Assessment for Young Learners

1. Assessmentfor Young Learners Week 10

2. Outline Warm up: Paired interview Considerations for assessing YLs Assessment terms and concepts Principles of assessment Guidelines for assessing YLs Examples and practice

3. ASSESSMENT

4. Paired Interview 3 minutes • What assessments do you use with YLs? • What are ways you informally assess YLs? • What are challenges you face assessing YLs?

5. GOAL? ASSESSMENT

6. Purposes of assessments • Decide where to place students • Decide what to teach, what to review • Monitor students’ performance and achievement, their strengths, areas to improve • Identify students who need special support • Measure and report students’ progress • Monitor our own effectiveness as teachers and make appropriate instructional modifications

7. IMPROVE STUDENT LEARNING

8. Considerations for assessing YLs

9. Characteristics of YLs spontaneous imaginative inquisitive energetic social learn through play Crave our attention… and our love!

10. Effective teaching practices We help children learn language when what we ask them to do is… • ________________ • ______________ • ______________ • ______________ • ______________ • ______________ Read (1998)

11. Effective teaching practices We help children learn language when what we ask them to do is… • Full of practice • Supported • Social • Meaningful • Purposeful • Enjoyable Read (1998)

12. Classroom approach • Try to imitate the L1 environment! • Teach language in context! • Don’t teach grammar explicitly! • Create an English speaking environment in your class! • Make English fun!

13. Considerations for assessing YLs

14. ASSESSMENT = GETTING TO KNOW YOUR CHILDREN

15. Assessment terms and concepts • Assessment, testing, and evaluation • Informal and formal assessment • Formative and summative assessment • Criterion- and norm-referenced tests • Integrative and discrete-point tests • Traditional and alternative assessment

16. Assessment, testing, and evaluation

17. Assessment Testing Assessmentis a process of identifying learning goals and determining how well students are meeting them. It is an ongoing process of monitoring learning and teaching. Evaluation

18. Assessment Testing Testing is one type of assessment that formally measures learners’ English language performance. It is usually given at set times during the term: at the end of a unit, or the middle or end of a term. Evaluation

19. Assessment Testing Evaluationinvolves the use of test scores or assessments for some kind of decision-making. It often involves the gathering of information to determine the extent to which a language program meets its goals. Evaluation

21. Informal and formal assessment

22. Informal vs. formal

23. Informal vs. formal

24. Informal vs. formal Which are informal and which are formal assessments? 1) Look over the shoulders of 2 students doing an exercise, notice their answers are correct, and say “Great job!” 4) Write “Nice work!” on a students’ drawing of a bear and correct the spelling of the word bear. 2) Collect portfolio of students work throughout the semester and used a rubric to assess. 3) End of term test to see if student passed to the next level.

25. Formative and summative assessment

26. Formative vs. summative

27. Formative vs. summative

28. Example Report Card

29. Listen and point Call out the letters and have the child point to the correct ones.

30. Formative assessment

31. Formative assessment • Observing students and noting strengths and difficulties in doing class work • Maintaining a checklist of student progress in using key vocabulary or grammar structures • Asking questions and noting students’ responses • Asking for clarification to promote self-repair • Marking homework

32. Formative assessment • Making suggestions or modeling correct forms orally or in writing • Creating portfolios with samples of students’ work over time • Noting student progress on written or oral performances • Praising or rewarding good performance or effort

33. Noting student progress

34. Formative assessment? What’s the weather? What’s the weather? What’s the weather like today? Tell us (student’s name), What’s the weather? What’s the weather like today? Is it sunny? Is it cloudy? Is it rainy out today? Is it snowy? Is it windy? What’s the weather like today?

35. Norm- vs. criterion-referenced Norm-referenced Criterion-referenced Test related to a curriculum or course Compares student’s performance to a set of specific criteria Criteria may also be related to a set of descriptors such as benchmarks related to a set of standards • Standardized, formal high-stakes tests • Ranks each individual learner in comparison to all others assessed • Each test taker’s score ranked in relation to the mean, median, and percentile or rank.

36. Criterion-referenced

37. Discrete point vs. integrative Discrete point assessment Integrative assessment More holistic Integrates skills Interactive activities, e.g., songs, chants, games, role plays, writing tasks, projects Mirrors authentic language use • Focuses on individual items in isolation, e.g., word or grammatical structure • Often paper and pencil tests • Multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank

38. Discrete Point Assessment RED BLUE GREEN YELLOW ORANGE BROWN BLACK WHITE (ask what color paper is) Teacher instructions: Give this paper to child. Call out color and have child point to the correct color.

39. Integrative Assessment Teacher instructions: Read story. Have children retell story with you. Then switch the color of the animals with new pictures and tell the new story. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M2TvyR3_XE

40. Principles of assessment JIGSAW ACTIVITY Group 1: Reliability Group 2: Validity Group 3: Practicality Group 4: Authenticity Group 5: Washback

41. Principles of assessment JIGSAW ACTIVITY Instructions: Each group must do the following: • Read about one principle of assessment. • Underline the key words that explain this principle. • Think of an example of this principle from your context. It could be an example of an assessment that either follows or does not follow this principle. • Find a way to visualize this concept and present it to the large group.

42. Guidelines for assessing young learners • Mirror learning • Contribute to learning • Motivate learners and build confidence • Include a variety of techniques • Allow all learners to experience success • Be contextualized and relevant • Take place over time

43. Traditional vs. alternative Traditional Alternative Observations Conferences and oral interviews Story or text retellings Writing samples Projects Portfolios Other performances Self- or peer-assessments • Formal tests • diagnostic • placement • achievement • proficiency • Traditional items • multiple choice • matching • fill-in-the-blank • true-false

44. Cambridge YLE Starters Test

45. Our WorldNational Geographic Learning

46. Types of alternative assessments • Observations • Conference and oral interviews • Story or text retellings • Writing samples • Projects • Portfolios • Other performances • Self- or peer-assessments

47. Rating alternative assessments • Brief feedback • Checklists • Observation notes • Rubrics

48. Brief feedback Classroom assignments such as filling in a graphic organizer can be scored by a three-part system:   Brief statements such as “Good job” or “Great, but you need work here” will individualize the assessment. • + For excellent work • For acceptable work • — For work that needs improvement

49. Brief feedback

50. Checklists • Provide a simple way to keep a record of students’ performance in class • Observations can be noted on a checklist • Can keep track of all students’ ability to achieve one objective • Can be based on an individual student’s progress on multiple objectives