Best practices in EFL Assessment

Best Practices in Classroom
Assessment
By Mohamed Mahgoub, MA TEFL (AUC)

Workshop Schedule – Day 1
Time Topic Outcomes
07:45 – 09:15
(90 minutes)
 SMART
Objectives
 SMART objectives developed by subject-
specific groups
09:15 – 10:45
(90 minutes)
 Characteristics
of effective
assessment
 Types of
assessment
 Assessment
for Learning
 Ways of maintaining validity and reliability in
assessment tools are identified and described
 Various types of formative and summative
assessment tools are identified and described
 Various strategies for applying Assessment
for Learning are identified and planned
10:45: 13:45
(90 minutes)
 Classroom
observations
 Feedback (self & peers) of classroom
applications of formative assessment
(especially Assessment for Learning)

Workshop Objectives
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
write SMART objectives for their lessons and activities
addressing the three domains of learning and both HOTs
(Higher Order Thinking skills) and LOTs (Lower Order
Thinking skills) according to Bloom’s taxonomies
identify the characteristics of an effective assessment
tool, especially reliability and validity
recognize the paramount importance of formative
assessment ( as a core means of assessment for
learning) besides using summative assessment
design and develop a variety of assessment tools and
instruments satisfying various learners’ needs and
variables (e.g. games, projects, tasks, quizzes,
presentations, roles plays, and tests)
3

Workshop Objectives
By the end of this workshop, participants will have
develop tools that increase the objectivity of
subjective assessment tools, e.g. essay and
presentations, by developing rubrics
appreciate the role of assessment (especially
formative) in supporting learning
engage their learners in choosing and
developing a variety of assessment tools
suitable for learner’s needs and learning
objectives
4

What’s Assessment?
.
- What do we assess?
- Who assess what?
- How do we assess?

Non-Traditional Teaching Style
Planning
Needs/Goals/
Objectives
Materials
(realia,
authentic,
published,
on-line)
Teaching
Activities –
Learning
Activities
Learning
product/
evidence
Program
(planning, materi
als, teaching &
learning, Assess
ment)
Evaluation
Learners (MIs,
Learning
Styles,
Learning
needs, etc.)

Domains of Learning
Knowledge (Cognitive), Skills (Psychomotor), Attitudes (Affective) =
KSA

Bloom’s Research: Domains & Taxonomies
Benjamin Bloom
1956

Validity & Reliability = Quality Assessment
Validity
Watch the video clip and
- Define validity
- Identify two types of validity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXaav7wA20Y
Reliability
Watch the video clip and
- Differentiate between validity and reliability
- Identify two types of reliability
- Identify the relationship between validity and reliability
Key Ideas in Validity and Reliability for Teachers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF-oeuidRuU

How to Improve Assessment Validity (Nitko p 41)
Category Criteria to be attained. Your assessment should…
Content representativeness
and relevance
(Content Validity)
 Emphasize what you taught
 Represent school’s stated curricular content
 Represent current thinking about the subject
Thinking processes and
skills represented
 Require learners to integrate and use several
thinking skills
Consistent with other
classroom assessment
 Yield patterns of results consistent with your
other assessments of the class
Reliability and objectivity  Provide each learner with several opportunities
to demonstrate competence for each learning
objective assessed
Fairness to different types
of learners
 Contain tasks that are interpreted appropriately
by students with different backgrounds
 Accommodate learners with disabilities
 Free of ethnic, racial, and gender bias
Economy, efficiency,
practicality, instructional
features
 Require reasonable amount of time
 Represent reasonable use of learners’ class time
Multiple assessment usage  Be used together with other class assessments

How to Improve Assessment Reliability
In short In details
Lengthen the assessment
procedure.
 Give more time, use more questions, more
observations, etc.
Broaden the scope of the
procedure
 Use procedures that assess all of the essential and
important aspects of the target learning
performance
Improve Objectivity  Use a systematic, more formal procedure for
scoring learners performance (rubric)
Use multiple markers
(raters)
(Inter-rater reliability)
 Have more than one qualified person score each
learner’s essay, performance, portfolio. Average the
results
Combine the results from
several assessments
 Use a combination of results from several
assessment methods (formal and informal) rather
than a single assessment result
Teach your learners how
to perform their best
 Train your learners on performing in assessment
situations
Match assessment
difficulty to learners’
ability level
 Use assessment tools that are not too easy or too
difficult (within their Zone of Proximal
Development-ZPD)

Types of Assessment
1. Formative Assessment
A. Conversations and comments from other teachers
B. Casual conversations with learners
C. Questioning learners during teaching/learning
D. Daily homework & classroom-based work (learning activities)
E. Teacher-made quizzes & tests
F. In-depth interviews of individual learners
G. Growth & learning-progress portfolios
H. Attitudes and values questionnaires
2. Summative Assessment
A. Teacher-made quizzes and tests
B. Tasks focusing on procedures and processes
C. Product-oriented projects and tasks
D. Best works portfolios
E. Textbook-supplied quizzes and tests
F. Standardized achievement tests (Thanawya Aama, IGCSE, American Diploma)

Assessment of Learning & Assessment for Learning

Formative Assessment
- Principles of formative assessment
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXOMbXeQNNA&feature=related
- Formative Assessment Techniques
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc67rq8XmtA&feature=related
- Formative Assessment in Classrooms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7XpUqNnKtI&feature=related
- Assessment for Learning Innovative Ways to check for understanding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C10oV0k3rE&feature=related

Assessment for Learning
1. Ensure you share the activity objective with your
learners in their own language
2. Work with them to identify success criteria (in
achieving the objective)
3. Engage them in choosing the teaching and
learning materials and resources
4. Either give them a demo on how to achieve the
activity/task/learning Or Give them the task/activity
and collaborate with them to achieve it (Deductive
Vs Inductive) Inductive approach is more learner-
centered; similar to Test Teach Test

Assessment for Learning
1. Enable them to Think, Pair, Share (More pair and
group work than front teaching and individual
question and answer)
2. Encourage self-assessment and peer
assessment
3. Encourage giving quality feedback (self, peer,
then teacher if needed), focusing on positive,
successful achievements then areas for
improvement
4. Work with them to identify and collect evidence of
learning

Checklist for Checking Quality of Short Answer Items
1. Does the item assess an important aspect of the
unit’s instructional targets (goals)?
2. Does the item match your assessment plan in terms
of performance, emphasis, and number of points?
3. If possible, is the item written in a question format?
4. Is the item worded clearly so that the correct answer
is a brief phrase, single word, or single number?
5. Is the blank or answer space toward the end of the
sentence?

Checklist for Checking Quality of Short Answer Items
6. Is the item paraphrased rather copied verbatim from learning
materials?
7. If the item is in the completion format, is the omitted word an
important word rather than a trivial word?
8. Are there only one or two blanks?
9. Is the blank or answer space in this item (a) the same length
as the blank in other items, or (b) arranged in an appropriate
column?
10.If appropriate, does the item (or the directions/instructions) tell
the learner the appropriate degree of detail, specificity,
precision, or units you want the answer to have?
11.Does the item avoid grammatical (and other irrelevant) clues
to the correct answer.

Checklist for Checking Quality of True-False Items
3. Does the item assess important ideas, knowledge, or
understanding (rather than trivial, general knowledge,
or common sense)?
4. Is the statement either definitely true or definitely
false without adding further qualifications or
conditions?
5. Is the statement paraphrased rather than copied
verbatim from learning materials?

Checklist for Checking Quality of True-False Items
6. Are the word-lengths of true statements about the
same as those of false statements?
7. Did you avoid presenting items in a repetitive or
easily learned pattern (e.g., TTFFTT…, TFTFTF…)?
8. Is the item free of verbal clues that give away the
answer?
9. If the statement represent an opinion, have you
stated the source of opinion?
10.If the statement does not assess knowledge of the
relationship between ideas, does it focus on only one
important idea?

Checklist for Checking Quality of Multiple Choice Items
3. Does the stem ask a direct question or set a specific
problem?
4. Is the item based on a paraphrase rather than words
lifted from a textbook?
5. Are the vocabulary and sentence structure at a
relatively low and non-technical level?

Checklist for Checking Quality of Multiple Choice Items
6. Is each alternative (foil) plausible so that a student
who lacks knowledge of the correct answer cannot
view it as absurd or silly?
7. If possible is every incorrect alternative based on a
common learner error or misconception?
8. Is the correct answer to this item independent of the
correct answer of other items?
9. Are all of the alternatives homogeneous and
appropriate to the content of the stem?
10.Did you avoid using “all of the above” or “non of the
above” as much as possible?
11.Is there only one correct or best answer to the item?

Checklist for Checking Quality of Matching Exercises
1. Does the exercise assess an important aspect of the unit’s
instructional targets (goals)?
2. Does the exercise match your assessment plan in terms of
performance, emphasis, and number of points?
3. Within this exercise, does every premise and response belong
to the same category of things?
4. Do your directions (Instructions) clearly state the basis you
intend your learners use to complete the matching correctly?
5. Does every element in the response list functions as a
plausible alternative to every element in the premise list?

Checklist for Checking Quality of Matching Exercises
6. Are there fewer than 10 responses in this matching
exercise?
7. Did you avoid “perfect matching”?
8. Are the longer statements in the premise list and the
shorter statements (names, words, symbols, etc.) in
the response list?
9. If possible, are the elements in the response list
ordered in a meaningful way (logically, numerically,
alphabetically., etc.)?
10.Are the premises numbered and the responses
lettered?

Checklist for Checking Quality of Essay
1. Does the essay assess an important aspect of the unit’s
instructional targets (goals)?
2. Does the essay match your assessment plan in terms of
performance, emphasis, and number of points?
3. Does the essay require learners to apply their knowledge
to a new or novel situation?
4. When viewed in relation to other items on the test, does
this item (the essay) contribute to covering the range of
content and thinking skills specified in your assessment
plan?
5. Is the prompt focused? Does it define a task with specific
directions/instructions, rather than leave the assignment
so broad that virtually any response can satisfy the
question?

Checklist for Checking Quality of Essay
6. Is the task defined in the prompt within the level of complexity
suitable to your learners?
7. To get a good mark on the item, is the learner required to
demonstrate more than recall of facts, definitions, lists,
generalizations, etc.?
8. Is the prompt worded in a way that leads all learners to
interpret the assignment in the same way you intended?
9. Does the wording of the prompt make clear to the learners all
of the following:
A) Magnitude or length of the required writing?
B) Purpose for which they are writing?
C) Amount of time to be devoted to answering this item?
D) Basis on which their answers will be evaluated?
10. If the essay prompt asks learners to state and support their opinions on
controversial matters, does the wording make it clear that the learners’
assessment will be based on the logic and evidence, supporting their
arguments, rather than on the actual position taken or opinion stated?

Checklist for Checking Quality of Performance Tasks
1. Does the task focus on an important aspect of the unit’s learning
goals?
2. Does the task match your assessment plan in terms of
performance, emphasis, and number of points (marks/weight)?
3. Does the task actually require a learner to do something
(performance) rather than requiring only writing about how to do
it, or simply to recall or copy information?
4. Do you allow enough time so all of your learners can complete the
task under your specified conditions?
5. If this an open-response task, do your wording and directions make
it clear to learners that they may use a variety of approaches and
strategies, that you will accept more than one answer as
correct, and that they need to fully elaborate their response?
6. If the task is intended to be authentic or realistic, do you present a
situation that your level of learners will recognize as coming from
the real world?

Checklist for Checking Quality of Performance Tasks
7. If this task requires using resources and locating information outside
the classroom, will all of your learners have fair and equal access to
the expected resources?
8. Do your directions and other wording:
A. define a task that is appropriate to the educational maturity of your learners?
B. lead all learners, including those from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds,
to interpret the task requirements in the way you intend?
C. make clear the purpose or goal of the task?
D. make clear the length or the degree of elaboration of the response expected?
E. make clear the bases on which you will evaluate the response to the task?
9. Are the drawings, graphs, diagrams, charts and other task materials
clearly drawn, properly constructed, appropriate to the intended
performance and in good working order?
10. If you have learners with disabilities in your class, have you modified
or adapted the task to accommodate their needs?

Best practices in EFL Assessment

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