Folio Part A
Assessment 2: Folio Part A
Assessment overview
The purpose of the Folio task within this unit is to enable you to demonstrate your knowledge and skills across the range of activities involved in teaching English in the primary classroom. By completing both parts of the Folio, you will generate evidence of your capacity to plan and assess English units and lessons, compare and evaluate tools and resources designed for English teaching, and demonstrate your knowledge of the Australian Curriculum: English (ACARA, n.d.).
In this first Folio submission, the focus is on your knowledge of forms of assessment appropriate for English.
Assessment details
Task 1: Chapter 9 of the text for this unit (Seely Flint et al., 2014) focuses on effective assessment practices for reading and writing. Your task is to choose three strategies for assessing writing, and three for assessing reading, and complete the table below. Please use the template provided by your eLA for completing the table.
| What is being assessed? | How is data collected? | How is data used by the teacher? | Critical evaluation* | |
| Assessing writing strategy #1 (please name the strategy) | Limitations:
Benefits: |
|||
| Assessing writing strategy #2 | ||||
| Assessing writing strategy #3 | ||||
| Assessing reading strategy #1 | ||||
| Assessing reading strategy #2 | ||||
| Assessing reading strategy #3 |
*Critical evaluation requires you to identify the limitations and benefits of each strategy.
You are to use third person and to write no more than 600 words in the table. This will require concise use of language.
Task 2: Imagine you have been asked to discuss assessment with the school’s senior staff. They are interested in implementing different approaches to assessment, and have asked for your input.
On the basis of your evaluation, you are to write an argument for one strategy for assessing writing and one for assessing reading, outlining why these should be implemented across the school for the assessment of English. This part of the task should be no more than 400 words.
In total your word count should be 1000 words
Assessment criteria
1. Understanding of the practice of assessment in primary English.
2. Critical evaluation.
3. Academic writing conventions including APA referencing, punctuation, grammar, spelling.
TO BE ABLE TO PASS MUST FOLLOW THIS
The completed table (Task 1) demonstrates accurate, detailed, thoughtful, mature and professional knowledge of assessment strategies and principles, and their application in the Primary context.
Critical evaluation clearly outlines the limitations and benefits demonstrating knowledge of the form of assessment being evaluated and the requirements of English.
The argument for particular strategies (Task 2) is supported with relevant and current literature, and shows evidence of extensive reading and in-depth knowledge and insight of the benefits and limitations of various forms of assessment.
All aspects of the assessment task have been addressed explicitly, showing attention to detail and care for the work you submit.
READING MATERIAL
The word ‘assess’ comes from the Latin verb ‘assidere’, meaning ‘to sit with’. In assessment one should sit with the learner. This implies it is something we do WITH and FOR students, not TO students. (Green 1998)
Assessment is a social practice that involves noticing, representing and responding to children’s literate behaviours, rendering them meaningful for particular purposes and audiences, (Johnson & Costello, 2005)
THE GARDEN ANALOGY
If we think of our students as plants…
SUMMATIVE assessment is measuring their growth. Interesting, but does nothing to help growth.
FORMATIVE assessment, is the equivalent of feeding and watering the plants , appropriate to their needs – directing affecting their growth.
What is Critical Evaluation? An ability to examine processes, systems, objects, artefacts, issues and ideas in terms of their components and to make informed judgements about their worth. Critical evaluation is about proving a point, interpreting information and identifying problems. (Griffith University 2015)
At university, students are expected to be able to: Evaluate whether information and materials are appropriate for a particular purpose, and up to date. Evaluate whether the evidence or examples used in the materials really prove the point the author makes. Weigh up opinions, arguments or solutions against appropriate criteria Think a line of reasoning through to its logical conclusion Check for hidden bias or assumptions; and Check whether the evidence and argument provided really support the conclusions. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)
Assessment
Our work this week provides an introduction to some of the key issues, debates, and practices regarding assessment in English. This is a significant area for all teachers to understand, and it’s important to realise that our work this week will provide you with an orientation, but not a comprehensive foundation for your future practice.
You will learn a great deal about assessment during Professional Experience placements, in terms of understanding the kinds of strategies that teachers use to assess, and the role of assessment as part of the teaching and learning cycle. This week, we will explore some principles of assessment in general terms, and then consider assessment as it applies to reading and writing in the primary classroom. We will also consider the role of high-stakes testing, in the form of NAPLAN.
An orientation
Before exploring the specifics of assessment in English, it is useful to ensure we are working from a common foundation, in terms of understanding what we mean by assessment, why we assess, and the general process and principles of assessment. With this in mind, please listen to the podcast on assessment.
Assessment in English is informed by the principles and processes described in this podcast. These are applied in particular ways to address each mode of communication within the English curriculum. This week, we will explore how the two modes of communication addressed in-depth in this unit (reading and writing) can be assessed.
Assessing reading
Teachers draw upon a range of strategies when assessing students’ reading. The table below was created by Winch et al. (2010) to consolidate knowledge of assessment strategies for reading, and the data each strategy provides about students’ reading skills, knowledge, and understanding:
| Assessment Strategies | Can be used to find data about |
| Informal discussions | · Use of oral language
· Vocabulary · Prior knowledge about a topic |
| Oral reading inventory | · Decoding skills and strategies
· Reading fluency · Comprehension |
| Read and retell | · Decoding
· Comprehension |
| Test of basic sight words | · Sight word recognition |
| Word writing test | · Sound-letter matching
· sight word recognition |
| Tests of graphophonics | · Graphophonic knowledge |
| Cloze passage | · Decoding
· Comprehension · Use of semantic and grammatical cues · Reading strategies, e.g.reading ahead |
| Running record and follow-up questions | · Decoding
· Reading accuracy and fluency · The student’s instructional reading level · Use of all cueing systems · Use of reading strategies, e.g. reading ahead · Self-correcting · Comprehension |
| Vocabulary tests | · Vocabulary knowledge |
| Words per minute tests | · Reading speed
· Reading accuracy |
| Written tests with questions | · Decoding
· Knowledge of question and answer structures, e.g. multiple choice · Literal comprehension · Inferring |
Assessing reading in the classroom
You can see several of the key strategies for assessing reading demonstrated in the videos on the Teaching AC English website (ESA, n.d.) – particularly in the clip below, which demonstrates the collection and analysis of reading data across multiple year levels in the primary context.
Winch et al. (2010) note that it can be difficult as a new teacher to know how to balance these assessment strategies – and they suggest that it is best to choose strategies that provide clear and specific data, link to the teaching program, and mirror the classroom learning experiences that students are familiar with. This means that over time, you are likely to draw upon a wide range of strategies, as the learning needs of your students change and develop.
Reading analysis (2013) http://bit.ly/1weIiwc LISTEN TO THIS
Assessing writing
As with reading, when assessing students’ writing, teachers use a wide range of strategies. Winch et al. (2010, p. 377) provide a comprehensive list of writing assessment strategies, including:
· Cloze tests
· Diaries or journals
· Essays and other writing tasks
· Mind maps or concept maps
· Portfolios
· Projects
· Teacher-developed tests
· Self-assessment and peer assessment
Assessing using portfolios
Portfolios are particularly effective as a means of assessing students’ writing, as they have the capacity to represent development over time, and show students’ capabilities across a range of writing genres and tasks.
Portfolios can include a range of entries, such as writing samples from classroom activities, evaluations of books read, story or text retelling, responses to open-ended questions, cloze exercises, poetry, and oral interviews (Winch et al., 2010). At the very least, O’Malley and Valdez Pierce (cited in Winch et al., 2010, p. 388) suggest that a portfolio should include an oral summary, a story summary, a writing sample selected by the teacher, student choice of writing, and a content sample.
The video below is useful in demonstrating how one UK school has addressed the assessment of writing for students from diverse language backgrounds, and shows the importance of using assessment as the basis for ongoing planning and teaching. Listen to the teachers’ discussions and the data they draw on as the basis for their conversation as well as the types of language skills the students are developing. As you watch, take notes of the key ideas and strategies the teacher employs and then consider how you might apply these ideas to your own practice.
Teachers’ TV: Assessing Writing (2013) http://bit.ly/1DMuOZ9 WATCH THIS
National assessment of literacy
In 2008, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) commenced in Australian schools. NAPLAN operates every year, and assesses Year 3, 5, 7, and 9 students’ level of achievement in literacy nationally. As Tompkins, Campbell and Green (2012) highlight, it is important to be aware that standard national tests (such as NAPLAN) are essentially a unique text type, and as such require readers and writers to demonstrate their skills in a different way than they would in other text types – teachers should not assume, therefore, that students know how to take such tests. They go on to highlight some key principles for teachers in preparing for standard national tests without simply ‘teaching to the test’:
· Check that your instructional program aligns with relevant national curriculum standards.
· Set goals with students and use formative assessment to monitor progress.
· Engage students in authentic activities so that they become effective readers and writers.
· Explain why the tests are being undertaken, and what they are used for, without causing anxiety.
· Maintain a balanced approach to the teaching and learning of English.
(Source: Tompkins, Campbell & Green, 2012, p. 89)
It is important to note that NAPLAN has been the subject of ongoing debate and criticism, in terms of the motives for such national testing, and the impact of the testing on schools, teachers, students, parents, and the wider educational community. Given the relatively recent introduction of NAPLAN, there is little in the form of conclusive large-scale research about these issues, although some early research projects are now producing publications (see, for example, Dreher, 2012).
In drawing your own conclusions about the benefits and potential issues of standard national testing such as NAPLAN, you may find it useful to consider the statedpurposes of NAPLAN, and the kind of data published at the conclusion of each testing cycle. You will also read more about NAPLAN in the reading for this week, and you may also wish to conduct further investigation of the emerging research in journals such as the Australian Journal of Language and Literacy.
Reading: Assessing reading
Chapter 9: Effective assessment practices for reading and writing (pp. 322-361 from your eText) provides an excellent overview of assessment practices relevant to Australian classrooms and the current English curriculum. Particularly beneficial are the links to the four resources model, and assessment practices suited for each resource, and the discussion of high-stakes testing and NAPLAN, which places these tests in a broader social context.
This chapter must be read in order to answer the questions
