A special case for young learner language assessment

Summary

By Belinda Davis

                                                       

Young language learners are those who are learning a foreign or second language and who are doing so during the first six or seven years of formal schooling. In the education systems of most countries, young learners are children who are in primary or elementary school. In terms of age, young learners are between the ages of approximately five and twelve. Many young language learners can be called bilingual. Bilingual learners are those learners who learn two (or more) languages to some level of proficiency.

A special approach and efficient programs for young learners are needed because of unique characteristics of growth and vulnerability. They have individual learning styles.

Children are in cognitive, social, emotional and physical growth. The attention span of young learners is short, as little as 10 to 15 minutes.
Children bring to their language learning their own personalities, likes and dislikes and interests, their own individual cognitive styles and capabilities, strengths and weaknesses.
As teachers we need to understand the cultural backgrounds of children, their experiences, provide scaffolding support in order to improve foreign and second language.
                                                                                                 













Assessment terms and purposes
There are many reasons or purposes to carried out assessments. Administrative should not prevail over pedagogic purposes. Sometimes teachers train children to past the test, rather than concentrate on curriculum learning needs of the children.

Formative assessment
It is usually informal, gives teachers information about how well students is doing. Formative assessment also involves diagnostic assessment, when we analyse learners' strengths and weaknesses. Teachers observed the students' performance over the time to make improvements,  changes or to check if the objectives have achieved along the way.

Summative assessment
It is used to know how student has progressed during a period. The information is used to measure learning objectives and for report to others. Parents and administratives want to know how the child has progressed. It is also used to make careful decisions.

Effective assessment provides valuable information to teachers, parents, administrators and students themselves. As teachers we need to make sure that our assessments are positive, challenging and realistic for our students.

 

CCSS, Hacienda y MEP logran acuerdo

CCSS, Hacienda y MEP logran acuerdo para

superar diferencias en planillas del MEP

Jesús Mora Rodríguez / Dirección de Prensa y Relaciones Públicas

El Ministerio de Hacienda, la Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social y el Ministerio de Educación alcanzaron un acuerdo que permitirá solventar las diferencias que durante los últimos meses se presentaron  con el pago de las cuotas obrero-patronales correspondientes a muchos trabajadores de la educación.

Para el ministro de Educación, Leonardo Garnier, esas diferencias tuvieron su origen en interpretaciones distintas en cuanto a la base salarial que debía servir para estimar el monto de las cuotas. Mientras que la Caja establece cuotas mínimas para ello, Hacienda y el MEP consideraban que la base de cálculo debía ser el salario real devengado por los docentes en virtud de que muchos de ellos trabajan jornadas parciales que no les permite alcanzar ese mínimo.

De igual manera, dijo, se dieron casos en los que un mismo funcionario o docente poseía dos acciones de personal o contratos de trabajo en virtud de laborar en centros educativos distintos. En estos casos, acotó, la CCSS estimaba la cuota mínima por cada contrato, mientras que Hacienda y MEP consideraban que debían sumarse y aplicar lo deducible como un solo salario.

Tal diferendo –que afectó a menos del 1% del valor de la planilla total del MEP pues el 99% restante siempre se pagó de manera puntual, enfatizó–  hizo que la CCSS calificara al ministerio como “patrono moroso”, situación que se vio reflejada durante los últimos meses en las órdenes patronales extendidas a todos sus trabajadores, tanto docentes como administrativos.

Pero más grave aún, señaló el ministro, ese menos del 1% provocó que la CCSS acreditara al MEP el costo total de los servicios médicos recibidos por sus funcionarios a lo largo de todos los meses que duró esta negociación.  Ello porque así lo establece el marco jurídico que la tutela.

Tras meses de negociación, apuntó Garnier, se logró el acuerdo de que la CCSS acredite como un solo salario aquellos casos de funcionarios y docentes que posean dos o más acciones de personal o contratos laborales, en tanto que el MEP y Hacienda continuarán utilizando el criterio de pagar la cuota mínima de ley en aquellos casos en que, por trabajar tiempo parcial, esta cuota mínima sea mayor de la deducción correspondiente del salario real que devengan algunos trabajadores.

Importante acotar, dijo el ministro, es que estas diferencias de más las asumirá el MEP en su condición de patrono, y por tanto no tendrán impacto alguno sobre las deducciones que se aplicarán en adelante a los funcionarios y docentes que ostenten esa situación.

El jueves último, la junta directiva de la Caja autorizó la firma del acuerdo mediante el cual Hacienda se compromete a cancelar la suma de ?2.855 millones, correspondiente casi en su totalidad al costo de los servicios médicos recibidos por los funcionarios del MEP durante el periodo en que se generó este diferendo entre las partes. De igual manera, se le levantará a esta cartera su condición de “morosa” lo que se reflejará en la emisión de las nuevas órdenes patronales de sus funcionarios.

Todo lo anterior significa que el MEP en ningún momento incurrió en una retención indebida de cuotas de sus trabajadores como maliciosamente lo denunció una organización sindical en días pasados, acoto Garnier.

Tomado de: www.mep.go.cr

ADMINISTERING ASSESSMENT

                                                                     

Summary

Chapter 8

As teachers we should be always looking for our students to achieve the best results possible. For this reason, a careful consideration of factors that may affect is important to consider.

                                                                      

Prior to test administration be aware of:

-Scheduling Tests:  be sure the date does not coincide with special events or sport activities. Be sure to be there because strangers or substitutes make students nervous and uncomfortable.

-Academic dishonesty: give clear instructions, describe to them acceptable and unacceptable behaviours. Give examples of cheating, plagiarism, and impermissible collaboration. Explain the policies, procedures and penalties for academic dishonesty.

-Physical setting: the ideal seating is every other seat and every other row. The test room should be free from interruptions and noise and have adequate ventilation and lighting.

                                                                                                   

-Test Assembly: test should be typed, well put together, free of typos, high quality photocopies. The test paper should also provide students with general and separate instructions for each section.

-Supplies: prepare materials in advance. Have pens, scratch paper, stapler and others.

                                                                                                                           

Test Administration

-Time: tell students how long they have at the beginning of the test, give time announcements, at the end collect papers promptly so certain students don't get extra time.

- Test security: personally hand out to each the test. Some rules include no talking, no cell phone calls or text messaging. Walk around up and down to watch students

Issues in Test Administration

-Latecomers: students who arrive late should not be allowed to take the test. Inform them of the date and time of the make-up exam.

-Accommodations policy: be aware of medical problems or physically challenged.

Finally, I believe that we need to challenge our students to do the best according to their knowledge, give them the tools and facilities to do well in the test. However, we need to be fair don't help too much and don't give hints, this is unfair for students who studied and prepared sufficiently.

  

Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation

SUMMARY

Designing Scoring Rubrics for Your Classroom

                                                                               

Rubrics are rating scales, scoring guides, consisting of specific pre-established performance criteria, used in evaluating student work on assessments.
There are two types of rubrics:
1. Holistic: score the overall process or product as a whole.
2. Analytic: score separate, individual parts of the product, then sums the individual scores to obtain a total score.
                                                                                
A teacher must decide whether the performance or product will be scored holistically or analytically. Regardless of which type is selected, specific performance criteria and observable indicators must be identified as the initial step. To choose is important that teachers consider how they intend to use the results, the time requirements, the nature of the task and the specific performance criteria being observed.

When converting rubric scores to grades or descriptive feedback, it is important to remember that there is not one correct way to accomplish this. As teachers we must find a system of conversion that fits our different individual system of reporting students performances.

In order to create your own rubric, ask yourself the following:

1. What are the specif tasks and subtasks of the assignment?
2. What's the purpose? Is this a qualitative or quantitative rubric? Is the rubric for student feedback or to provide a grade?
3. What are your descriptors going to be? Remember to avoid negative connotations.
4. Did you consider and build in a full range of skills and knowledge with clear indicators of each level of performance?
Also remember to keep making revisions to your rubric, there is always something to improve for the benefit of our students.
                                                                     


  

The Advantages of Rubrics

Summary

By Licda. Belinda Davis

A rubric is a scoring guide that seeks to evaluate a students' performance based on a full range of criteria. It is an assessment used to measure students' work. It is a working guide for students and teachers. Rubrics can be created for any content.

Why use rubrics?
When students receive rubrics before, they understand how they will be evaluated and can prepare accordingly. Developing a grid and making it available as a tool for students' use will provide a better quality and increase their knowledge.

Create an Original Rubric
To get started remember:
1. Establish the concepts to be taught (objectives)
2. Choose the criteria to be evaluated.
3. Develop a grid. Plug in the concepts and criteria.
4. Share the rubric with students before.
5. Evaluate the end product.

Analytic vs. Holistic Rubrics

*Analytic rubrics identify and assess components of a finished product.
*Holistic assess students work as a whole.

To choose the best type of rubric remember considering your students and grader; for modeling, present anchor products or exemplars of products at various levels of development.

What is a weighted rubric?

Is an analytic rubric in which certain concepts are

judged more heavily than others.

A weighted rubric clearly communicates to the students

and their parents which parts of the project or assessment

are more important to learn for a particular activity.

Rubrics are important and necessary tools for everyday teaching, don't lose sight of the purpose or objectives of

the assessment by getting down in meaningless details.

Rubrics can be used for oral presentations, projects, written assessments, creative writing and many others.

Sindicatos de Educadores tienen la razón

Sindicatos de Educadores tienen la razón.

Revelado porººEl Chamukoºº

Saludos queridas almas: El Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Educación (SEC) hizo un llamado a huelga a sus afiliados, con esta movida se pone cuesta arriba la directriz del Ministerio de Educación Pública (MEP) de solicitar un comprobante de asistencia a los afiliados que asistan a este evento y  no podrá hacer rebajos ni tomar represalias hasta que un Tribunal declare ilegal el movimiento. Con la reciente jurisprudencia de la Sala Constitucional, será toda una odisea para el MEP lograr su cometido. 

En ocasiones anteriores he criticado duramente a los sindicatos (incluidos los del magisterio), pero en esta ocasión tienen toda la razón: Los 5 días para congresos están por fuera de la jornada laboral de 200 días lectivos, así que es falso que el MEP esté dando licencia con goce de salario a los funcionarios para que asistan a este evento, y por lo tanto cualquier control que quiera ejercer es una intromisión directa en la organización de los sindicatos.

También es cierto que se está explotando a los funcionarios que no están afiliados a ningún sindicato, porque se les obliga a trabajar cinco días más (fuera de los 200) sin ninguna paga extra, este pobre diablo quisiera saber cuántos empleados estarían dispuestos a este atropello.  El Colegio de Licenciados y Profesores debería demostrar que sirve para algo, y llevar un proceso laboral contra el MEP en representación de los docentes no afiliados a los sindicatos, con el fin de cobrar los días extras que los obligan a trabajar.

La jurisprudencia que utiliza el MEP para amedrentar a los sindicatos está bien jalada del pelo: primero porque se refiere a los dirigentes y no a los afiliados; segundo, porque se refiere a permisos sindicales EN HORAS LABORALES, y como se expuso anteriormente, los días de congreso están por fuera de los 200 días lectivos; y tercero, porque no se infiere que dicha jurisprudencia se refiera a relaciones laborales con educadores.

Y lo peor es que el MEP y varios medios de comunicación le han hecho creer a la ciudadanía que esos cinco días de congreso y la organización de los mismos son pagados por el MEP, cuando esa información es más falsa que un político honesto: El costo de la organización de los congresos corre por cuenta de las organizaciones sindicales que obtienen fondos de los aportes de sus afiliados.

Y cuando el MEP dice que esos cinco días son pagados por el Estado manipula la verdad maliciosamente: Todos los trabajadores reciben salario los 365 días del año -porque a nadie le dejan de pagar en vacaciones, fines de semana o feriados- pero si a cualquier trabajador lo hacen ir a bretiar fuera de su jornada laboral ¿qué es lo que corresponde? que le paguen el doble por los días extra trabajados, cosa que el MEP NUNCA HARÁ.

Cualquiera podría maliciar que esta jugarreta del MEP es una represalia contra los sindicatos por rechazar la propuesta de trimestralización. La solución a este conflicto es muy simple y ojalá lo pongan en práctica a partir del año que viene: no deben incluirse los días de congreso en el calendario escolar porque son días que están fuera de la jornada laboral de los 200 días lectivos y cada organización deberá realizar su congreso cuando estime conveniente, siempre y cuando no esté dentro de esos 200 días.

My Glossary

Because learning is exciting and fun, I hope these words are helpful.

1. Gleaned: to learn, discover, or find out, usually little by little or slowly.

2. Proofread: to read (printers' proofs, copy, etc.) in order to detect and mark errors to be corrected.

3. Hallmarks: any mark or special indication of genuineness, good quality. Any  distinguishing feature or characteristic.

4.  Deemed:  to form or have an opinion; judge; think.

5. Benchmark: any standard or reference by which others can be measured or judged.
 6. Venue: the position taken by a person engaged in argument or debate; ground.

 

7. Genre:  a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, or technique. Kind, sort, style.

 

8. Thesaurus:  any dictionary, encyclopedia or other comprehensive reference book.   a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms.

9. Germane: closely or significantly related; relevant; pertinent.

10. Amenable: capable of or agreeable to being tested, tried, analyzed. Ready or willing to answer.

11. Odds: the ratio of probability that something is so, will occur, or is more likely to occur than something else. A difference favoring one of two contestants.

12. Biases: a particular tendency or inclination, especially one that prevents unprejudiced consideration of a question; prejudice.

13. Allayed:  to put (fear, doubt, suspicion, anger, etc.) to rest; calm; quiet.

Assessing Speaking

Summary

Chapter 6

The aim or objective of learning a new language is to be able to communicate. Speaking is an important channel of communication in a general English program. When testing this skill, we want to simulate real - life situations that students engage  in conversations, ask and answer questions, and give information.

Heaton(1995, p.88) stated that speaking is "an extremely difficult skill to test, as it is far too complex a skill to permit any reliable analysis to be made for the purpose of objective testing."

Why Test Speaking?

In communicative language teaching, speaking is a prominent component of language curriculum. If we value communication skills, we must assess them or we send a double message to our students about what is important. With English now a global language, we need to develop proficiency in speaking. 

                                                          

Theory of Speaking Assessment

Canale and Swain(1980) argue that there are four competencies underlying speaking ability:

1. Grammatical competence: knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics.
2. Discourse competence: rules of cohesion and coherence, holding communication together in a meaningful way.
3. Sociolinguistic competence: knowledge of what is expected socially and culturally.
4. Strategic competence: manipulation of the language, how to keep a conversation going or end it, how to resolve communication breakdowns.

Categories of Oral Skills

The routine skills are associated with language functions and the spoken language required in certain situations like ordering food in a restaurant or asking for directions. By contrast, the improvisational skills are more general and may be brought into play at any time for clarification, to keep a conversation flowing, to change topics, or to take turns.

Important Things to Remember

1. It is unrealistic with large classes to test speaking individually because of time and resources.
2. Decide if your focus is more on fluency or accuracy.
3. Check if students mistakes impede comprehension or cause a breakdown in communication.
4. Some criterias you can use on accuracy(grammar), vocabulary, linguistic ability(pronunciation, intonation, and stress), for fluency(ability to express ideas), and content or ideas.
5. Students can be tested individually, in pairs, or in groups of three.
6. Speaking tests can be conducted live or be recorded.


Formal Speaking Assessment Techniques

Canale(1984) proposed a framework for speaking tests. He believed that students do best when they are led through the following stages:
* Warm up: the purpose is to relax students. Students are asked general or personal information.
* Level check: try to determine the students' level of speaking through questions or activities. This part is assessed.
* Probe: the examiner push the students to go beyong his or her abilities. This part can be scored or not.
* Wind down: relax the students with easy questions. This is not scored.

     

Classroom Speaking Assessment Techniques
                                                                         
Oral presentations: students talking about a familiar topic.
Debate on a controversial topic: a formal public speaking activity where two students or groups argue for or against a topic.
Reading aloud: it is a good pronunciation practice and assessment. Give students the chance to look at the passage first.
Retelling stories: give a report on the content of an article they read.
Verbal essays: students speak for three to five minutes on a specific prepared topic.
Extemporaneous speaking: students are given a topic to speak about it for two  minutes. They have no time in which to prepare.

                                                                       

Assessing Listening

Summary

Chapter 5

As teachers we know that is important to assess listening skills, but sometimes we are unable to do this effectively. Nunan(2002) calls listening comprehension "the poor cousin amongst the various language skills."

Listening skill is not passive, it is an active process where students receive, construct meaning form, and respond to spoken messages.

Models of Listening

The two models are:

1. Bottom - up: comprehension occurs when the listener successfully decodes the spoken text. It also occurs when students take in a word, decode it and link it with other words to form sentences.

2. Top- down: the listener is directly involved with constructing meaning from input. The students uses background knowledge of the context and situation to make sense of what is heard.

                                                                              

Approaches to Listening Assessment

Buck(2001) identified three major approaches to the assessment of listening abilities: discrete point, integrative, and communicative approaches.

The discrete point broke listening into component elements and assessed them separately.

The integrative approach assess a learner's capacity to use mani bits at the same time. The whole of the language is greater than the sum of its parts.

The communicative approach. The listener must be able to comprehend the message and then use it in context. Communicative question formats should be authentic in nature.

Background Knowledge

Background or prior knowledge needs to be taken into account because research suggests that it affects comprehension and test performance. An attempt to standardize the presence or absence of backgroung knowledge should be made in any listening text that purports to be a valid indicator of comprehension.

 

                                                                                     

Techniques for Assessing Listening Comprehension       

1. Phonemic discrimination: students listen to one word in isolation and then tries to identify which word was said. Like in minimal pairs (ship/sheep).

2. Cloze: they listen to a passage while referring to a written transript of the text in which several words have been deleted. Students are asked to fill in the blanks while listening.

3. Dictation: it assess a wide range of skills, do it with short text that you will read three times.

4. Information transfer tasks: it requires students to transfer information they have heard to a chart or visual.

                                          

Important Aspects

1. Unknown vocabulary should never occur as the correct answer.

2. Good sources of authentic speech to assess listening are: radio, television, pre-recorded teaching materials, pod casts, internet, and teacher produced materials.

3. For structure purposes in any test start with an easy question. Also ordered the questions as they are heard in the passage.

4. The timing of a test will be determined by how many times the test - takers are permitted to hear each passage. Remember to give time for pre - reading.

5. The way a listening test is administered and delivered can impact the results.

6. Give credit for students know, don't deduct for spelling or grammar mistakes when your focus is on listening comprehension.

7. Give students a reason for listening.                    

                                  

ASSESSING WRITING

Summary

Chapter 4

How important is writing in your program?. Assessing writing skills are important because good writing ability is significant for higher education and employers.

Two major approaches to writing assessment are: indirect and direct.

Indirect measures of writing assessment assess correct usage in sentence level constructions, spelling and puctuation. It is more concerned with accuracy than communication.

Direct measures of writing assess a student's ability to communicate through the written mode based on the actual production of written texts. It requires the students to produce the content; give ideas and use appropriate vocabulary, grammatical conventions, and syntax. Direct writing assessment integrates all elements of writing.

According to Hyland(2003) to design a good writing assessment tests and tasks involves four basic elements:                                                              
1. Rubric: instructions
2. Prompt: the task
3. Expected response: what students will do with the task.
4. post-task evaluation: assessing the effectiveness of the writing task.
 Also Hyland stated that good writing tasks are likely to produce positive responses to the following questions:

* Did the prompt discriminate well among my students?
* Were the essays easy to read and evaluate?
* Were students able to write to their potential and show what they knew?

Techniques for Assessing Writing
The ESL/EFL literature addresses two types of writing : free writing and guided writing.
Free writing: requires students to read a  prompt that poses a situation and write a planned response based a combination of background knowledge and knowledge learned in the present.
Guided writing: this task requires teachers to be clear about what they expect students to do. It requires them to manipulate content that is provided in the prompt, usually in the form of a chart or diagram.

Authentic Writing Assessment

Student-Teacher conferences
You can learn more from your students by asking questions like:
* How did you select this topic?
* What do you feel are your strengths in writing?
* What did you do to generate content?

Self-Assessment
You can use dialogue jornals or learning logs. The first require students to make entries on different topics. On the other hand, learning logs document time students spend on various writing activities.

Peer Assessment
The major rationale for peer assessment is that when students learn to evaluate the work of their peers, they are extending their own learning opportunities.

Portfolio Based Assessment           
It examines multiple pieces of writing produced over time under different constraints rather than a single essay. A portfolio is a collection of student writing that shows the stages in the writing process, the growth of the writer's.

Writing Assessment Scales  
 We need to select the appropriate writing scale for a particular teaching context. The two main types for assessing student written proficiency are holistic and analytic.

Holistic Marking Scales
It is based on the marker's toatl impression of the essay as a whole. This marking is  termed as impressionistic, global, or integrative marking.

Analytical Marking Scales
"Raters provide assessment for each of a number of aspects of performance"(Hamp-Lyons, 1991). Scorers mark selected aspects of a piece of writing and assignpoint values to quantifiable criteria. Analytic scales are generally more effective with inexperienced teachers and more realiable for scales with a larger point range.

It is important to provide feedback to students so they can learn and make improvements to their writing. You can do so by handwritten comments or simple correction codes.

Sample Marking Codes for Writing 

sp= spelling

vt= verb tense

ww= wrong word

wv= wrong verb

?= I don't understand

Remember to give positive remarks and feedback, but be careful too much praise can make students complacent. Be sure to give them aspects to be improve or correct in the following tasks or tests.