A suggestion about ongoing evaluation and feedback to students

Summary
The issue of “ongoing assessment” and feedback is often overlooked in the typical week of learning. Four days of presenting and practicing new words and grammar points (leading to the quiz day) end with some feedback to the student, usually based on a written test. This article presents a possible “ongoing method” of collecting items that can be shown to the student during the week and the final number is presented at the end of the week. The student gets assessed on more than just the written test and the teacher has a way of capturing observations in real time through out the week.

Background
1. Most language learning takes place in the moment. Often the review takes place in a followup class (“Do you remember what we talked about yesterday? Look through your notes…”), a process sometimes called “recycling.” How can we give feedback to students during the week to let them know how they are doing? Is there a way to gather information in real time? “What did you mark on my sheet?” is a good question that you want to stimulate in students, so that they want to know what they did incorrectly.

2. Sometimes a teacher observation includes a “participation record” system (“tick and dot”) using a list of the students in the class and putting a check mark (“tick”) next to the name of a student who speaks or asks a questions and a dot (“point”) or “x” next to a student’s name when the teacher asks for a response from a particular student. This system gives feedback to the teacher about possible bias in the class to call on certain students and helps the teacher become aware of students who dominate the discussion.

Both of these issues can be addressed with the form presented below called “Ongoing Assessment Form.”

Procedure
1. Hand out the sheet to each student. Ask them to write their goal for the week and put their names in the blank at the top of the sheet. Ask the students to tell you how much the points add up to (100) and ask them to adjust the number for their satisfaction (some students don’t want to telephone the teacher, so those five points might be added to the writing total).
2. Collect the sheets and start marking the sheets whenever a student asks a question or makes an error.
3. Pronunciation assessment: during a pair work exercise, take a student aside (one at a time) and run through the words. Check pronunciation and circle difficulties.
4. New words – enter the words that the student introduces to the class. Ask each student to present at least three new words (The student should say, “This is new to me!”).
5. Participation:
6. Reading: Ask students to read articles. If the student presents a summary of an article that he/she has each selected, then a check mark goes here.

Feedback
A the end of the week, the sheet is given to each student. This procedure is a way to personalize the evaluation process without encumbering the teacher with a lot of paperwork. The notes are made on the fly, during class, and kept in a binder that the teacher keeps in the classroom or with him/her.

Request for feedback: Write to Steve at FreeEnglishLessons@gmail.com. To see how I communicate with students, see LanguageAcademyFlorida [dot] com and click on "Teachers Pages" then click on "Ongoing Feedback."

Ongoing Assessment Sheet Name of Student: _______________________

Goal:

New Words ( /35)

Reading ( /5)

Speaking
Pronunciation ( /5)
Day hate
Cat hat

See Pete eat beat gasoline
Pet pen

Bite night why line
Pin fish it bit ENgine beGIN

Go hope hotel over stove grow
Hop shop father Casablanca hot hostel

Cute union new shoe blue food group
Cut enough Monday money glove oven cover discover love blood southern

Saw dog aaawww bought caught

Boy freud

Book cook good could wood foot

House out south now
Writing ( /20)

Telephone practice ( /5)

Participation in class ( /30)

The student offers to explain….

The student helps other students …

The student asks questions …

The student corrects other students …

This that think thin these breath breathe bath bathe although there therapy /100

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