While reading the chapter on testing, I have questioned whether testing in the form of an instructional, sit down test, is appropriate for students. I think that there are other ways to monitor students progress throughout the classroom. I think that through creative projects that are not only research based, but must have creative, student produced content, teachers can monitor the students use of grammar, vocabulary, and culture and its progression. These projects can be based on written or oral, presentation projects. I think that these projects would better put content that students are learning into more real life presentations. All tests or quizzes throughout the semester should always be cumulative. Some students tend to learn the content for a specific unit only for an assessment and forget about it afterwards. I think that keeping tests/quizzes/project cumulative, this will alleviate the problem of just learning content for the exam.
Tests are definitely a way to show if a teacher is teaching content well or not. If students are scoring well on the test, the teacher is either effectively teaching the materials or the test is designed too easily for students. I think that students should always be challenged when taking tests-- there should always be a few questions that are "tricks", that can really push students to use the knowledge that they have learned outside of the traditional format that they have learned it. I believe that effective question types for students would be ones where they are producing their own content-- translating sentences or summarizing authentic materials that they have read. Multiple choice questions or true/false questions should never be used when testing for grammar or vocabulary.
Administrative tests, or placement/assessment tests, can be used for teacher's purposes at the beginning and end of the class. Teachers can use these general tests, like the SAT II or college placement tests to see how well their aims of the classroom are reflecting in the students overall knowledge of the language. Teachers can use these at the beginning of the class to see what topics students are struggling with and what he should better focus and spend more time with. If all the students are scoring really well with the use of the future or the conditional, there is no point for the teacher to waste the instructional time in the classroom working on these. At the end of the class, teachers can use these to see what the students are still struggling with and that can help to mold the lesson plans for the next semester or school year.
I agree that there are many different ways of assessing student progress, but I think testing will always be necessary in language learning. Projects and oral presentations are great, but you have to think about the students that will struggle with these. Some students are test takers. I think a really good assessment would include tests, projects, and oral presentations. Student performance can be graded in all of these ways. The most important thing is variety in testing.
ReplyDeleteI like that you said tests and quizzes should always be cumulative. That'll definitely prevent most students from cramming the night before because they will need to internalize the information in case it shows up again on a following test. I can't tell you how many times I've taken exams, pass it in, then immediately forget the information as soon as I walk out the door. It's also an important lesson for students to learn that language learning builds on itself, meaning that everything they learn can be used with in conjunction with another unit.
ReplyDeleteI like how you said that students should be producing the language on their own. While comprehensible input through listening and reading is great, teachers need a way to see if the input they are providing the students is sinking in. A great way to test this is for the students to produce their own work through writing or speaking.
ReplyDeleteBeing a Spanish 1 level teacher right now, I think I have to disagree with you that formal sit down testing is not necessary. I think it is, and should be a part of every lower level class, at least. In these kinds of classes, it is very difficult to engage the students at a high level of proficiency because they simply have not learned enough to carry on a high level of speaking. This is why sit-down testing is important because it allows them to be tested on some of the overarching concepts and methods of L2 learning. WHile I agree that there should be more creative testing and learning in the L2 classroom, sometimes it is necessary to have an achievement test to see how well the students re understanding the material.
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