Hi Penny, Steven, Anne and everyone

Hi Penny, Steven, Anne and everyone,
Happy to join this course. I'm Canadian and live in Toronto, but I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. I have travelled and lived in many countries and have picked up a couple of languages other than English. I have been teaching ESL to newcomers to Canada for 17 years (adult, noncredit programs, all levels) At present I teach a Level 6/7 class (high intermediate I guess - but really any class of 20 people has 20 levels! Agree? ) I'm interested in assessment - not because I like to do it but because it seems to be a very hot topic now. I've learned from taking other online courses to be very flexible about my expectations - and to always be pleasantly surprised by what I get from the courses. So - looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow! Claudie

Comments

  1. Julia BlinovaNovember 4, 2017 at 10:08 AM

    Hi Claudie Nice to meet you. If you don't mind me asking, why do you dislike doing assessment?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Claudie GNovember 4, 2017 at 11:25 AM

    I don't dislike doing assessments -but it depends what kind and for what purposes...and what the stakes are for the learner....but I have questions...Also so many issues with assessment. How do you really assess someone's language skills IN a classroom? (Not talking about accurate grammar, or writing conventions, punctuation). If you "assess" the performance of a "task" (the so-called "real life task" classroom activities) -does this mean the person "can do" this outside the class?...Maria, a student who hardly ever participated in class ( was on medication) and whose "speaking skills " seemed really limited -well, I saw her outside with a group of other students -she had the Avon booklet and was busy selling stuff!!! In English! With suggestions etc!

    If I am learning a language in a language class at university and I need to "pass" -OK, I get it. Formative and summative assessments tied in with the content of a curriculum. Maybe. But adults chose to learn what is useful and relevant for them.....much trickier...I'm sure assessment will come up (error correction a form of assessment?)

    How do you feel about assessment? What kinds of assessments do you do?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Julia BlinovaNovember 4, 2017 at 12:02 PM

    Claudie G Those are really important points you are talking about, especially the classroom and real life 'divide'.
    I think of assessment as my diagnostic tool first and foremost. As I teach one-to-one, it also allows me to make changes to the programme - include more revision or omit certain topics.
    If I am teaching an exam course, I start with a test my student is going to take and do mock exams all through the course. This becomes sort of a road map for me and the student, so we both know what is going well and what still needs more practice.
    If I am teaching a business course, I try to include as many tasks my students really do at work (presentations, discussion. etc) as possible and assess them.
    My goodness, when I started thinking about it just now, I understood that I am constantly doing some sort of formative assessment with my students. I mean I love tests, but the results are mostly for statistics and my students' peace of mind, as people quite often consider a number more objective.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anne HendlerNovember 4, 2017 at 4:58 PM

    Nice to meet you, Claudie! I'm not a fan of most kind of assessment - learning is a process, and it seems to me like most assessments focus too much on 'learn-ed' and not enough on 'learn-ing'.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Claudie GNovember 5, 2017 at 1:39 AM

    Anne Hendler I'm sure I will share issues I have with a Canadian government mandated program in LINC (Language Instruction for Newcomers) called Portfolio Based Language Assessment....I have kept portfolios of student work samples in my classroom for years and years -useful tool. But I worry that there seems to be a growing focus on testing for teacher "accountability" - more than for student learning...PBLA is very prescriptive and based on teacher created assessments using theCanadian Language Benchmarks ( sort of English language "framework" -somewhat similar to CEFR. The requirement is every student has to have a (provided) binder (portfolio) with a prescribed number of "artefacts" (assessments) collected without which the student cannot be promoted...did I mention that our programs are continuous intake? A stated goal is "standardisation" across Canadian adult ESL.... using "AFL" instead of a standardised test...but 3,000 teachers creating "assessments" - where's the validity, consistency, reliability? But I am really hoping to "return to the well" and focus on my classroom teaching techniques, and how to teach better so I'll try to not be boring about "portfolios"and "assessment".

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anne HendlerNovember 5, 2017 at 1:52 AM

    Claudie G Thanks for elaborating! I can see how that would be frustrating, time-consuming, exhausting for anyone. I hope this dip into the well feeds the flames of your teacher self. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Julia BlinovaNovember 5, 2017 at 10:52 AM

    Claudie G Oh, it sounds like a complicated situation you are in. Now I understand your feelings regarding assessment much better. Thank you for sharing

    ReplyDelete

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