Think back to your response to question #2 of chapter 23
– if that assessment was problematic, what could be done to make that test into
a more effective procedure? If it was already effective, explore a way to
modify it to make it a different type of assessment (in other words, in what
different ways could you use it?)
(Additional comments on this post no longer earn points. Please choose a more recent entry).
(Additional comments on this post no longer earn points. Please choose a more recent entry).
The assessment should incorporate all the skill sets-speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think it's important that the assessments cover idiomatic language aspects as well. That is important in determining the difference between someone who is advanced in just knowing the correct answer and someone who is advanced in that they understand the language within its cultural context.
I think the oral assessment should be more on-the-spot, not intimidating, just more immediate, with less time to prepare. That way, it would be more realistic, but probably only applicable for higher level students.
ReplyDeleteThe pre-exam review and study guide should have been a truer refection of the final exam's content. I think this is important because if our students feel misled, they may lose trust in the instructor, and this may effect the way students prepare for future exams (if they take your class at all!). The study guide listed a lot of material from the first half of the class, and none of it appeared on the final exam. If the instructor had wanted the final exam to focus more on the latter half of the course, that should have been communicated more honestly to students.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to communicating a honest assessment objective, the professor should have offered feedback (or "washback") for that final exam. We did't receive any washback from which we could learn -only a letter grade for the whole course. A different professor of mine addressed the issue of getting students' final exams back to them by leaving them in a manila folder in his box. The exams were stapled shut so we couldn't see our classmates' results. I think this was a good way going about it.
Since I feel this assessment type was effective I think changing the type of interview would be more meaningful. So if the unit and topics involved travel make the the interview about travel. So the the teacher is a customer to an Italian travel agency and is looking to see more of Italy. The student is the agent and has to answer the customers questions about where to travel, what to see, what to do, and so on. This could make the assessment more specific and still contain the aspects of listening, speaking, and grammar.
ReplyDeleteStefani Goode
I would like for the test to establish face validity and test towards clear, unambiguous objects. “You don’t want your students to say, “I don’t see a connection between your test and what we studied” (468). That’s exactly how I felt at the end of the test. So I would like for them to clearly state earlier on in the AP track to study from AP material, and for the test to complement the material. I thought that we would cover more authentic material that was in our book, but it was not. There was a disconnect there.
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to have a few different topics to choose from that I had a frame of reference for. Similar to my experience, I had a male friend who was asked to give his opinion on young women and the "tween" concept. The material should have been made more relevant to us as students, and our anxiety levels should have been taken into consideration. The fact that we can and did use idiomatic expressions correctly, had advanced vocabulary etc was not weighted equally with our ability to use the subjunctive tense in a sentence.
ReplyDeleteI think one major thing would have been to put the students in smaller groups, or to put up dividers to muffle the sound. We were in a large room with all of us talking at once. This made the situation more stressful. Also it would be good to find a way, as I had said, to rate the students’ answers based on the quality of their answer rather than the length of their answer. Perhaps on their fluency and accuracy instead.
ReplyDeleteI too feel that allotting for silence should be in the assessment. Furthermore, a more day to day conversation like talking to the secretary at the doctors, talking to the teacher about a student, or conversing with a repairman would be both more useful and also in some ways more challenging for the student. Useful because they could relate with these. And challenging because it requires a certain level of real world application that is often hard to convey with vocabulary lessons.
ReplyDeleteI think I already answered this question by accident in question #2 of chapter 23, but I can elaborate more. Aptitude test should cover all the areas the course will, and when it comes to languages that means some kind of oral test. It would be a very poor language class without some kind of dialog during the class. As my experience proved the written test along with exhaustion made it very unreliable and invalid. A short conversation proved to the administrator that I could handle a higher level that the written test evaluated I would not be able to. So an oral interview would have made the assessment more effective and valid.
ReplyDeleteI already kind of explained in question 2 that I liked the assesment but i did not think that it was a good measurement of how much of the material was learned because it was not specified on just the material that was taught but would count off for things like not responding fast enough or messing up a grammar concept that hadnt been covered yet. Overall I think that an interview is a great way to see if your students understood and can put into practice the material that was covered but is not meant to point out every language mistake.
ReplyDeleteI actually think that the written test as a concept for assessment isn't bad; it was merely that in my case I was handed an assessment test that was completely beyond my level. I think that perhaps a combination of a short oral assessment by an instructor, followed by a written assessment test that is given based on the results of the oral assessment would be more effective. Just a few quick sentences of interaction between a teacher and a potential student can easily indicate whether a student is at the beginner or intermediate level, and having written tests that contain questions at a variety of levels would help narrow the assessment down further.
ReplyDelete