TASK 1

Written Report on Classroom Observation

Assessment is an important element for an effective teaching and learning

process. Assessment allows the teacher to be experimental on his/her teaching method
to enhance the pupils understanding towards the lesson. On the first week of my
practicum in school, I had the chance to observe an assessment carried out by Miss
Linda, senior teacher in SK Convent Green lane. I observed Year 4 class, for English
lesson. All the pupils in Year 4 class that I observed was higher level pupils. The type of
assessment that I observed used by Miss Linda was formative assessment. After
finishing a particular section, Miss Linda carried out this formative assessment. This is
to value her teaching method by looking at the pupils understanding of Miss Lindas
type of teaching on Unit 11 (Insects Investigators).
Miss Linda had taught the pupils Unit 11 which is Insects Investigators. Miss
Linda thought them about the body parts and characteristics of insects. She had used
variety of teaching materials upon teaching this particular topic. She conducts a
diagnostic test to evaluate the pupils understanding on the topic. A diagnostic test lets
the teacher and the students know how well they have learnt particular course elements
and are typically done at the end of course book units or recent class work. The test
content and question types should be familiar to students and you should expect a high
degree of success as they know whats in the test. The results will also show us which
areas needed to be revised and at the same time whether it needed to be revised
individually or for the class. In other word, Miss Linda can identify the problematic
element of the whole class or few individuals through this diagnostic test.
The test item that Miss Linda chose for the diagnostic test is Cloze. Miss Linda
gave short texts about insects. In the texts, there were few blank spaces for the pupils
to fill in their answer. The pupils need to complete the text by adding a word to each
gap.

Example: There are many types of insects. A butterfly is a type of_________.The

young of a butterfly is called_________.
Since Miss Linda wants to test the pupils understanding of the vocabulary and their
understanding on insects, cloze test was very suitable. This kind of task type is much
more integrative as pupils have to process the components of the language
simultaneously. It has also been proved to be a good indicator of overall language
proficiency. The teacher must be careful about multiple correct answers and students
may need some practice of this type of task. Cloze tests can be very effective for testing
grammar, vocabulary and intensive reading.
There can be many assessments provided by the teacher. However, if the level
of assessment irrelevant for the pupils, it wouldnt be successful assessment. Therefore,
to achieve the best out of the assessments, a teacher needs to follow the principles of
follow the principles of assessment which is validity, authenticity, practicality and
washback effects.
Heaton (1975: 153), for example, states that the validity of a test is the extent to
which it measures what it is supposed to measure. A good assessment should be valid
or accurate. It should have a well-constructed, expected format with familiar tasks,
items that are clear and uncomplicated, asks that relate to their content and directions
that are crystal clear. Miss Lindas assessment was valid because she wanted to test
the pupils vocabulary on the topic of insects. Therefore, she prepared the test items
fully about insects and its characteristics. Since, the assessment prepared by her was
related to the content, it is another strength discovered in Miss Lindas assessment.
Authenticity is another important element in preparing language assessment test.
According to Bachman and Palmer (as cited in Brown, 2004:28), the authenticity is
defined as the degree of correspondence of the characteristics of a given language test
task to the features of a target language. The language used in the test should be
original/genuine. There shouldnt be any mixture of other language in the test items.
Apart from that, topics brought in the test should be meaningful and interesting for the
learners. The test item that Miss Linda prepared was authentic because it was purely in

one language which is English. At the same time, it was attractive for the pupils because
they enjoyed learning about insects and it was meaningful for them. Therefore, this is
one of the strength I have found in the test assessment prepared by Miss Linda.
Practicality is equally important as authenticity. It is important for the teacher to
consider the practicality of the assessment based on the factor of time and energy.
(Heaton, 1975:158-159; Weir, 1990: 34-35; Brown, 2004: 19-20. The assessment that
teacher prepared should be within the time pupils time constrain. Therefore, the test
items should be appropriate so that the pupils will have enough time to finish the test. If
the teacher prepared all the hard work to assess the students, if the students could not
answer them as planned, its still considered as a failure. Miss Linda had followed the
practicality principle. The pupils had enough time limits to complete their task and
handover to their teacher at the end of the time. Therefore, this is another strength I
have found in the test assessment prepared by the teacher.
Heaton (1975: 161-162) mentions this as backwash effect which falls into macro
and micro aspects. In macro aspect, tests impact society and education system
such as development of curriculum. In micro aspect, tests impact individual
student or teacher such as improving teaching and learning process.
The effects of tests on teaching and learning are called washback. Teachers
must be able to create classroom tests that serve as learning devices through which
washback is achieved. The washback effect contains positive and negative effect. It is
easy to find negative wash back such as narrowing down language competencies only
on those involve in tests and neglecting the rest. While language is a tool of
communication, most students and teachers in language class only focus on language
competencies in the test. On the other hand, a test can be positive washback if it
encourages better teaching and learning. Therefore, a teacher should look at the
washback effect to enhance his/her teaching strategies. The washback effect and the
assessment theory practiced by Miss Linda in the classroom are very similar. She had
used only tested the pupils on what they have learnt. Therefore, the pupils didnt have
many problems in identifying the vocabulary. This is a strength that I discovered from
the assessment prepared by Miss Linda.

The overall weakness that I have identified is lack of challenging in the task. The
pupils of SK Convent Green lane should be given a much harder task. It will not only
enable them to think deeper, but at the same time they will be able to learn something
new. It will be also challenging task for the really good pupils.
There are many factors that need to be considered by a teacher before preparing
test items. But assessments do have value, and an important place in our learning
structure. By measuring what students are learning, we as teachers can look at how we
are approaching different subjects, materials, and even different students. Preparing
assessments takes a lot of patience and dedication. It is for our development of future
generations.