Dr. Chris Davison & Professor Liz Hamp-Lyons Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong

1. HkEd City 2007 HKCE English Language School-based Assessment Component Dr. Chris Davison & Professor Liz Hamp-Lyons Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong July 2, 2005

2. Introduction The aims of the School-based Assessment Component (SBA) in the 2007 CE English Language Examination are to: • align the assessment more closely with the current English teaching syllabus and the proposed new Senior Secondary curriculum, • provide a more comprehensive appraisal of learners’ achievement, • enhance the capacity for student self-evaluation and life-long learning, • adopt a standards-referenced assessment system which maps the full range of educational achievement in HK schools.

3. Introduction For the School-based Assessment Component students have to: • read/view four texts (print and video/film, fiction and non-fiction material) over the course of two years (two texts each year) • keep a log book of brief comments/personal reflections, • take part in discussions with classmates on what they have read/viewed, • make individual presentations on what they have read/viewed, and • respond to questions from their teacher and/or peers.

4. Introduction Note: • The actual assessment is based only on the students’ oral performance, i.e. the reading/viewing/writing is a pre-requisite. • The specific content of the text (ie. names and places, story lines, other factual information, etc) will not be directly assessed.

5. Introduction • The SBA is worth 15% of the total English mark for the HKCE. • Teachers will need to report • the best mark for interaction (out of at least two assessments) at the end of S.4 (total possible marks = 24, worth 5% of overall English mark) • the best mark for interaction and the best mark for individual presentation at the end of S.5 (total possible marks = 48, worth 10% of overall English mark) (see Attachment 1for a complete summary of the process)

6. Individual presentation: a single piece of oral text in which an individual speaker presents some ideas or information over a sustained period (2-3 mins) requires comparatively long turns generally needs more pre-planning and a more explicit structure to ensure coherence. may be followed by questions or comments Nature of oral text-types

7. Nature of oral text-types Oral interaction: • an exchange of shorter turns or dialogue with more than one speaker (not necessarily four) on a common topic • jointly constructed by two or more speakers • generally needs less explicit structuring but more attention to turn-taking skills • requires more planning of how to initiate, maintain and/or control the interaction by making suggestions, asking for clarification, agreeing, disagreeing, etc.

8. Nature of oral text-types Note: • If ideas more complex and unfamiliar --> more false starts, hesitations and dysfluencies, more use of non-specific vocabulary and some grammatical mistakes.

9. Nature of assessment tasks NO prescribed assessment tasks: • Schools are free to develop and/or adapt the kinds of assessment tasks which best suit their students’ level and interest, see Attachment 2for an example of two possible tasks. • The ability of a student will be assessed by the quality and range of the oral language produced for assessment, including both fluency and accuracy.

10. Nature of assessment tasks Assessment tasks can vary in length and complexity according to: • communicative function (e.g. comparing, describing, explaining…) • number of people involved (e.g. pair, small group, split or whole class, whole school…) • the position and status of the audience (e.g. fellow students, teachers, parents…) • the roles of the audience (e.g. asking questions, making comments…)

11. Mandatory assessment conditions Certain mandatory conditions must be met to ensure students have the opportunity to do their best: a. the type of task (ie. communicative function, grouping arrangement etc) must be familiar to students. b.the task must not demand students take on a character or act out a role in a story or play, ie. drama skills are not assessed. c. the students’ English teacher and at least one fellow student must be physically present.

12. Mandatory assessment conditions d. tasks used to elicit an individual presentation must provide students with the opportunity to make an extended individual presentation (at least 2-3 minutes). e. tasks used to elicit interaction must provide students with multiple opportunities to demonstrate appropriate interaction skills and make a balanced contribution.

13. Mandatory assessment conditions f. students must not take notes during the assessment activity, but may refer to brief notes or powerpoints in point form only. g. there are no restrictions on the maximum number of tasks that can be used for assessment. h. individual students are not permitted to repeat (ie. retake) the same assessment task without any change in input, nor engage in extensive rehearsal.

14. Mandatory assessment conditions i.The teacher-assessor may interact individually with a student at any time by asking specific question(s) (seeAttachment 3 Guiding Questions) to: • clarify and/or encourage the student to extend ideas. • help prompt and/or scaffold the students’ oral interaction. • probe the range and depth of their oral language skills. • authenticate their work (ie. ensure it is their own)

15. The assessment process Two documents are essential to the teacher assessment process: • the draft SBA Assessment Criteria(see Attachment 4), and • the Assessment Record (AR)(see Attachment 5)

16. The assessment process The draft SBA Assessment Criteria are: • divided into seven levels. • grouped into four different domains of performance, with slight differences in criteria for interaction and the presentation • pronunciation and delivery • communication strategies • vocabulary and language patterns • ideas and organisation • expressed as “can do” statements.

17. The assessment process The draft Assessment Record (AR) is used: • to record a specific level for each domain. • to calculate an overall mark for each assessment (out of 24 marks). • to help standardize the teacher’s assessment process. • to provide a record of the assessment task and its context for each student.

18. Standardization • After the assessments have been made, teachers need to meet to share their students’ work and to discuss why they made their particular assessment decisions, ie. quality control of teachers’ assessments by teachers.

19. Standardization • Such meetings are critical for developing: • agreement about what a standard means, ie. validity • consistency in and between teacher-assessors, ie. reliability • public accountability • professional collaboration/support

20. Standardization Compulsory: One 3 hour meeting per year of all English teachers at each form level in the same school, chaired by the SBA coordinator, to: • present the class records • discuss a range of sample audio or video-recordings and assessment records, • compare, then adjust or confirm each others’ results

21. Standardization Strongly recommended: • Informal meetings during the year with one or more other English teachers to discuss assessment tasks, processes and marks. • One informal meeting of all SBA coordinators from about 15-25 schools once a year, chaired by an teacher trainer/assistant supervisor to share problems and issues and to provide collaborative support.

22. Statistical moderation Statistical moderation by HKEAA … • at the end of S5 the marks from each school as a whole will be automatically compared with their results from the external examination • if a school’s pattern of SBA marks vary significantly from the school’s external examination marks, then adjustments will be made

23. Record-keeping *In the first year of the SBA assessment, schools should try to make recordings of all students’ oral assessments. Individual records may be collated onto a CD-rom for storage purposes and reviewed by the HKEAA, if the need arises.

24. The process of planning assessments should be undertaken collaboratively, taking into account students’ backgrounds, interest and skills as well as the school’s available resources Planning needs to consider not only the selection of texts and assessment tasks but also the overall goals of the assessment program, the teaching and learning activities needed, the feedback processes to be implemented, the role of the students in the assessment process, etc. Implementation

25. Implementation Planning (and reflecting) Assessing (and feedback/reporting) Teaching (and observing/monitoring) Learning (and recording/self-evaluating)

26. Look at an example of this process from Yuen Yuen No. 1 Institute school, a CMI band 3 school in Kwai Chung: What does the teacher do to ensure students do well on the SBA? How does the teacher integrate SBA activities into the normal teaching program? Implementation

27. Trialling of assessment processes (not teaching and learning): representative range of 24 schools, about 50 teachers full range of performance, criteria generally worked well, student responses favourable some clarification made to SBA guidelines, especially regarding role of recordings and nature of interaction some concerns re strong influence of current oral exam Implementation

28. For more general information and guidance on school-based assessment, especially setting up an extensive reading program and undertaking various assessment activities, visit HKU’s website on SBA: http://web.hku.hk/~sbapro For more help…