Xiamen Haicang Experimental Middle School Chen Huirong
[Key words] assessment, approaches, make-up exams, checklists, multi- intelligence, learning styles
[Abstract]
The situation of assessment here in China is that,, up to now ,we have already assessed our students mainly by testing them. We accept students in senior grades and even in colleges according to their total scores of English and other subjects, unless they major in English. But people have found that this approach is not scientific. So we are undertaking a national program to find better ways to assess our students. We divide the English levels into 9 grades. And when you want to graduate from middle school and go to college, you should pass a certain degree, that is, Grade 8. In this way, I am sure the students’ English will really be improved a lot. And their English learning will become more active. But we are short of concrete ways of implementation. So we‘d better find suitable ways for our own students., Here I’d like to present some assessment approaches in ESL Teaching according to what we have done here in Xiamen. China in the New Curriculum Innovation.
[Projects]
1). Nowadays we mainly assess our students in summative assessment, but if we try to use more formative assessment, we can get to know what the students have or haven’t mastered and why they have or haven’t mastered it. Here we have a checklist (See Appendix: Checklist One), “the Report of Achievement” on analyzing students’ examination paper. It is designed by the Curriculum Development Center of the Assessment Program in China. With its help, teachers can assess students by giving descriptive comments, pointing out achievements or problems and grading their abilities on language knowledge, communicative competence and creativeness. At the same time, students can assess themselves by writing down “ I am good at …, I feel difficult in …, I like …”. At last, teachers and students can write down their self-reflection. Also we can design checklists on assessing students for a period. (See Appendix: Checklist Two) we design the checklist for non-testing assessment. We use this checklist every month to remind our students on their learning styles and strategies. And report these items to their parents at the parents’ meetings or home visit. Then the teachers and the parents write down some comments to encourage the students or children to make further progress, and make the students do self-reflection. So we can assess our students in specific descriptive appraisal while they are learning, not just for scores.
In formative assessment, students have several chances to present themselves. Not just like summative assessment “let bygones be bygones”. So we’d better set up make-up examinations. In this way, students can have chances to improve themselves, and learn something new gradually instead of giving up English learning. Since we can’t just teach for tests, we’ve tried to give our students the same paper to do it once again or make a similar one to check our students. This facilitates the students’ learning, for different students have different intelligence. So in the end they also mastered what they are learning. Shanghai Nanyang Model Middle School has also done the same with us. Here we’ve incorporated assessment in classroom learning. For students, the process of testing is a process of learning. They may fail sometimes, but in the end they make up what they haven’t mastered. As a result, we have changed “grading appraisal” into “diagnosing encouragement” (Chen Yukun, 2001, p2). No wonder American people insist on the belief “Never let a child lag behind” in Year 2000 Education Strategies. It is the same in British education. People assess a school not according to its final results, but the progress each student has made. So as soon as each of their students enters the school, the school will help him / her to build up a general ability development database, this is the so-called placement assessment, then the school will record and observe his progress by formative and summative assessment (Zhu. L. China Youth Daily, 2002).
At the same time, students and parents can help with the designs of assessment. We can often interview them and communicate with them how to assess our students. I have interviewed some parents on how to assess their children. Of course, they can never forget testing, but at the same time, they’d like teachers to assess their children authentically and encouragingly. Then I interviewed some students, they’d like to be assessed on different aspects. One of my instructors in the Assessment Program, Ms. Guo, went to New Zealand this summer holiday, she lived in a house of a native there, when she saw many certificates of merit on the wall, she asked the child how he was getting along with his study. He said it was so-so. Then he took out more certificates. How happy he was! He felt proud of himself. And a self-confident child will be a happy child, and a happy child will be a creative child. While for some Chinese parents, their expectations run too high, even since their children were born, they’d like them to be a very honorable person in the future. They can’t imagine an American parent may feel happy when his / her child says he / she would like to be a barber. It’s almost the same with teachers and school administrators. So don’t always put students in trouble for the sake of scores. We should try our best to help them finish tasks through different channels, For example, give different students different requirements. In the classroom we teachers should reduce competition and increase cooperation. In this way, the students can get along with each other very well, learn from each other and improve themselves gradually with others’ help. And a wise teacher never contrasts his students in public. This, on the other hand, protects the students’ self-esteem and gives the students chances to develop themselves. It’s accurate to give students scores, but it exaggerates the differences among the individuals. It’ll make some students feel no enthusiasm for their study, while for grading, though it’s vague, it reduce the comparability among students. It helps to build up students’ self-confidence and push them to make more efforts. And these two emotions (self-esteem and self-confidence) are the indispensable motivation for students’ further study. This concerns the term “Ambiguity Tolerance”. A person who is tolerant of ambiguity is free to entertain a number of innovative and creative possibilities and not be cognitively or affectively disturbed by ambiguity and uncertainty. (H. Dovglas Brown, 2000, p120)
2). According to the principles of assessment, we should not ignore the importance of assessment in both teaching and learning. Without it we don’t know how much students have mastered, and how our teaching is going on. But the ways should be variable, some summative, some formative, some after class, some involves in classroom activities. And the teachers should be fair to the students. The purpose of our assessment is to help and encourage our students to develop their abilities. This is included in the new system of assessment. The new system also includes the development of teachers themselves by means of self-reflection, and further development of the New Curriculum Innovation. (Li, 2001) So we can assess our students according to the following 7 requirements.
a) Students can learn how to learn: They can consult the materials, ask questions and choose reference materials independently. Most of the process is student-centered.
b) Students can do things in English actively with the help of teachers’ to incorporate English learning in the study of other subjects.
c) Students can use English in a communicative way. For inquiry study refers to the task-based approach and emphasizes on real communication in English.
d) The affection elements like interest, attitudes, motivations and students’ needs should be involved in the assessment.
e) In group learning, we should assess their presentation of individual role play and co-operation with one another.
f) The ability of problem-solving: A learning process is a process of problem-solving. This motivates students a lot.
g) Learn to self-reflect. According to cognitive theories, assessment can help students to self-reflect and improve themselves. (Li, J and Li, Y. 2001)
3). For the New Curriculum Innovation, teachers had better learn more about teaching methodologies and the theories on learning styles and strategies to meet the needs of our students and concern more about their multi-intelligence.
In the past, people thought learning was to get familiar with all kinds of objective information, like dates, procedures, figures, etc. while for the new assessment system, people think learning is totally subjective. Students change, enlarge, question, further, renew and develop their knowledge towards the world and themselves by means of learning. So a successful teaching is to help students get ready for their meaningful life in the future, use what they’ve learned in the real world (David Lazear, 2000, p27). And with the development of the New Curricula, the students’ learning styles should be changed a lot. The way of inquiry learning is quite suitable. For inquiry and creativity are the most precious in learning. In English that is mainly the task- based approach. This refers to materials or courses which are designed around a series of authentic tasks which give the learners experience of using the language in ways that it is used in the “real world” outside the classroom (Tomlinson Brian 1998). This will help to incorporate the knowledge of other subjects in our English learning. The students will be able to use English more widely and authentically. This kind of learning will be interesting and meaningful. Very often some teachers may complain, “I have tried many kinds of teaching methods, and I’ve been very kind to the students. But why are they still poor in English learning?” At this time, have you ever thought about if your teaching methods are suitable for the students and their learning strategies, both in learning and communication? Have you ever developed multiple intelligence approaches to assessment? Our summative assessment just emphasizes mainly on linguistic intelligence and logical-mathematical intelligence, ignoring the other intelligence (Musical, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Spatial, Interpersonal Intelligence) that are needed in the society, preventing the potential on students from being confirmed and developed. This is somehow a waste of talent (Xu. Y, Gong, XH, 2001 p26). And according to the constructivism, the New Curriculum Innovation is implemented by the students’ motivation in constructing their knowledge (Xu.Y, Gong, XH, 2001 p31). And the targets for education are to teach students how to study, how to think and how to develop intelligence as much as possible. (David Lazear, 2000,p26) Dr. Peng Siqing says, “ The main task for high school students is not “study” but “growth”. And “growth” should include the development of intelligence, the improvement of study, the healthiness of body, psychological factors and moral character, spiritual richness and perfection of personality. (Peng Siqing, China Youth Daily. June 13, 2002)
4). According to the New Curriculum Standards of English, we’d better set up a series of assessment plans according to the general descriptions for the curriculum targets. The more detailed assessment approaches we have, the more accurate achievements the students will get. (see appendices “Examples”) So here we should take teaching objectives, resources and assessment together into consideration. They interact with each other.
Grades General Descriptions for the Targets Assessment Plans
Grade 1 (omitted)
or see
“ the New Curriculum
Standards” How often do you speak English?
Do you often listen to the radio?
How often?
Can you play games in English?
Sing some English songs.
Tell a story in English.
Introduce yourself, your friends...
Have a dictation of letters and words.
Tell some differences between
English and Chinese.
Grade 2 … …
… … …
Grade 9 … …
5). (A) As the experts have mentioned that we should be student-centered in classroom teaching. We designed a form to measure the students’ presentation in class .At the same time, We ask our students to be the judges, in this way they can know the items of assessment better and perform their tasks better. Also, they will take classroom presentation more serious. For it’s one part of their formative assessment. For about one year, our students have already used the checklist tactfully enough. They assess with each other either in class or right after class. In this way, they improve their English a lot. Of course, we can make more communication-based checklist. For communication is the outcome of language learning. And the checklists will help students self-reflect and monitor their learning procedures.
(B) As you know, we can use portfolios to assess our students. But we don’t mean to put everything in it to make it become a dustbin. Everyone may put different things in them to measure our students. These things stand for their process of learning. It’s a kind of qualitative assessment but not quantitative one. For example, at the very beginning of the students’ English learning, We’d like them to write down anything they’ve mastered in English. In this way, they can present themselves to their teachers and parents what they have learned in their portfolios. The teachers and the parents can also easily get to know how the children are going on with their studies. At the same time, the students can have their self-reflection. With the help of portfolios, we can pay close attention to each individual student. For the descriptive assessment, it’ll help us to communicate with our students and their parents. Usually it is the head teachers who give the students descriptive assessment, and the students would take what the head teachers say the most serious. So we’ve told our students we English teachers would like to give them comments, too. On the other hand, I often talk with their parents by phone or pay a visit to their houses. But by and by we’ve found it’s very necessary to give the students some regular checklists to assess their behaviors in school and at home and be assessed by their classmates, teachers and parents. That is the authentic assessment. In this way, we can see how well and in what ways students are able to do requisite tasks. (see Appendix: Checklist Four and Five)From the forms above, we can know our students better both in class and after class. At the same time, parents can know their children better, too. First we’ll divide the whole class into groups of four, and ask them to assess with each other by adding 5 scores for each item for “excellent”, 4 for “good”, 3 for “not bad”, 2 for “so-so”, 1 for “not good enough”. 0 for “needing improving”. It’s the same with the checklist at home, but it’ll be filled by parents.
But different students have different characteristic. If you try to use the same measure to assess different students, it may lead to failure. So we divide the students in the two classes into Class A and Class B. For Class A, we have higher requirements, and for Class B, lower ones. All the outcomes stand for their usual behaviors. This encourages Class B a lot, and also pushes Class A to fly higher and higher. In these two checklists, we have comments on the students, right here we can focus on their progress to develop the varieties and flexibility of assessment.
After all, the students care a lot about how the teachers and the parents assess them.
[Conclusions and Recommendations]
1). The person who assess the students should not only be the teachers but also the students themselves, their parents, other students and even the administrators of the school. In this way, we can develop multi-dimensional assessment.
2). For each individual student is different, we should assess them in multiple intelligences and as specifically as possible, such as summative assessment, formative assessment, testing assessment and non-testing assessment, etc. And each assessment method has its own limitations, so combine these methods with each other.
3). Make full use of the encouraging and diagnosing functions of assessment to develop the students’ English level, build up their self-confidence, raise their interest, lower their anxiety, learn to self-reflect.
4). It’s important to develop suitable assessment instruments / tools to assess our students. Such as checklists, portfolios, descriptive assessment, anecdotal records, feed back rating scales tasks and presentations multimedia, cartoons and other creative ones, interviews, conference questionnaires, observations. And remember to give students chances to develop themselves on their growth, not just on study.
The above is what we’ve got in the trial. We hope it will somehow help ESL teachers to assess students.
References:
[1] Chen. Y (2001) The Research and Exploration for Basic Education English Teaching Assessment. Beijing: the Beijing Educational Publishing House
[2] David Lazear (2000) Multiple Intelligence Approaches to Assessment. Copyright 1999 by Zephy Press. Translation copyright 2000 by Yuan-Lou Publishing Co., Ltd.
[3] H.Douglas Brown (2000) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Fourth Edition New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
[4] Li. J and Li. Y (2001) Assessment Today (TV Broadcasting VCD) Beijing: Beijing Electronic Audiovisual Press.
[5] Tomlinson, Brian. (Ed) (1998) Materials Development in language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[6] Xu Y, Gong XH. (2001) The Assessment Reform for New Curricula. Beijing: the Capital Normal University Press.11). Zhu, L. (2002) China Youth Daily, April 17th , 2002 . (WWW.CYD.COM.CN) Beijing.
Appendix
Checklist One
Report of Achievement
Student Name__________ Month _________ Date_______ Year_________
For teachers
Total Score General Comments
Language Knowledge Grade Achievements and Problems
Communicative Competence Grade
Creativeness Grade
For students
I am good at
I find difficulty in
I like
I don’t like
Teachers’ self-reflection: __________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________.
Students’ self-reflection: __________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________.
( the Education Department of PRC 2001)
Checklist Two:
Non-testing Assessment
Class:_________ Name:__________
Time
Scores
Items the situation
for the first half term the targets f
or the next half term
self-assess be assessed self-plan be assessed
Attitudes A. Diligent B. so-so
C. not diligent enough
Interest A. high B. medium
C. low
Reading
and
Reciting A. often
B. so-so
C. seldom
Classroom
Participation A. active
B. passive
C. unable
Assignments A. independently
B. referring to others
C. not completing
Raising Problems A. very often
B. seldom C. never
Planning
and
Implementation A. both
B. planning but not
implementing
C. no plan
Reading outside Textbooks A. read and make notes
B. seldom
C. no reading
Listening and
Speaking
outside classroom A. often
B. seldom
C. never
Efficiency
In Class A. high
B. so-so C. Low
Efficiency
after class A. high
B. so-so C. low
Progress A. large B. little
C. no progress
Total Grade
Teachers’ comments:
Parents’ comments:
Checklist Three.
unit
grade
items Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3 Unit 4 Unit 5 Unit 6
pronunciation
volume
fluency
body movements
clothing
props
Total Scores
Checklist Four:
Students’ Behaviors in School
Class_______ Name_________
Items
Scores
Time
Classroom Participation
Reciting
Reading
Testing
Homework
Progress
Listening
(Class- room
observa- tion) Presenta- tion Reading
notes Co-
Opera- tion
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Total
Scores
Checklist Five:
Behaviors At Home
Class_______ Name_________-
Items
Grades
Time Reading aloud (half an hour each day) Listening
(half an hour each day) Homework
(diligent or not) Comments
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Total Scores