View Content #21919

By Julie Sykes, CASLS Director

Concurrent with national trends in education, second language classrooms have faced an increasing emphasis on high stakes, large scale assessments. While there are certain benefits to this approach, an unintended consequence reported by many teachers has been a decreased emphasis on opportunities for formative assessment throughout the learning process.

Formative Assessment is typically understood as a low-stakes task, with minimal point value, that is designed to monitor student progress and determine strengths and weaknesses. Summative Assessment, in contrast, is defined as high stakes measure designed to evaluate student learning at a specific period of time, often measured against a set of standards or benchmark (for further detail see, for example, Garrison and Eringhaus, 2013).  However, despite this common distinction, the reality is all assessment, regardless of whether it is delivered in high stakes or low stakes contexts, should be addressed as part of the learning process.

Using reflection and analysis, every time a student is evaluated, affords the learner a unique opportunity to reflect on their own skills and adapt his or her learning process.  As teachers engage in assessment practices, a number of techniques can be used make assessments useful for ongoing learning.

1. Whenever possible, meaningful reflection and analysis of high stakes assessments can be highly valuable.  Whether it is a national-level test or a chapter exam, an opportunity to reflect on the results of the assessment can be extremely useful for the learning process. This can include, for example, having learners make a list of the five things they did best and five things they would like to improve as a result of the evaluation.  They can then try the task again, with help, to further improve their abilities.
2. Formative evaluation can also be given more prominence in the classroom by adding points, or other “value” to the process. Teaching learners how to self-reflect, set goals, and evaluate their own language skills can be built in to everyday classroom practices and included as part of an evaluation rubric. By valuing the process and the product, students are taught to be reflective learners, while simultaneously improving their language skills.
3. Give feedback as soon, and as often, as possible. Very often, chapter exams are given and then returned two weeks after the test was taken, making reflection more difficult. Furthermore, as part of this process, any opportunity to allow students to keep the assessment adds value to the reflection process. Allowing learners to keep exams may not always be possible, but should be considered in cases where it might be.
4. Use the same tasks as both high stakes and low stakes tasks.  In other words, allow learners the opportunity to engage in meaningful assessment tasks in a variety of contexts. This can be, for example, a communicative task embedded at the end of a class session to an experiential exam given at the end of a chapter or course. As learners engage in meaningful evaluation, instructors can ensure the assessment process and outcomes are valuable and impact learning.

References

Garrison, C. and Eringhaus, M. (2013). Formative and Summative Assessments in the Classroom. Association for Middle Level Education. Available at: https://www.amle.org/portals/0/pdf/articles/Formative_Assessment_Article_Aug2013.pdf