EN 4313 (Lecture 5)Aims of the lecture:

Assessing &

Responding to Ss’ work

Running the ERS lesson

Two basic questions about Responding to Ss’ work

1. What does it mean by responding to Ss’ work?

2. What do we do when we respond to Ss’ work?

What is meant by responding to Ss’ work?

Responding to something = reacting to it

Reacting to Ss’ behaviour is a natural teaching act.

Focus of the lecture: reacting to work that Ss produce

What does it mean by ‘work’?

A general term; covering Ss’ language or non-language work, e.g., their speech work, their written work, pictures, choosing an object as part of a listening comprehension task

Work can be formal (e.g., an assigned project, a test) or informal (e.g., reading a dialogue as a class activity)

Kinds of work Ts tend to respond to

Think of at least three kinds of work that teachers’ tend to respond to

in a classroom setting?

in a non-classroom setting

Kinds of work Ts tend to respond to (cont’d)

In a classroom setting: e.g., Answers to our questions (display, genuine) Answers to exercises Drafts of composition Pictures they draw Pronunciation of a word Discussions

In a non-classroom setting: Assignments (TV program watched at home, projects,

exercises, library searches, etc)

What do we do when responding to Ss’ work

When responding our Ss’ work, we can be performing one or a combination of the following tasks:

Assessing [on-line decision + feedback for our Ss]

Evaluating of own teaching [on-line decision]

Planning for [remedial] teaching [on-line decision]

Teaching [on-line teaching]

Responding personally [feedback for our Ss]

Contextual constraints on the tasks we choose to perform All the five tasks are important both to ourselves and to our

students.

They may not be accomplishable all the time.

The tasks that we choose to perform depends on

the situation in which our responding takes place (e.g., class teaching vs marking Ss’ papers)

the focus of the teaching situation (e.g., skimming)

other contextual factors which may or may not allow the execution of all the 5 tasks

Case Study (1)

You have finished teaching 10 new words, one of which is ‘argumentative’. The bell will go in five minutes. One of the students is reading aloud the word but he has mispronounced it as /ɑ:gjʊmenteıtıv/.

What would you do? Would you choose to work on the pronunciation?

Which of the five responding tasks is feasible in this situation?

2 Responding tasks to focus on in the lecture:

Assessing what to assess how to assess how to provide assessment feedback

Responding Personally What responses to provide and why

Assessing Ss’ performance

Assessing = a two-in-one process finding out how much Ss have learned and

how well they have learned as compared against the lesson’s objectives to perform your teaching evaluation

communicating the assessment to Ss so that they know where they are in terms of their learning (e.g., level of success, level of accuracy, etc.)

Formal vs informal assessment

Formal assessment: tools: tests, projects, examinations tools designed to measure Ss’ performance performance documented as scores, grades assessment results will go into the record mechanisms to qualify or disqualify Ss feedback is usually given if the tools are returned to

the students.

Formal vs informal assessment (cont’d)

Informal assessment: tools: short tasks, exercises, quizzes tools designed to reinforce but can be used to assess

Ss’ learning informs your next step of teaching allows Ss to know where they are in moment-to-moment

learning feedback on their performance can be ad hoc, dealt on

the spot or at regular intervals feedback can be verbal or written (e.g., emails) Normally done in class Results normally won’t go into the record

To assess Ss’ work…

1. Set some preliminary criteria to guide your assessment;

2. Assess a few samples according to the set criteria; [for formal assessment]

3. Adjust the criteria if for various reasons you find them inadequate. [for formal assessment]

Some principles for setting criteria for formal assessment

1.Set criteria which are genre/task-specific. 2.Assess

what the specific task requires them to achieve;

what you have intended them to learn in the unit;

what your students have learned in a previous unit or a previous level;

what your students are able to achieve at the present stage of learning.

Assessing writing as an example to illustrate the principles of setting assessment criteria

1. Setting criteria: What can be assessed?

Content (e.g., relevancy, clarity, originality, creativity, and other genre-/task- specific aspects)

Organization (e.g., coherence, paragraphing, flow of ideas, genre-specific structuring of text, etc.)

Language (e.g., syntax, punctuation, word choice, genre-specific lexico-grammar items, etc.)

Case Study (2) Setting criteria

A case study: You have assigned your students to write about their childhoods (length: 300 words).

What genre does the task involve? What ideas do you expect your students to include in their

pieces? (content) How should your Ss organize their writing, i.e., in what order?

(organization) What language features / forms do you expect to see in your

students’ work? (language)

1. Draft a preliminary set of assessment criteria.

Case Study (2) Adjusting the criteria

1. Study Katy’s stored in the file: Katy's_childhood.doc (an autobiographic account of Katy’s childhood)

2. Imagine that Katy’s work represent what many of the students in her class have achieved.

3. Check the asssement criteria you have set earlier. Are they still suitable for the marking of writings from Katy’s class? What changes are needed?

Some possible criteria for Katy’s class

Content: Choice of events (e.g., critical events, memorable events Relevancy Elaboration / clarity of ideas Others (?)

Organization Following a chronological order of events / or using a flash-back structure Paragraphing(?)

Language: The proper use of the past tense Punctuation Sentence structure

Case Study 2 (cont’d) Assessing

Assess the contents, organization and language of Katy’s work using the adjusted criteria:

Content: excellent good average poor? Organization: excellent good average poor? Language: excellent good average poor? Overall Grade: A B C D

Giving assessment feedback

When assessing Ss’ work, don’t just give a score. Do the following:

Show your assessment of what you have intended them to learn Indicate Ss’ overall achievement in terms of scores or grades. Provide an overall comment (e.g., ‘An impressive piece!’). Relate specifically what they have achieved in the task (e.g., signs of

learning of the simple tense, application of knowledge gained in the input state, etc.)

Outline Ss’ task-specific strengths and weaknesses: e.g., good at making inferences. e.g., problems with the sound /æ/

Give directions for improvement / development Tell them what they need to work on in the next attempt (e.g.,

paragraphing, making contextual guesses, listening for numbers, etc.).

Responding personally to Ss’ workShow them that you’re genuinely

interested in what they have produced. You are not just a teacher. You can be a

genuine reader or listener.Tell them, for instance,

What you have enjoyed most when reading their work

What you have learned about them One way to personalize your teaching!

How to give feedback

When giving assessment feedback, try the following: giving indirect feedback such as symbols or asking questions giving direct feedback / correction using assessment grids (see Katy's_childhood.doc)

When writing your feedback, use simple language keep your comments short.

Observe the practice of your CT. Ask him/her for the school’s marking guidelines and the symbols used by the teachers.

When giving compliments, say what you really mean. ‘Excellent’ means perfect work. Don’t give positive comments arbitrarily.

99 Ways to Say ‘Very Good’

P. 90, Readings Manual (the pink booklet)

Case Study (3) Giving feedback to Katy’s work

1. Assess Katy’s use of tenses. (A, B, C or D?)2. Decide if you should give direct feedback on

her misuse of past modals. If so, how would you give it?

3. Decide if you should give indirect feedback on her misuse of past forms of finite verbs. If so, how would you give it?

4. Provide an overall comment on Katy’s ideas and language.

5. Provide a brief personal response to Katy’s childhood.

For you to find out in PT in terms of assessing and giving feedback:

How do your students receive your feedback and assessment?

What might or might not work effectively for your students?

Running the ERS lesson

ERS = The Extensive Reading Scheme It’s a school-based scheme. It aims to promote of reading for pleasure and is not intended for intensive

training in reading skills. Normally, there is one ERS lesson per week/cycle for junior forms. The lesson is sometimes run in the school library. Students are required to read graded books of their own choices from a pool

that the school has prepared. Students are normally required to writing brief reports (or do worksheets) of

the books they have read. In some schools, the reading of one book /completion of one report is worth

a certain mark. The accumulation of marks will lead to some kinds of award to be presented to the students towards the end of the semester.

In some schools, students are asked to present the books they have read at the end of the lesson.

The practice of running ERS varies with the school. Find out more from your CT.