachers stand back and observe children’s activ- ity without immediate intervention. This does happen as part of assessment, but the reality is that teachers are often observing and teach- ing in one continuous process. This then becomes informal, instruction- embedded assessment, also called on-the-run assessment. Teachers engaging in on-the-run assessment have to take into account ‘the inter- active and contingent nature of student performance in the classroom which is dynamic and co-produced with the teachers and others’ (Leung, 2004, p. 22). On-the-run assessment takes place as teaching and learning proceeds. Intervention might involve questioning, seeking clarification

Classroom assessment of language use 157

Collect samples of the first drafts of student’s writing. Use the format provided to analyse the student’s work (two pieces per term is recommended). The performance indicators in the standards are valuable in providing information about what to look for in the student’s work. Use the form provided on the next page. Record your observations and ideas. Attach the writing sample to this page with a copy of the analysis and keep in the student’s portfolio.

Writing task _________________________________ Teacher _____________________________________ Student ____________________________________ Date _______________________________________ Class _______________________________________ Other relevant information ___________________

Figure 5.6 Guidelines for teachers observing against externally developed criteria (adapted from Northern Territory Board of Studies, 1995).

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and pushing some learners forward in their understanding and language learning (Rea-Dickins, 2001, p. 437–8). Scaffolding of learning takes place during this process. The following checklist of scaffolding strategies shows the range of ways that teachers might be intervening as they teach, and thus the way that they can be both monitoring and responding to children’s performance as they participate in on-the-run assessment.

The teacher might construct a worksheet to deal with a particular problem (these children have not internalized enough vocabulary to do with the theme, and therefore they need to do picture-matching on a worksheet, and other activities with the teacher). Alternatively, the information may give the teacher enough information for her to realize that the whole class needs more revision and modelling of a particular genre (for example). These kinds of cyclical processes in the classroom indicate very strongly how teaching and assessment often work together as one process in classroom assessment, rather than as sepa- rate processes.

Conferences

Conferences involve the teacher engaging in a focused discussion with young learners about their work. Conferences can focus on individual pieces of work or reading selection, or a portfolio of work. Teachers ask questions to elicit children’s responses, in order to assess their progress,

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Open-ended questioning – asking for descriptions, predictions and planning; explanations relating to the child’s experience.

Providing feedback – encouragements; thinking aloud; interpretations of meaning; evaluations, clarification requests; acknowledgments and information talk.

Cognitive structuring – rules and logical relationships; sequencing; contradictions.

Holding in memory – restating goals; summaries and reminders.

Task regulation – matching interests and experience; rearranging elements; reducing alternatives; making more concrete.

Instructing – modeling; orienting; direction questioning; elicitations; co-participation.

Figure 5.7 Scaffolding Strategies Checklist (adapted from Notari-Syverson, O’Connor and Vadasy, 1998).

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and help children to reflect on their own performance. ‘What reading did you do this week?’ ‘Why did you choose this story?’ ‘Read this piece for me and tell me what it is about.’ Conferences are described further in Chapter 7 when we consider the assessment of reading and writing.

Other people in young learners’ lives are sources of information; parents can give valuable information, for example, about children’s use of their language at home, their interest in reading (in the first and second language) and their emotional well-being. Bilingual aides can share their observations about children’s oral language and literacy in their first language. Bilingual aides and other teachers can also share their knowledge of the child’s progress in other areas of learning. Conferences with such people provide invaluable sources of information on which to base decisions about children’s needs, as well as their per- formance and progress.

Portfolios

Portfolios are collections of a student’s work prepared over a period of time. They may include drawings, written pieces, audio tapes of performances, photographs of artwork (preferably with related language samples, for example, a written piece or a short interview with another child about what it is and how it was made); children’s self-evaluation sheets, and so on. The use of portfolios becomes an assessment strategy when there are plans to select tasks for assessment and collection, and when materials are systematically collected.

Much has been written about portfolios (e.g., Genesee and Hamayan, 1994; Moya and O’Malley, 1994; Brown and Hudson, 1998; Puckett and Black, 2000). Portfolios are widely advocated by those involved in ele- mentary education (e.g., Puckett and Black, 2000) and have formed a strong component of assessment in elementary education for many years. They provide a basis by which teachers can accumulate a record of children’s achievement over time, motivate learning and discuss progress with others. Children should participate in the selection of portfolio content (following established criteria for selection), and there should be criteria for assessment of individual items and/or criteria for the whole portfolio. There should be evidence of student self-reflection. Using these tools, children are able to reflect upon their efforts and accomplishments, go back over past performances, and through this, become aware of what constitutes progress and how well they are progressing.

Classroom assessment of language use 159

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Moya and O’Malley (1994) summarize the literature findings about the strengths of portfolio assessment. Portfolios are able to do much more than provide a record of a child’s progress. From a perusal of Moya and O’Malley’s article, we gain an understanding that portfolios have the potential for:

• enhancing teacher professionalism through meaningful and active involvement in student assessment;

• establishing a sense of community among evaluators;

• encouraging thoughtful activity in the classroom;

• promoting serious discussion of criteria and what goes on in the classroom;

• creating instructional links at different grade levels;

• linking assessment more closely to classroom activities;

• allowing students to draw on the skills they learn in process-centred classrooms;

• allowing assessments to become a teaching strategy to improve learning;

• drawing on students’ strengths rather than focusing on their weaknesses;

• involving both students and parents in assessment;

• making assessment more equitable.

The judicious use of portfolios can underpin classroom assessment, establishing greater learner and parental involvement in learning, more opportunities for explicitness in expectations and greater support for learning through assessment. These benefits will come if the philosophy of alternative assessment is linked to the use of portfolios.

Portfolios may be process portfolios, archival portfolios or aggregated portfolios (Puckett and Black, 2000). Process portfolios follow a student’s growth from day to day, address short-term goals and evaluate current performance. It is work in progress. Process folders are also what teach- ers simply call their ‘folders’ on each child. Archival portfolios contain selected products from the process portfolio that are deemed to illustrate the child’s ability. These are selected at regular intervals (three or four times during the year). This portfolio provides the basis for summative assessment (e.g., it can be used to check achievement of objectives, out- comes or performance standards) and can also be forwarded to the next teacher at the end of the year.

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The aggregated portfolio is a class portfolio that includes, for example, representative work samples from each student’s portfolio and sum- maries of class records. It is concerned with evidence for accountability and for evaluation of the programme. Weigle (2002) has evaluated the assessment of writing (of older learners) through portfolios in relation to Bachman and Palmer’s six qualities of test usefulness.

In academic settings in particular, portfolio assessment has the potential for greater construct validity, authenticity, interactiveness and impact, and thus may be an attractive choice for assessing writing. Portfolio assessment is also especially appropriate for inter- nal [classroom] assessment where classroom teachers want as close a link as possible between instruction and assessment, and reliability is not a major factor. ( Weigle, 2002, p. 211)

She states, however, that portfolios offer some drawbacks in large-scale, high-stakes assessment. Questions related to reliability (e.g., can we be certain that the learner will be given the same mark by another teacher for the portfolio?) and the availability of resources (e.g., will there be enough time to collect a portfolio that is representative of the learner’s abilities?) need to be addressed. Since high-stakes assessment happens in classroom-based assessment (e.g., when teachers report to their edu- cation department, or when a decision is made about the second lan- guage child’s placement in the mainstream), teachers and schools need to remain vigilant about making portfolios as ‘useful’ as possible, by, for example, planning samples of works, analysing tasks using the frame- work of task characteristics and group marking of portfolios.

Marking of portfolios can be done by adding up the marks from the indi- vidual pieces of work in the portfolio, by using a set of criteria for the port- folio as a whole (as in Figure 5.8), or through a combination of both. It is more valuable in terms of feedback to the learner to mark individual pieces of work with a separate criteria sheet or marking scheme, and not to just give one overall mark for the folder. Individual tasks need clear criteria both to guide the learner on what is required (and therefore to ‘bias for best’) and also to give specific feedback for further learning.

When teacher and child, or parents and child, look through the port- folio together, this can itself become a stimulating language activity. The portfolio once marked can be sent home for the parents to look at, and to return with their comments, or it can be produced at a teacher–parent interview and used to illustrate the range and quality of the child’s work over the relevant period.

Classroom assessment of language use 161

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The European Language Portfolio

The European Language Portfolio aims to provide evidence of learning, in order to ‘showcase’ learning and progress. It is designed as an archival portfolio. Older learners are able to use the portfolio as a dossier to move between programmes, and to present to potential employers. Younger learners do not need portfolios for the latter purpose, though they may move between programmes and require documentation. The portfolio asks the children to give details about all the languages they can use, and where they use them, and asks them to record what they can do in the target language (colouring in speech bubbles, ticking checklists and filling in additional information about their course). It also gives them a chance to do some language activities.

Ingeborg (1998) writes about European Language Portfolios for pre- elementary and elementary foreign language learners in Europe:

At this level, skills evaluation will be less necessary than providing information about introductory aspects characteristic of this form of teaching (songs, games, counting, rhymes, and sketches) and giving

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Name ........................ Marks and comments

Date .....................

Does the portfolio contain the required pieces of work? (Note here the overall score for these individually marked pieces of work)

To what extent has the learner presented the folder in an organized way? Is it tidy? Is it labelled in sections?

Are drafts included? To what extent do they show that the learner has done the work himself, and has improved his writing in the process of drafting?

Is the self-assessment sheet included in the portfolio? To what extent does this show evidence of critical reflection about (1) the quality of the contents of the portfolio? (2) what he has learned during the process?

Overall mark and comment:

Parents’ comments:

Figure 5.8 Sample criteria for a portfolio.

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children a sense of purpose. A portfolio for young children will require a special layout with space for children’s activities e.g. drawing. It will act as a stimulus and as an introduction to knowledge-building, but it will also have informative value when pupils move from one school level to the next: pre-school to elementary school and elementary school to secondary school. (Ingeborg, 1998, p. 214)

The European Language Portfolio can be downloaded from The Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (CILT) at http://www. cilt.org.uk.

Contracts of work and projects

Contracts of work comprise a set of tasks for children to perform over a period of time, agreed between the student and the teacher. The essence of a contract is that it is negotiated between the teacher and the child. Even young learners who cannot read can be given contracts with pictures and graphics (Puckett and Black, 2002, p. 252). Contracts are more suitable for young learners in the upper elementary grades who are able to nego- tiate the work, undertake to complete it and then carry it out. Contracts help children to organize themselves and begin to be responsible for their own learning. Contract work might be allocated to sections of the class time, for example an hour can be scheduled on a regular basis for children to continue with their contract work. Contracts of work can be assessed on both the process of completing the tasks (e.g., done on time, paced care- fully) and the products (using language-related and other criteria). Learners should be provided with explicit assessment criteria for each task in the contract. These can be pinned to the back of the contract for easy reference. The criteria for the tasks in Figure 5.9 might relate to chil- dren’s ability to work independently, the quality of the information col- lected from the Internet, their ability to select relevant information for their final report, and the quality (presentation and content) of the final report itself. (See Chapter 8 for a discussion of criteria and marking.)

Contracts of work such as this can be kept in a folder or portfolio by children. Teachers might include self-assessment procedures and/or a journal to include in the portfolio, where children can explore and explain how they felt they have performed, what they have learned, and perhaps what they think of the list of tasks in the contract.

Projects may or may not involve a negotiated contract but similarly involve a series of steps in the completion of a macro-task. Steps in

Classroom assessment of language use 163

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projects might include guided library research on the topic, note-taking, drafting and re-drafting of reports and presentation of the report to others orally. Children may complete a project on a specific topic and/or exhibit their work. They may undertake the project individually or in pairs or groups. Their exhibit of the project may be a model, or a chart, a videotaped segment, or a simple website. For language assessment, it is important that language is involved in the exhibit – either through an accompanying description (a written piece, an oral presentation) or within the exhibit itself (a role play, a simulation, a video of a language event in which learners were involved).

Self- and peer-assessment

Self- and peer-assessment are strategies that can be used throughout classroom-based assessment. Children can be encouraged to be active participants in the assessment process if they are guided to think about

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Name: Date:

I will complete the following tasks by the end of Week 3

Tasks By date

• Choose an animal to report on (see guiding Monday 15th April questions attached)

• Search in the library/on the Internet for information on the animal

• Write a draft report (using the model given by Ms. Jones) on the computer

• Ask Ms. Jones to give me feedback on the report

• Write a polished version of the report

• Include some pictures downloaded from the Internet

• Prepare a plan for a presentation about the animal to be given in front of the whole class

• Check the plan with Ms. Jones

• Present the report to the class

Figure 5.9 Example of a contract for an extended or ‘rich’ task, for upper elementary learners.

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their own performance, and the performance of their peers. Figure 5.10 shows an example of a self-assessment sheet that can help guide children to begin to focus on their learning and the problems they encountered in a task. If they are aware of the criteria being used, they begin to become more conscious of the quality of their work, and more responsible for their own learning. Teachers can help children to understand, reflect on and refer to criteria. A series of guided discussions about ‘what makes a good piece of work’, suitable for the age level, can help to make explicit what they should be aiming for. Children can complete charts about their performance and what they have learned. These kinds of activities, dis- cussing pieces of work and filling in charts, can be conducted in the target language, giving another opportunity for language use. Self- and peer- assessment activities can also be very effectively conducted in the first language.

Another example of a self-assessment chart below (Figure 5.11) gives children a chance to check their abilities against set criteria or compe- tencies. These criteria may come from the objectives of the course, and therefore raise awareness about what they should be learning, and how much they have achieved so far.

Teachers might sometimes use ‘yes, mostly, a bit, no’ as alternatives to guide answers. Interviews between the teacher and individual children can develop self-assessment skills, and also give feedback about the child’s motivation and interests. (‘What is the best thing you did this week?’). The use of contracts (see previous section) helps children to become more aware of their own plans and progress.

Classroom assessment of language use 165

Name: ............................................. Class ............................

Task:

What I learned:

Problems I encountered:

How I can solve the problems:

Figure 5.10 Self-assessment sheet (Scarino, Vale, McKay and Clark, 1988, Book 3, p. 53).

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Self- and peer-assessment forms can be used to guide children to think about their progress; they can be placed in children’s portfolios or folders. The form in Figure 5.12 gives an idea how children can be encouraged to engage in peer-assessment before they ask the teacher to check what they can do.

Peer-assessment can be encouraged once criteria are developed and made known. Children need to be trained for peer-assessment, as with self-assessment. For peer-assessment they need to learn, for example, to follow the criteria, say positive things first, and not to laugh at others when they are experiencing difficulty. Children can gain awareness about what is required, or about a good piece of work, by reflecting on another child’s performance using a simple set of criteria. Peer-assessment for younger learners is best used for formative purposes – their ability to stand back and give an abstract, independent assessment of a perfor- mance will be limited, and they will, of course, be influenced by their friends. Nevertheless, peer-assessment gives children another chance to gain awareness of what is expected, and an opportunity to learn how to help and learn from others.

Self- and peer-assessment is a teaching strategy as much as an assess- ment strategy. The benefits for the children can be, amongst others, opportunities to increase their language awareness and ability to talk about language (through discussions of what makes a good perfor- mance), increased responsibility for their own work and a strengthened sense of being part of a classroom community.

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When SPEAKING I can Not so well OK Quite well Really well

• Ask questions

• Answer questions

• Introduce myself

• Make a request

• Talk about my family

• Apologize when I do something wrong

• Describe something

Etc.

Figure 5.11 Example of a self-assessment sheet.

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Classroom tests

A classroom test refers to an individual task, or set of tasks, in which the conditions (e.g., support, interaction with others and time) are controlled. The scope of tasks that can be used in this way is very wide; they should be selected using a plan that reflects the objectives of the course, the content covered and the types of tasks used in teaching.

Teachers may also devise a classroom test that includes a number of tasks. There are various ways of working out the best balance or spread of tasks in such a procedure. An example of a multi-task proce- dure, in which the tasks are organized, with weightings, around speak- ing, vocabulary knowledge, listening and sound–symbol relationships, is given in Figure 5.13.

Quizzes (one word or short answers – e.g., ‘Who won the running race yesterday?’ ‘What is the name of our principal?’) and paper-and-pencil

Classroom assessment of language use 167

Name ............................................... Class .......................

Topic: Food and drink

I can . . . Checked by my Checked by my Unit objectives are listed classmate (write the teacher in this column. name of the

classmate who checked you)

Examples: I can . . .

• express likes and dislikes about food

• describe my favourite food

• choose a meal from a menu

• find out the preferences of my friends regarding food

• draw a table to show my friends’ preferences regarding food

• negotiate activities

Figure 5.12 Peer-evaluation (adapted from Scarino et al., 1988, Book 3, p. 53).

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tests can be used for a careful check on a child’s progress, while ensur- ing that the work is all the child’s own work, and giving him a chance to concentrate without interruption. The following chapters give many examples of tasks and items that can be used for the assessment of oral language, reading and writing.

The planning of a multi-task test reflects the processes followed in the planning of formal tests. (See Chapter 9 on the planning of tests.)

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TASK Speaking Vocabulary Listening Sound– Weighting knowledge symbol

relationships

1 Following directions given 40 by teacher (sit down,

stand up, turn around and touch your head, walk to

the door).

2 Oral interview: Talking 40 with teacher about a

picture ‘What can you see? What is the girl

doing?’

3 Drawing 10 pictures of objects as

teacher tells the class

what she can see in her

picture (unseen to children).

4 Reading/ 10 saying the sounds of selected letters/

characters on a page to the teacher.

100

Figure 5.13 A planned assessment for young beginning foreign language learners.

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Keeping records in classroom assessment

Keeping records is an integral part of classroom assessment. It enables teachers to draw together data on children’s performance from the range of assessment procedures that are used in the classroom. A folder or port- folio can be kept for each child, into which the teacher’s notes of obser- vations, samples of work, records of discussions with parents, and so on, can be kept. All these sources help teachers to gather together a picture of children’s needs and abilities, and to report on progress to others.

Children can be involved in record-keeping, for example keeping records of their reading, or filling in charts about what they can do. Doing this helps them to reflect on their own learning; it also provides a record of their perceptions of their own learning for the teacher (Rivalland, 1992).

Record-keeping is important for accountability purposes. In most edu- cational contexts there is an expectation that records on children’s per- formance and progress will be kept.

After assessment tasks are carried out, scores need to be recorded in class books or in individual learner folders. Criteria sheets may be filled in and placed in the folder, together with samples of work. The result – a mark together with some qualitative comment if possible – might be noted in a class book with children’s names down the left, and descrip- tions of the tasks along the top. An extract from a teacher’s class record

Classroom assessment of language use 169

Task Morning talk Following Recalling Etc. (� date) instructions vocabulary

and drawing a picture

Maria Very good. Very good. 8/10 recalled. Needed little Drew picture as prompting. per the instructions.

Paolo Good. Showed Good, but 5/10 recalled a book about hesitant. animals. Pointed out different animals.

Angela Poor. Only able Poor. Needed to 4/10 recalled to give one follow Maria. sentence. Shy.

Figure 5.14 Class record sheet.

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sheet is given in Figure 5.14, with notes made for each child against cri- teria set out along the top of the sheet.

Some teachers may prefer to rely on the individual records they keep in each child’s folder (see Figure 5.15), rather than to have an overall class sheet.

Teacher’s assessments can also result in a descriptive record. In Figure 5.16, an ESL teacher’s observation of a child’s reading behaviour illustrates the degree of professional knowledge required in a well-exe- cuted observation of an ESL learner as a reader. This teacher has not only observed the child’s performance in a range of tasks, she has also analysed the texts encountered in the mainstream class, and the possible problem areas for ESL learners. She has already completed a form about the child’s background and language use at home. The observation record shows that the teacher knows a lot about the child’s reading, including his attitude and reading behaviour at home. Her observations are based on an explicit construct of reading established through the National Curriculum in England and Wales.

Teachers’ folders – building up a record of progress

A collection of children’s work combined with field-notes, interview notes, mark sheets, anecdotal records and other data collected over time enables teachers to build up a record of progress, and to make decisions

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Morning talk Following Recalling Etc. (� date) instructions and vocabulary

drawing a picture

Date . . .. . ... . . ...

Overall mark Very good. Very good. 8/10

Comments Maria told about Maria drew the Matched her experience at picture from the words the zoo. Other instructions. She quickly and children listened did this quickly independently. and asked and confidently, questions. Needed without glancing little prompting. at others’ work.

Figure 5.15 Individual record sheet – Maria.

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Classroom assessment of language use 171

Abbas is a 10-year-old boy in Grade 5 of elementary school

The following notes set the reader in context of his school learning environment

• Type of texts encountered: class novel, e.g. ‘The Sheep Pig’ by Dick King-Smith; free choice text – Abbas usually chooses nonfiction books often on the subject of Dinosaurs; Mathematical instructions and problem-solving texts; texts from other curriculum areas such as Science, Technology, History, Geography and Religious Education.

• Purposes for reading: to practise reading skills; to read for pleasure; to find out information; to gain access to curriculum knowledge.

• Contexts for reading: class novel – chosen by the class teacher, to be studied within a whole class context; free choice text – chosen by Abbas from school library; curriculum texts – chosen by the class teacher within the constraints of the National Curriculum.,

• Associated activities: ‘The Sheep Pig’ novel – comprehension exercises, cloze procedures, story telling and writing alternative endings of stories, word defini- tions, grammatical structures; free choice literature – book reviews; curriculum texts – answering questions, make something, set up an experiment, write about something.

• Possible problem areas for ESL learners: may have become familiar with some subject-specific vocabulary but understanding of meaning may remain under- developed; may have developed superficial coping strategies that mask underly- ing difficulties, e.g. decoding; comprehension of texts may be limited to the literal, therefore support and alternative strategies will be required to gain more thorough understanding; may have difficulty with the subject knowledge and/or the new language introduced.

Observations of Abbas as a reader

• Reading silently: (class novel) – fidgeted frequently, read a chunk of text and then looked around the room, looked out of the window etc. – seemed to need ‘time out’. Did not seem to be really enjoying the reading process. Seemed relieved when teacher told the class to, ‘finish the sentence they were reading’.

• Reading aloud: (class novel) – read adequately but tended to rush, ignore punc- tuation and mispronounce words. He did not go back and self-correct. He fre- quently looked up for approval and seemed slightly nervous. He had a good sight vocabulary which helped fluency. He used his Arabic–English dictionary to check unknown words. When asking questions based on the text, he answered correctly and had mostly understood the meaning.

• Strategies used: He had employed various strategies to help him establish meaning including: visual clues; sensible guesswork deduced from the context; asking questions about words/sentences he was unsure of; sounding out unfamil- iar words; checking unknown vocabulary in his bilingual dictionary; using knowl- edge of wider range of reading strategies, e.g. digraphs, blends, magic ‘e’, prefixes, suffixes.

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on children’s progress based on a wide range of data. Teachers’ folders are generally distinguished from portfolios because they are for the teachers’ own records.

Rivalland (1992) suggests how records can be organized in folders which become profiles of children’s performance. She suggests that teachers keep a manila folder for each child in the class. This folder holds all the various data collected about the child (completed criteria sheets from formal assessment, copies of work from formal assessment, field- notes, audiotapes, notes from interviews, etc). The folder provides easy access to the material for decision-making for a child’s interim results for teaching and learning, or his or her assessment result for reporting purposes.

From this folder some key items representing major points in the child’s progress can be transferred to a two-ring binder portfolio. It would then be accessible to the teacher, the child, the parents and other inter- ested people. This selected portfolio can be taken home at regular inter- vals and can be a source for parent–teacher meetings.

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• Areas to work on: Fluency – more focus needed on punctuation in the text to help develop the flow of the sentence and fluency in general. Abbas needs to be encouraged to pause and self-correct after making a mistake.

Abbas’ reading in general

Abbas does not read much at home unless he has to, e.g. for a homework task. He has access to both English and Arabic literature. In class he can read adequately, but has difficulty interpreting unfamiliar texts. He is able to make notes from his reading, but admits that he sometimes omits large quantities of knowledge due to lack of understanding. He handles nonfiction materials competently and is able to distinguish between the index and the contents pages to find information. He enjoys factual, scientific books much more than fiction and therefore has greater motivation to learn how to use them. He is able to gain superficial understanding of the text, by skimming to pick out some key words, but he needs to further develop this skill. He enjoys group reading tasks and gains far greater understanding of texts through working collaboratively with his peers. He enjoys talking to others about factual information discovered from nonfiction texts, especially books about dinosaurs. He frequently chooses these for his free choice texts. However, he prefers audio-visual presentations of nonfiction material, when he can access them (e.g., computers and CD-ROM). Abbas is able to use the library but only does so when he can perceive the need for a specific task. He is generally confident and will ask for help in using catalogues if unsure.

Figure 5.16 Observing an ESL learner as a reader (with permission, Bielby, 2002).

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Large classes and record-keeping

Teachers with large classes will have less time to manage detailed record-keeping for each child and will need to decide what is possible in their particular situations. An experienced teacher’s hints are as follows:

• Do not try to record the progress of all students at the same time. Split the class into groups for the purposes of recording.

• Establish common formats to record learner progress.

• Follow suggestions below which relate in the main to effective use of time when monitoring progress.

• Target your assessment. Eliminate assessment that doesn’t serve a useful purpose, doesn’t get used or doesn’t justify the cost in teacher time, class time and so on.

• Keep assessment at a practical level by involving learners wherever possible in devising assessment tools and collating results.

(Brown, 1999, p. 9)

These suggestions emphasize that teachers with large classes need to be realistic in what they can do, by targeting the essential record-keeping that is required. It is ineffective and inefficient if teaching and learning processes are overcome by the requirements of record-keeping, since assessment and record-keeping should support teaching and learning. It is helpful to discuss with other teachers what is practical and worthwhile record-keeping for the teaching situation (the time limits, class sizes, reporting requirements) in which teachers work.

Summary

Classroom assessment is the cornerstone of assessment for younger learners. It involves teachers observing children in a range of tasks over time, engaging in on-the-run assessment, recording data about the chil- dren’s performance in class and individual record-sheets, and usually storing information in portfolios or folders for use in later review or for reporting to others. Classroom assessment of this kind can be carried out by all teachers of younger learners, to a greater or lesser degree, depend- ing on their teaching and assessment scenario. Some teachers are in

Classroom assessment of language use 173

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situations where system requirements and parental requirements and their own lack of expertise, may militate against the wide use of class- room assessment; however, classroom assessment is a vital tool in the achievement of the system requirements. Teachers can gain skills through collaboration and engagement in ‘assessment dialogue’ with other teachers, and with parents. Without the information they gain from classroom assessment, teachers would have little choice but to push onwards through the textbook or the curriculum, inevitably losing a number of children along the way. Classroom assessment is an integral part of a learner and learning-centred curriculum in which young learn- ers can thrive.

Assessment takes place throughout the year for different purposes, including diagnosis, collection of evidence to report against externally developed criteria such as standards (see Chapter 9) and summative, end-of-course purposes. Assessment involves three phases, as does formal assessment; a design phase, an operationalization phase and an implementation phase. These three phases are transformed into itera- tive and complex processes in classroom assessment. Early research tells us that teacher assessment is reflective, strongly driven by the teacher’s beliefs about education and directed towards individual learning. Assessment may be planned within a teaching cycle and made explicit in a plan (assessment-as-plan). The realities of assessment as it happens in the classroom are becoming clearer as researchers observe and docu- ment the processes and characteristics of assessment (assessment-as- action). As Rea-Dickins (2001) has revealed, teaching practices are reflected in assessment in young learner classrooms, with explanations and introductions, scaffolding and feedback, involvement of other teachers and different uses of assessment information included in the process.

There are a number of classroom assessment strategies available to teachers. Incidental observation is used by teachers as they teach; teachers observe performance as it happens during the course of teaching and learning. Planned observation is usually carried out by teachers who are reporting against externally developed criteria. Other continuous assess- ment strategies include conferences, portfolios, self- and peer-assessment and contracts of work. Projects, tasks and assessment schemes and tests are also used in the classroom by teachers, for formative or summative purposes.

Keeping records is an integral part of classroom assessment. Teachers’ folders and portfolios, together with records in the form of charts of

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observation and written reports of observations, support teachers’ moni- toring of children’s progress and back up their reporting.

Classroom assessment carried out in these ways becomes the cornerstone of language assessment for younger learners. Employing a combination of these strategies helps teachers to build up a close and realistic knowledge of their learners’ abilities. Classroom assessment can encourage children to participate in the learning process and can build motivation and confidence in children as they are given ongoing support to learn.

Classroom assessment of language use 175

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