TEACHER DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS

EVALUATION AND
CHOICES

ASSESSMENT
One of the main reasons we assess learners in the classroom is to find out about their
progress in relation to the Objectives in the coursebook we are using. This assessment
helps us find out what students can do well and what they can do less well. Assessment,
like the Statements in the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), should also
focus on what students can do, not on what they cannot. For example, the statements from
the European Language Portfolio (ELP) for A1 are:
Listening: Can understand familiar words and very basic phrases concerning myself, my
family and immediate concrete surroundings when people speak slowly and clearly.
Reading: Can understand familiar names, words and very simple sentences, for example on
notices and posters or in catalogues.
Spoken interaction: Can interact in a simple way provided the other person is prepared to
repeat or rephrase things at a slower rate of speech and help me formulate what Im trying
to say; can ask and answer simple questions in areas of immediate need or on very familiar
topics.
Spoken production: Can use simple phrases and sentences to describe where I live and
the people I know.
Writing: Can write a short, simple postcard, for example sending holiday greetings; can fill
in forms with personal details, for example entering name, nationality and address on a
hotel registration form.
Remember: We need to assess students competence and ability in English in all five
language skills.

WHAT DOES ASSESSMENT MEAN AND IS IT THE SAME AS

EVALUATION AND TESTING?
Assessment is finding out about what students know and what they can do. Testing is one
of the ways that we can find out. But there are many other ways of finding out, e.g. through
listening to students in role-plays or in pairwork, by collecting their classwork or homework,
by observing them working in class. It is important to use different ways of finding out what
students know and can do. We will not get a clear picture of their abilities if we only use
one way, e.g. testing.
Evaluation is a little different from assessment. Assessment focuses on students and what
they can do with reference to certain criteria, as in the CEFR above. Assessment is usually
over a longer period, thus we may assess students abilities and progress over the period of
a term or a year.
Evaluation is about making decisions and judgements. We evaluate data or information,
we do not usually evaluate people. At the end of the academic year, we evaluate the
information we have about students and make decisions, e.g. do they repeat the year, do
they go up to the next class? We also evaluate the books and the approaches we use.

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 TEACHER DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF ASSESSMENT?

These are the most common types of assessment.

Formal assessment
Formal assessment means tests and exams. Elementary-level students are more likely to do
tests than exams. You can think of a test as an event, because students know about it in
advance, and it has a clear purpose, a beginning and an end. The tests we use on a regular
basis to check students learning are called progress tests; the tests we use to check
how much students have learned over a longer period, e.g. at the end of a term are called
achievement tests. By giving students these kinds of tests on a regular basis, we can make
sure they are ready to sit formal external examinations.

Classroom-based assessment
Most of the assessment we do at Elementary level is classroom-based assessment. This
means monitoring students on a regular basis against the objectives in the units of the
coursebook and the can-do statements in the CEFR. We get most of this information by
observing students working in class, not by giving them tests. It is important to keep
records of what we notice.

Portfolio assessment
A portfolio is a collection of documents and materials which show a students achievements
and points of learning over a period of time. Teachers provide the structure for the portfolio
and give students guidance, but in most cases it is the students who choose the documents
to put in their portfolios. Usually the structure comes from a document like the English
Language Portfolio (ELP), with each section of the portfolio providing evidence of the
can-do statements in one skill area. Portfolios need to include DVD or CD materials (to show
students using and reacting to spoken language) and can be hard copy (paper) or soft copy
(on computer).

Self-assessment
We teach students to become better at self-assessment through learner training. Students
need to learn to be able to recognise their own strengths and weaknesses and to plan how
to improve their own learning. The more students use the ELP, the better they will become
at self-assessment.

WHICH TYPE OF ASSESSMENT SHOULD I USE MOST WITH MY

STUDENTS?
You should use a combination of different types of assessment. It is important not to base
your assessment about what a student can do from one observation or from one test result.

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