I. Each question in this section consists of an incomplete statement and four choices marked A, B, C and D. You are to complete each statement by choosing the most appropriate one from the given choices.

1. The ultimate purpose for classroom assessment is to ______.
A. give each student a grade
B. pass or fail the students
C. punish the students
D. enhance learning

2. Compared with formal tests, classroom observation is ______.
A. process-oriented
B. product-oriented
C. less useful
D. more effective

3. ______ are most useful for recording observations of unexpected events during teaching.
A. Checklists
B. Rating scales
C. Conferences
D. Anecdotal notes

4. ______ assessment is used to see whether the teaching and learning have been successful.
A. Placement
B. Formative
C. Summative
D. Aptitude

5. In ______ the students are required to provide information that is not known to the teacher or another student.
A. group projects
B. transformation tasks
C. cloze tasks
D. information gap tasks

II. Fill in the blanks so as to complete the following statements.

1. If we use only one way of assessment, the results may not be ______.

2. Effective assessment is a process that improves ______ about foreign language teaching and learning.

3. Formative assessment is more interested in the ______ of learning than in the ______ of learning.

4. The assessment which tells whether a particular student will ever be able to learn any language at all is called ______ assessment.

5. A ______ is a purposeful collection of students work.

III. Match the assessment forms in Column A with their characteristic in Column B.

VI. Answer the following questions briefly.

1. What disadvantages do multiple choice items have?
2. Which five steps should we follow when we use assessment?
3. Why do we use portfolios for assessment?

V. Answer the following questions.

1. What characteristics do effective assessments have?
2. What can we do to make full use of student journals?

Suggested answers

I. D A D C D

II.

1. reliable
2. decision making
3. process, product
4. aptitude
5. portfolio

III.

1-E 2-D 3-B 4-C 5-A

V.

1.
Effective assessment has the following important characteristics: It is carefully planned. You've got to know your purposes, the kinds of information needed and the methods of information collection as well.

a. It is student-centered. Effective assessment helps us teachers obtain useful feedback on what, how much, and how well our students are learning.

b. It is formative rather than summative.

c. It is context-specific. Effective assessment has to respond to the particular needs and characteristics of the teachers, students and teaching content to which it is applied.

d. It is an ongoing process. When classroom assessment becomes integrated into everyday classroom activities, the teaching and learning becomes more efficient and more effective.

e. It focuses on improving foreign language teaching and learning. It is a process that improves decision making about foreign language teaching and learning.

f. It calls for the collection of a wide range of information. In order to make reliable decisions, only information about students' achievement is far from sufficient.

g. It requires a variety of methods of information collection. The wide range of information needed makes it impossible to use only one single assessment method.

2. In order to make full use of student journals, the following guidelines are suggested:
a) The students should have separate books for journal writing.
b) Tell the students to begin each entry on a new page and leave space for teacher writing.
c) Set aside regular times for students to write their journals and help them form the habit of writing regularly.
d) Try not to put limits on what to write about or how to write.
e) Provide timely feedback. Collect student journals regularly and read them carefully. Do not delay in responding to students' experiences and feelings described in their journals.
f) Avoid direct evaluative feedback.
g) Use journals interactively. As a teacher, you should share your ideas with your students. Then the students will be more willing to share theirs.

Comprehensive test 2 for Unit 17

I. Each question in this section consists of an incomplete statement and four choices marked A, B, C and D. You are to complete each statement by choosing the most appropriate one from the given choices.

1. The assessment that provides information about what errors are occurring is called ______ assessment.
A. proficiency
B. diagnostic
C. achievement
D. aptitude

2. ______ assessment helps the students reinforce what is learned.
A. Teacher
B. Pre-class
C. During-class
D. Post-class

3. ______ usually consists of a set of standard tasks.
A. A test
B. Homework
C. Class assignment
D. A group project

4. Anecdotal notes are ______.
A. closed-ended
B. formal
C. open-ended
D. systematic

5. When you give a dictation to your students, you should ______.
A. read slowly word by word
B. not give them time to check their work
C. choose material that is easy for them
D. give then enough time to write, but not more

II. Fill in the blanks so as to complete the following statements.

1. In ______ tasks the students are asked to reproduce orally or in writing what the teacher said or provided as model in written form.

2. When planning assessment we should first identify the ______ because why we want to assess our students will decide the assessment methods as well as the use of assessment results.

3. ______ tests look forward to the language demands which will be made on students during their course.

4. If no judgment is required on the part of the scorer, then the scoring is ______.

5. A selection test is ______-referenced.

III. Match the purposes for assessment in Column A with the corresponding kind of assessment that may be used in Column B.

IV. Answer the following questions briefly.

1. What advantages do multiple choice items have?
2. Why do we use conferences for assessment?
3. In what ways are formative assessments different from summative assessment?

V. Answer the following questions.

1. Why do we say that assessment means more than grading the students?
2. What can we do to make full use of classroom observation?

Suggested answers

I. B D A C D

II.

1. imitation
2. purposes
3. Placement
4. objective
5. norm

III.

1-C 2-A 3-D 4-C 5-B

IV.

1. Multiple choice iteems have the following advantages:
a. They can be answered in reasonably short space of time and can cover a good deal of the subject area in that time.
b. They are easy to mark.
c. The marking is objective since the answer can only be right or wrong.
d. When standardized, such tests can provide a good deal of comparative information about the pupils.
e. They can be set for any level of ability.

2. We use conferences for assessment of foreign language learning for the following reasons:
a. Conferences provide opportunities for students to recognize and appreciate their own achievements;
b. Conferences promote student involvement in self-assessment as well as responsibility for self-assessment;
c. Conferences help the teacher understand individual students' learning strategies and styles as well as their motivations and interests;
d. Conferences give those quiet students who are reluctant to speak in public an opportunity to talk to their teacher in private;
e. Conferences are particularly useful for students who want to get specific help from the teacher in order to be successful in accomplishing some language-based tasks.

3.

Formative assessment is the process of providing information during the teaching and learning in order to improve them. Summative assessment is the process of providing information after the teaching and learning of a certain lesson, unit, or course is completed to see whether the teaching and learning have been effective and successful. The teacher uses formative assessment because he or she wants to know students better in order to teach them better. This means of assessment is more interested in the process of learning. The teacher uses summative assessment because he or she wants to help others to feel better informed about the students. This means of assessment is more interested in the product of learning.

V.

1.

There is more to assessment then giving students grades and passing or failing them. First, assessment involves many kinds of information. The more information you collect, the more sound your decisions will be. Each kind of information may contribute to the assessment results. Second, assessment involves many kinds of decisions. Based on the many kinds of information gathered, many kinds of decisions have to be made. The most important concern of assessment is not at all passing or failing students. Third, assessment involves, most important of all, changing practices. Teachers need always ask themselves why they want to assess students' learning. The answer is certainly not just to give each student a grade.

2. Though every teacher observes his or her class in everyday teaching, yet this does not mean all the teachers are doing the most effective kind of observation. To be effective, observations should be organized in a systematic and manageable way. It is important to plan the observations carefully for without a plan important observations may go unrecorded and be forgotten. Obviously the recording of the information is also challenging, and how to use the information obtained to ensure effective teaching and learning is even more so. To sum up, effective observation requires careful planning, good record keeping and wise using of the information.

Comprehensive test 3 for Unit 17

I. Each question in this section consists of an incomplete statement and four choices marked A, B, C and D. You are to complete each statement by choosing the most appropriate one from the given choices.

1. Closed-ended test tasks are ______.
A. subjective
B. objective
C. difficult
D. easy

2. ______ scoring provides useful feedback to students and diagnostic information to teachers.
A. Holistic
B. Analytic
C. Personal
D. Objective

3. ______ tests look back at what students have achieved.
A. Placement
B. Proficiency
C. Diagnostic
D. Progress

4. In ______ tasks the students respond to an item with an answer of correct or incorrect, true or false, same or different, etc.
A. imitation
B. information gap
C. judgment
D. cloze

5. Student journals are for ______ in the first place.
A. the teacher
B. evaluation
C. writing
D. communication

II. Fill in the blanks so as to complete the following statements.

1. For ______ purpose observation information need not always be reported in a formal manner.
2. ______ is also called impressionistic scoring and it has the advantage of being very rapid.
3. A proficiency test is ______ and a comparison of scores is not the major concern.
4. All tests consist of a set of ______ that are attempted by a group of students in order to demonstrate their knowledge or ability.
5. Portfolios involve the students actively in ______ and assessing their own achievements as well as in identifying ______.

III. Match the purposes of testing in Column A with corresponding kind of test in Column B.

IV. Answer the following questions briefly.

1. What is assessment?
2. What disadvantages do short-answer items have?
3. What kinds of dictation can we use for assessment?

V. Answer the following questions.

1. Why do we use group projects for assessment?
2. What should we do to plan classroom observation well?

Suggested answers

I. BBDCD

II.

1. instructional
2. Holistic scoring
3. criterion-referenced
4. standard tasks
5. recording; learning goals

III. 1-D 2-E 3-B 4-A 5-C

IV.

1. Assessment is an on-going information-gathering and decision-making process with the ultimate purpose of improving teaching and enhancing learning.

2. Short answer items have the following two disadvantades. First they may penalize high ability pupils by providing insufficient scope for them, and may help the less able in not allowing them an opportunity to display their weaknesses; second, they are not suitable for certain answers, for example, answers to questions on literary appreciation.

3. Dictation can be used for assessing not only spelling but also a wide range of language skills and abilities. There are many different types of dictation, such as standard dictation, partial dictation (or spot dictation), dictation with competing noise, elicited dictation, and so on.

V.

1. Reasons for using this assessment method include: First, group projects increase opportunities for students to use the language materials relating to the subject chosen. Second, group projects provide opportunities for students or sometimes "force" the students to use various information sources. In order to do the assigned project successfully they need to know how to use the library, the internet, and other information sources. This is an important skill that many students today still lack. Thirdly, group projects also provide the teacher with information about the extent to which students work co-operatively. Some students can do wonderful work individually but lack the willingness and ability to co-operate with others. Through group projects they will learn to work with other people. All in all group projects can provide the teacher with information about students' linguistic and non-linguistic abilities. Such assessment information will not only help the teacher better suit his or her teaching to the students but also promote the development of social abilities of the students.

2. When planning observation a number of questions have to be answered. First, why do you want to observe your students? Some reasons for carrying out observation include: you want to find out whether your students are making progress; you want to make sure the students have mastered the skills you have just taught; you want to find out what learning difficulty particular students are having; you want to assess whether your students are interested in the activities you have designed and materials you have chosen especially for them; etc. Second, what do you want to observe. The answer to this question largely depends on the reasons for carrying out observation. Third, how are you going to observe? Students can be observed when working alone or in groups. Observing individual students can provide detailed diagnostic information, but it is very time consuming. Observing students in groups can present a general picture of how things are going for the whole class. Fourth, where and when are you going to observe? Again the answer to this question is related to the other questions. Do you want to observe your students before teaching starts or during your teaching? The final question you have to answer when planning observation is how to record the observations. There are many ways of recording classroom observations and they have their respective advantages and disadvantages and are suitable for different purposes.