REFLECTION

PART 1
When I started designing an assessment, there were a few things I put
into consideration. Indeed assessment is a challenging but interesting things
to learn. Due to completing this assignment

a few questions crossed my

mind. What is a speaking task? What is a listening task. What are the
activities that involve pupils in using language for the purpose of achieving
my goal or objective in a particular listening and speaking situation? These
were all the questions I asked myself frequently, and constantly struggled
with finding answers.
The first problem I encountered in designing a listening and speaking
task was how to assess my entire group of pupils? What is the suitable
instrument that can assess the language skills thought? How to design
instrument that meet the leaning objectives? By keeping all these things in
mind, I started finding some resources and share ideas and taught from my
peers. After I went through the notes and reflecting my teaching
experiences, I got some ideas on this task.
First of all, I gathered some information to detect student learning
impediments, difficulties, or prerequisite skills. Then, I set define a
parameters of an outcome and the related assessment task. Second thing, I
realize I was must determine what type of assessment would be the most
appropriate for the situation based on the nature of what I am teaching. Next
I take notes on the class objectives that should be presented in the test
through appropriate task types and weights and a logical sequence. I do
realize, when a teacher assesses the students progress, she/he first need to
be aware of what the clear objectives of the lesson were. Here, I noticed that
the teacher needs to identify goals, objectives, and expected results before
beginning to plan a lesson or activity. In other words, it is essential to
determine what the learner should know, understand, and be able to do.
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Next, after I set learning goals and objectives, I determine what type of
evidence to design that will show how well those goals have been met. The
assessments should reflect student progress and should move from simple to
more complex tasks.
Besides, assessments should be authentic and include alternative
and integrated performance -based assessments. What I understand with
authentic assessment is the assessment seeks students abilities to evaluate
them in real world contexts.
I too understand that when designing an instrument it must be
based on the assessment principles. One of them is validity. What I
understand on validity is , Is the test assessing whats intended? Are test
items based on stated objectives? Are test items properly constructed? I
realize a valid assessment will assess what we intend it to assess. Moreover,
the evidence of validity should be visible in all processes, setting of papers,
marking process and grading of learners performance and resulting.
Next is reliability. I strongly belief, teachers need to ensure the
reliability, i.e. trustworthiness, of teacher-based assessments.
Finally, I have learned that assessment practices and processes must
be transparent and fair. Tasks are designed to ensure there are no inherent
biases that may disadvantage any student groups .

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Points to consider
When constructing a task you will need to consider the following:

Does the task enable students to demonstrate the

highest possible performance level?

Will students select the form of the response or

will you select the form that the whole class will
use?

Will the task be completed in one lesson or over

several lessons? If the task is going to run over
several lessons will you divide the task into parts
or collect students work at the end of each
lesson? If your school has multiple
English/English as a Second Language classes
and your task is designed to last several lessons
will you slightly alter the task for each class?

Does the task allow you to easily identify the

key aspects of the response to be assessed?

Conditions for the task

All assessment tasks must be completed mainly in class and within a short period of time.

Students must answer the task individually.

Teachers can develop their own rules, consistent with school policies, about the material that can
be brought into the room and the use of textbooks. Make sure that these rules are given to the students
before the task is started and preferably in writing.
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Therefore, when you are designing a communicative assessment, you

must determine the specific language skill you want to measure. First
decide what language skill you want your students to be able to perform, and
then design your assessment around that skill. Once you have decided on the
specific language task you want to measure in your students, think about the
language tasks that are necessary to be successful in that situation.
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Designing the assessment task is an important part of the teaching, learning and assessment
process. The assessment task needs to provide the opportunity for all students to demonstrate the highest
level of performance on the outcome. Teachers need to design an assessment task that is representative of
the content (key knowledge and skills underpinning the outcome), capable of being completed within a
short period of time and mainly in the classroom.

Assessment of learning measures the learners' abilities to meet outcomes after learning and
practice have occurred. It can be formal or informal. Assessment of learning:

is tied to learning outcomes

occurs at the end of a learning theme or cycle

is used to evaluate whether learners have achieved the learning outcomes, and to what
degree

is used to make decisions about learners' next placement

Here are a series of questions that highlight the key considerations for planning, designing and
implementing assessment:

Clarify the purpose of assessment: for learning, as learning, or of learning?

Clarify the outcome that is being assessed.

Determine the most suitable assessment method (e.g. informal observation, learning log,
rubric, etc.).

See the assessment methods table for more examples.

Design the assessment carefully so that it measures the intended outcome.

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Ensure that the information is used consistently with the assessment purpose

When using performance-based assessments, it is important to establish clear and

fair criteria from the beginning. It might be helpful to develop these criteria in
conjunction with other teachers or specialists at your school. Performance-based
assessments promote a wide range of responses and do not typically produce one
single, correct answer. Therefore, evaluation of student performances and products
must be based on teacher judgment, using the criteria specified for each task. Here
is a sample oral scoring rubric.
You can also develop assessment (and instructional) activities that are geared to
your ELLs' current level of English proficiency.
Teachers conduct formative assessment during learning and also summative
assessment, which is normally carried out at the conclusion of a learning unit, or at
the end of a semester, or at the end of the year.

Section 2 of this handbook provides advice on task design for each Unit 3 and 4 outcome. Performance
descriptors are also provided for each outcome to assist teachers in making a judgment about the students
level of performance on the outcome.
Step 4: Design the assessment task

Try to use a range of formats across Units 3 and 4.

The information in the stimulus should be relevant to the task and assist students in their
response.
Check that the instructions are clear. Are they complete and unambiguous?
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It is important that students know what is expected of them in an assessment task. This means
providing students with advice about the outcomes key knowledge and skills to be assessed. This
allows students to understand during the teaching and learning stage what they are expected to know
or do.

Students should be provided with the performance descriptors by which their response will be
assessed.

Students should be advised about the conditions under which they will be expected to do the task.
One method of authentication is to collect the work at the end of each period and keep it in an
individual plastic folder or workbook.

Points to consider
When constructing a task you will need to consider the following:

Does the task enable students to demonstrate the

highest possible performance level?

Will students select the form of the response or

will you select the form that the whole class will
use?

Will the task be completed in one lesson or over

several lessons? If the task is going to run over
several lessons will you divide the task into parts
or collect students work at the end of each
lesson? If your school has multiple
English/English as a Second Language classes
and your task is designed to last several lessons
will you slightly alter the task for each class?

Does the task allow you to easily identify the

key aspects of the response to be assessed?

Conditions for the task

All assessment tasks must be completed mainly in class and within a short period of time.

Students must answer the task individually.

Teachers can develop their own rules, consistent with school policies, about the material that can
be brought into the room and the use of textbooks. Make sure that these rules are given to the students
before the task is started and preferably in writing.

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, I believe I can now say I have finally figured it out, and I want to share what I learned:
1.
Assessment needs to be aligned with the learning
objectives: sounds like common-sense, but in actual fact, it isnt. If the
lesson objective is to be able to apply the elements of body language,
while the assessment is a quiz that asks students to list the elements of
body language, then your assessment is not aligned with the learning
objective.
2.
Designing assessment tasks needs to be the starting point of
planning a unit of work: when I started teaching drama, I used to
gather the content and plan my units of work first, then I would find or
design assessment tasks to fit around that content. I later learned to
start by asking myself: what do I want the students to be able to do?
What knowledge and skillsdo I need to assess? The assessment task/s
need to be created first, then the content needs to be tailored around
them.
3.
A good assessment task needs to have good assessment
criteria: if the assessment criteria are poorly designed for whatever
reasons, the assessment task will always be lacking. Be clear and
concise about what you want to assess.
4.
Always explain the assessment criteria to the students: this can
often be draining, and can often lend itself to chalk-&-talk, but it is
necessary. Students need to be given a chance to succeed and the best
way they can do that is to understand what you will be thinking or
looking for when you are marking their work. Your expectations of the
students need to be communicated clearly to them.
5.
Allow the students to perform exactly what you want to
assess: one of the assessment strands in the MYP Arts subjects is the
students ability to receive feedback constructively (this is one of the
strands under Criterion C Reflection and Evaluation). I always struggled
to gage this strand, and I relied solely on my observations. I later realised
that it may be best to allow students to recall the feedback I gave them
and then write a response to that feedback. In doing so, I am actually
asking them to perform the act of receiving feedback and deciding what
to do with it. If you want to assess whether or not the students can write
a story, get them to write a story. Using a quiz on presentation skills will
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not give you an accurate assessment of the students presentation skills,

but asking them to deliver an oral presentation will.
6.
The best assessment practices are those that empower
students: spend the time to train your students to self-assess and selfevaluate their work. Students need to learn to take responsibility for their
own learning, and training them to self-assess will work towards that
goal. Students can also be trained to assess each others work. Peer
assessment is another way of empowering the students and asking them
to step into roles traditionally reserved for the teacher.
7.
Use a variety of assessment tools: I am a big fan of alternatives in
assessment, i.e. a test can not assess everything. Additionally, I believe
tests do not really assess a students learning, but rather their ability to
cope with stressful situations (test-conditions do often create testanxiety). A strong assessment framework needs to make use of a wide
range of assessment tools such as tests, performance assessments,
portfolios, conferencing with students, checklists, essays and selfassessments.
8.
Assessments should be part of the learning process, and not
isolated events: I am a strong believer in assessments for learning as
opposed to assessments of learning. Formative assessment should be
given at least as much weight as summative assessment, if not more.
Not all assessments need to be formal and summative.
9.
Give timely, clear and positive feedback: always endeavour to
give back graded work to the students in a timely manner, and make
sure to leave a comment on the work highlighting some positive aspects
of their work as well as suggestions for improvement.
10. Find more efficient and less time-consuming ways to gather
assessment data: not all work needs to be collected and marked. Make
use of peer feedback, train students to read a rubric and grade each
others work. Sometimes, just leaving your initials or signature on the
students work is sufficient. Do not feel pressured to collect all work and
mark it. I read the students journal reflections in class and leave my
initials on them. Make use of ICT to gather data such as recording video
of the students while they are working in groups or rehearsing for their
performance. Allow students to reflect orally on their work while you
record these videos. This can all serve as assessment data.
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The following information presents one approach to developing an assessment task. It involves
integrating the requirements of the study design, the advice in Section 2 of this publication and student
learning activities. The approach is presented as a sequence of steps.

Making assessment part of teaching and learning

Step 1: Define the parameters of an outcome and its related assessment task
options
This involves:

Listing the key knowledge and skills that will be assessed by the outcome. These are stated in the
study design but you may wish to reword them for student purposes.

Choosing the assessment task. You can select from the offerings in the study design. It is possible
for students in the same class to undertake different options; however, teachers must ensure that the
tasks are comparable in scope and demand.

Step 2: Examine the assessment advice in Section 2 of this handbook

Examine the highest level of performance descriptors and clarify their meanings if you are unsure. Use
the study design as your reference point. Remember the performance descriptors for each outcome
identify the qualities or characteristics that you are looking for in a student response. This helps in the
development of the task. It also helps clarify what needs to be taught as well as what needs to be included
in the assessment task. It will assist students in understanding the expectations of the task.
Step 3: Determine teaching and learning activities
Identify the nature and sequence of teaching and learning activities to cover the key knowledge and skills
outlined in the study design. It is important that a variety of learning opportunities are provided to cater for
individual preferred learning styles. (Refer to the Advice for teachers section of the study design for some
specific examples of learning activities for each outcome and the Support Material published for each of the
Contexts at www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/english/index.html).

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