SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT TO ENHANCE STUDENT PERFORMANCE

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT TO ENHANCE STUDENT PERFORMANCE How does ongoing assessment encourage task participation and enhance learning performance? By Tran Dinh Quyet What classroom techniques can help? How do we mark student performance on the spot? • RATIONALE Skill integration and onthe spot performance testing are the current teaching approach adopted in Vietnam nowadays. Greater focus and emphasis are being put on students’ communicative performance in the language classroom. Ongoing assessment serves various purposes. For the student, they can help attract their attention, encourage learners to participate in tasks, build up their confidence and allow them to assess themselves. For the teacher, they help you to access the extent to which your students understand the course content and they can provide you with information about the effectiveness of your teaching methods. Most are designed to be quick and easy to use and each activity provides quick assessment for different skills and competencies. ( Guskey, 2003) Ongoing assessment provides formative evaluations of text books, teaching methods, and, ultimately, student learning. Such formative evaluations are done frequently to encourage learning and enhance performance as well as to effect immediate adjustments in the daytoday teaching. More and more classroom teachers incorporate continual testing into everyday class session. ( Guskey, 2003)

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT TO ENHANCE STUDENT PERFORMANCE

How does ongoing assessment encourage task participation and enhance learning

performance?

By Tran Dinh Quyet What classroom techniques can help?

How do we mark student performance on the spot?

Skill integration and on-the spot performance testing are the current teaching approach adopted in Vietnam nowadays.

Greater focus and emphasis are being put on students’ communicative

performance in the language classroom

Ongoing assessment serves various purposes For the student, they can help attract their attention, encourage learners to participate in tasks, build up their confidence and allow them to assess themselves For the teacher, they help you to access the extent to which your students understand the course content and they can provide you with information about the effectiveness of your teaching methods Most are designed to be quick and easy to use and each activity provides quick assessment for different skills and

competencies ( Guskey, 2003)

Ongoing assessment provides formative evaluations of text books, teaching methods, and, ultimately, student learning Such formative evaluations are done frequently to encourage learning and enhance performance as well as to effect immediate adjustments

in the day-to-day teaching More and more classroom teachers incorporate continual testing into everyday class session ( Guskey, 2003)

How does ongoing assessment encourage task participation?

Below is a collection of implications suggested by several authors as cited in the references

Formative ongoing assessment in class …

 Sets a competitive tone to the class to get to the top by awarding bonus marks

 Provides the chance for team work and healthy cooperation

 Helps to foster good working relationships ( Stiggins, 2002)

 Provides instant feedback in forms of grades, formative correction and positive

comments

 Reduces feelings of isolation and impotence, especially in large classes

 Shows your interest and appreciation about their success in your classroom ( Barton, 2002)

 Fosters an attitude that values understanding and initiatives in problem solving

 Encourages students to understand that learning is an on-going process that require full participation

 Enables you to record student progress and to assign on-the-spot marks

 Saves your time for preparing tests or reading student papers ( Bloom et al, 1981)

How does ongoing assessment enhance learning performance?

When OA is used frequently, it can have the following impacts:

 Students learn when to work individually, in pairs or in groups for the utmost time and cost efficiency

 Helps develop self-assessment and learning management skills

 The various ongoing incentive assessment ensures the development of all-round learning skills of critical analysis, creative synthesis as well as application and

performance ( Stiggins, 2002)

 Helps students to get prepared for a task, have an overview first and orientate

themselves before doing a task

 Students learn from others at work and make comparisons and contrasts

 Teaches learners how to work in a team for the best way to solve a problem ( Barton, 2002)

 Students learn how to initiate, ask for help from peers and teachers, discuss a problem and come to a solution

 Students learn how to present and discuss a problem in a group and in front of the class

 Students learn about time efficiency and how to make a good presentation ( Bloom et

al, 1981)

 Students discover on the spot what they have learnt and can do and what they cannot

do yet

 Students get instant feedback about their misconceptions or lack of understanding in a timely way

 METHODOLOGY

There are 2 experimental classes and 2 control classes of grade 10

Classes 10A2 and 10A13 are experimental classes paired with the control ones of 10A3 and 10A14 All these four classes are of the same level of proficiency and consist of

all-ability students.

Table 1 Comparison of first and second term papers results.

Term 1 average or higher Term 2 average or

higher

Table 2 Comparison of first and second terms score average.

Observations and records of mark improvement from semester 1 to semester 2

Observations of grade improvement are done on the basis of comparing the

improvement in grade scores of the two experimental classes with those grades of all the other classes

Table 3 Comparison of speaking test scores in term 1 and term 2

Table 4 Percentage of Active participants and Confident presenters recorded during class observations

Term 1 Term 2

Following is a partial chart of OA tasks I used on daily basis, showcasing a variety

of teacher work and student task in each stage of a particular class session based

on the text books currently used in Vietnam

SET 1 For the reading session

TYPES Leading in

5 min

Class-Briefing

5 min

Presentation

 Set the situation and communication needs

 Activate topic-based useful expressions

1 Describe pictures to the class Where / When / Who / What / How

2 Brainstorm global questions:

A topic to discuss or a problem to deal with

3 Practice useful expressions before reading

Topic-based vocabulary

4 Explain word meaning Using situations and paraphrasing

Skim-reading

5 min

Pair-share

5 min

Presentation

 Get students read for gist: topics, paragraph points and organization

 Keep class communication going

1 Survey the title, skim paragraph 1 and predict the central idea of the passage

2 Skim the whole passage, look for the topic sentence of each subsequent paragraph and find out the main point that the writer makes

3 Think aloud, telling your partner about the main points of the article

Scan-reading

5 min

Pair-share

5 min

Presentation

 Engage students in interesting detailed game-like

information and quiz-like inferential questions

1 Scan specific parts of the article to answer given questions Check with your partner and support your

answers by answering the question

‘How can you tell? Say in paragraph

X, line Y, it reads / says …

2 Answer some text-based

 Keep students working and give support where relevant

interesting questions Inferential questions get you to start thinking logically and trying to express your ideas and make yourself understood

3 Time efficiency, logical thinking and expressing oneself are the main sub-skills to practice with game-like

or quiz-like scan-reading

Summarizing

5 min

Class-share

5 min

Presentation

 Reclaim the lesson aims (content and language) and check with students

whether the aims are achieved

 Over-to-you wrapping up: What would you do in the same situation?

1 Complete this table / spider- diagram with keys words and phrases from the text

( Content summary and Language awareness are central to this stage of reading)

2 Pick out useful expressions from the article that mean …

3 How would you put / say it another way?

4 What would you do in a similar situation?

SET 2 For the speaking class

SPEAKING

Snapshot

5 min

Pair-share

5 min

Presentation

 Prepare pictures of a target language function

 Think of useful expressions and collocations for the target communication situation

1 Describe the pictures with the given topic vocabulary

2 Imagine what people would say in that situation with given useful expressions

3 Match common collocations

Setting

situation

5 min Pair

share

5 min

Presentation

 Prepare a sample dialogue

 Think of situation questions

 Think of comprehension questions

1 Listen to the dialog and then ask and answer the questions

2 Practice the dialog with appropriate intonation and

‘feeling’ gambits and interjections

Language

function

5 min

Pair-share

5 min

Presentation

 Pick out the main function and communication needs of the sample dialog

 Call students’ attention to target language functions

 Prepare some typical conversational exchanges with gaps for appropriate responses

1 Ask students to sort out the sentences that perform the main language function, say, ‘ What does Jane say to advise Tom about how to keep fit?’

2 Complete some exchanges with appropriate questions or responses

Role playing

5 min Pair

share

5 min

Presentation

 Prepare some change in facts and figures for simulation

 Assign roles to interlocutors

 Provide an outline and key notes for a small talk

1 Practice a similar dialog with some change in facts and figures with sensible back-channeling and turn taking

2 Give a short talk with an outline and key words and phrases and expand the answer to a reasonable extent

SET 3 For the Listening session

Situation and

language

5 min

Pair-share

5 min

Presentation

 Set the background situation

Who / where / what

 Introduce some key words and phrases

1 Work in pairs / groups discussing the situation and the need to communicate

2 Predict the answers / what speakers say in that situation

Listening for

gist

5 min Indi

work

5 min

Presentation

 Prepare task 1 by listening for gist yourself and find out what is central to the

recording

 Prepare a framework or scaffolding for students to present the main ideas

1 Listen for general topics or ideas: What are they talking about?

2 Present the main points with a given framework

Listening for

 Prepare task 2 for detail listening, sub-skill 1

1 Listen for specific important details: where /

5 min

Pair-share

5 min

Presentation

 Prepare task 2 for detail listening, sub-skill 2

 Prepare a framework or scaffolding for students to present the classified details

when / how / why

2 Listen for some interesting facts / expressions:

“Time and tide wait for no _.”

3 Present the details and facts you hear in your own words

Summarizing

5 min

Pair-share

5 min

Presentation

 Prepare a framework or scaffolding for students to present an oral summary of the content

1 Answer some round-off questions from your teacher

2 Report today’s story

SET 4 For the writing class

Sampling an

outline

5 min

Pair-share

5 min

Presentation

 Call students’ attention to a situation or a communication event

 Have students get access to

a sample piece of writing

 Have students work out a typical outline

1 Discuss the situation and the need to communicate

2 Study the sample and answer some questions about text organization

3 Work out an outline with a given frame

Brainstormin

g

5 min

Pair-share

5 min

Presentation

 Set a similar communication situation

 Have students brainstorm the ideas and jot down key words within the outline

1 Discuss a similar situation

in pairs or groups

2 Brainstorm and note down ideas in a flow chart

Writing

practice

5 min Indi

work

5 min

 Allow time for individual free writing

 Have some students present their own writing orally

1 Individual free writing

2 Present the writing in oral speech

Editing

5 min

Pair-share

5 min

Presentation

 Have pairs share their own work and edit

 Have a student present his / her writing on the board for class editing

1 Edit your writing in pairs

2 Present your complete writing on a flip board

SET 5 For language focus lessons

Pronunciatio

n

5 min

Pair-share

5 min

Presentation

 Enable students to work out the pattern

 Have students practice the target pronunciation and find out more from prior

knowledge

1 Work out a phonetic pattern

2 Practice the pattern in context

Vocabulary

in use

5 min

Pair-share

5 min

Presentation

 Raise awareness of word formation

 Raise awareness of word partnership

1 Practice ONE derivative at

a time:

The –ion noun / The – tive adjective

2 Match collocation halves or complete common verb / noun phrases

Grammar in

use

5 min

Pair-share

5 min

Presentation

5 min Pair-

share

5 min

Presentation

 Grammar for a particular communication need / event

 Set a situation and framework for conversational grammar practice

 Prepare a Listen-and- respond exercise

1 Learn about the use or function in communication of the target grammar point

2 Practice pairs of conversational exchanges with the target

communication function

Language

awareness

5 min

Pair-share

5 min

Presentation

 Attract attention to common patterns in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary

 Call attention to notable exceptions in common use

1 Practice some special cases, especially those from students’ prior knowledge

2 Complete some rules in grammar and vocabulary

IV Some useful well-trialed classroom techniques

( University of Oregon, Spring 2014 Ways to assess students in the classroom: TEP

http://tep.uoregon.edu )

ETS ( 2013) Linking classroom assessment with student learning: www.ets.org)

1 Think-Pair-Share – ( Task time: 5 to 15 minutes / Group size: 2-3)

For the speaking – writing class

 Take a hot topic in the community that is related to the lesson and have students reflect on it individually and then discuss it further

 Think phase: Students work independently and note down their thoughts/arguments

 Pair phase: Students discuss their response with a partner

 Share phase: Elicit responses from all members of the class and ask students to

explain their ideas

2 Round Robin – (Task time: 5 to 15 minutes / Group size: 4 to 6)

Pre-reading / Pre-listening / Post reading / Post listening activities.

To practice vocabulary – topic-related key words

 Small groups of students are engaged in key-word brainstorming

 Each student takes turns to say one word or phrase surrounding a central concept or topic

 The next person is given the opportunity to add a word or phrase to the list

 Each group can list their four to six main thoughts as a means of discussing and

summarizing the topic

 The activity concludes after all members have participated in presenting their thoughts

to the class

3 IF-AT Cards (Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique.)

(Task time: 5 to 10 minutes / Group size: 3-5)

For language focus or revision classes after a chapter or before a major test or

examination

 IF-AT cards function like multiple choice questions A group of learners answer the question out of their knowledge and then they scratch the card to reveal the correct answer

 Students can begin by answering the list of questions on their own without using an IF-AT card

 Afterwards, students work with a group to go through the questions, convince one another of the correct answer, and then scratch the card to uncover what is right

 Ideally used to provide immediate feedback to students about concepts related to the target lesson

4 Fishbowl discussion

(Task Time: 15 to 20 minutes / Group size: 3 to 5 inside, remaining class outside of

circle)

For the speaking class or pre-writing and post writing activities.

 Small group of students sit in a circle or around a desk and engage in a peer-mediated discussion

(with the teacher’s intervention as required)

 Remaining students sit in a larger outward circle and watch the discussion, taking notes and critiquing the content and logic of the discussion

 The outer circle can then discuss the interaction of content that has just occurred and provide additional insight into the topic and provide constructive feedback

5 Simulation / Role Play – (Task Time: 15 to 20 minutes / Group size: 2 to 5)

Ideally for conversational practice in everyday communication.

 Simulation comes first, where learners play character parts saying their exact ‘words’

as in the sample dialog and experience their ‘feelings’

 Role play follows to demonstrate varying perspectives on a topic In role play students can play a role from different view points, which give them chance to apply to real life situation as well as to practice their English creative and natural manner