Assessment

When I hear the word assessment, I automatically think of an exam that is multiple choice, or an exam in which I have to respond to short answers or write definitions. I found these chapters to be extremely resourceful, because there are more ways than one to assess and evaluate your learners. Assessment can and should occur in the classroom daily, in that the students are producing output of what they have learned, and in that the teacher is evaluating their output either through observation or through reviewing the students' work. It is imperative that the teacher is constantly assessing the learners knowledge, to ensure that each learner is gaining an accurate understanding of the material. More importantly, the teacher needs to be a 'reflective practitioner' in which they are constantly responding to the the students success or failure of each assessment. Assessing the students can occur through a simple conversation that the each student has with their partner where they review the vocabulary (for example) that they have just learned. Assessment does not have to be in written form, in fact, a teacher can assess their students through observations or in an oral manner in which the teacher is reflecting on the students responses. This summer during my internship, I learned a lot about RTI (Response to Intervention), and part of this 'program' is that the teacher is constantly collecting data and monitoring each student's success or failure, and then differentiating their instruction for those students to ensure that each learner effectively learns the material. Assessment is key in education, because it allows the teacher to gain knowledge about how each student is doing in the class and in learning the material.

I really like the questions that the chapter presents about how to make sure that the assessment the teacher is implementing is valid, reliable and objective.
     -Does the test measure what it is supposed to measure?
     -Is the test consistent in its measurement?
    -Is the test unbiased?
These questions are all so important, and each teacher needs to make sure that they are answering YES to each question when they implement their assessment.

I really like the idea of nontraditional forms of assessment for my ESL learners, specifically because it allows for creativity and use of the language. However, I believe that in my teaching it is important to introduce them to the dreaded multiple-choice and D) none of the above assessments because they indeed will be faced with such tests. I feel that I can prepare them and develop skills in them that can help them overcome these tests that they are so unfamiliar with. One of my main goals as an ESL teacher is to educate and prepare my students to succeed in the regular classroom, and unfortunately these multiple tests are part of such environment. Does this mean that my assessments will always be multiple choice? NO, not at all, as I've said before there are a million other ways to assess my students learning. However, I wish to expose them to such formats of testing to ensure that they are prepared when the time comes to take one.

I really enjoyed reading about the different ways to assess the students writing in chapter 34. I believe that student writing should develop as a partnership with the teacher, rather than the student just writing for the teacher's eyes to read. I also believe in positive reinforcement in that I would never mark all over a students paper with errors, I would much rather prefer to point out the things they did right and then ask them questions about how they think they can improve their writing. By doing this, the student is active in the process of writing, and can much develop their writing skills with a sense of ownership over their work, rather than just the teacher telling them what to fix and what is wrong.