REFLECTION OF THE SECOND UNIT

REFLECTION OF THE SECOND UNIT

FORMAL ASSESSMENT

In this unit, I learned most of the things that have to do with formal assessment. For example, something that caught my attention was, that usually, teachers prefer to do exams and tests at the end of the term, and not only English teachers do it, other teacher as well; so I found out that this isn’t exactly a good things, because they tend to try to cover everything that they have taught in the whole year, or semester, and this only stresses the students more.

So making a test isn’t an easy thing to do; it is a complicated process, because it covers a wide range of things; firstly, as a teacher, we have to decide which kind of test we are going to apply, I think that that is the starting point, because from there is from where we are going to form the exam. There are several different kinds of texts, the important thing is to select the one that adjusts itself better according to what we taught during the classes, for example, I guess it would be hard to assess writing in a multiple choice test, therefore I think it would be better to use something like guided writing, because it gives the freedom to the students to write in a more realistic way, and all we have to do is to give them the tenses that they need to use. Another aspect, would be to make the test as little confusing as possible, because the main purpose of a test is not to fail students or lower their grade, on the contrary, I think that a well-designed and written test is the one where a student can answer everything in a satisfactory way; and this will also indicate the teacher that she/he is doing his/her job.

We also have to consider if the test isn’t too expensive, if it isn’t too time-consuming, if it really measures the performance of the students, and lastly, if the content is really what we taught during our classes. Another important thing to mention would be the checking, because we have to establish beforehand, the criteria that we will use to make corrections, because sometimes, we can’t correct every single error; we also have to try not to scare the students, on the contrary our job is to make them feel confident so they can perform in an excellent way, and don’t let the nervousness overcome them

So, I think that formal assessment should be considered as a compliment of both informal and self-assessment, as teachers, we should analyze the students’ levels, their ages, their personalities and their abilities, in order to establish a correct weight for the test or tests. We should also decide when to test, and we should remember that the exam shouldn’t be too difficult because it could be very demotivating for the students, so we should try to make it the least confusing as possible, so students can have a happy face, when they get their tests back.

Education’s goals are to develop knowledge, skills and attitude which are useful for effective learning. However evidence needs to be gathered to show that objectives have been achieved. This is where formal assessment comes in. Formal assessment often takes the form of written paper and pencil tests. Formal written and oral exams are standardized, norm-referenced and criteria referenced tests, which are instruments to make or to produce grades. Teachers usually develop specific objectives that they want their students to accomplish within given time frame. Teachers must prepare their students for tests by following curriculum which prescribes content areas to be examined. When students are able to achieve these objectives it is felt that learning has taken place.