Assessment
Assessment can be difficult. How to assess student progress, when to assess and so on. This show goes over how Eric and Mark deal with assessment in their classes. This show also covers some differences between Japan, Korea and America on views of assessment.
Game of the Week: Answer My Question
This is a great game for practicing adverbs of frequency and other vocabulary possibilities. There is very little preparation involved for the teacher and all you need is a couple sheets of paper. Have fun!
February 1st, 2007 at 5:34 pm
[…] I am a bit behind the times but I just had the chance to listen to Eric and Mark at ESL Teacher Talk discuss assessment. […]
March 1st, 2007 at 9:49 am
I just eliminated written tests in my school this year. I think the only reason I had been giving them is because that’s what everyone does. When I stopped to think about it, I realized that I as the teacher already knew who understands and who doesn’t, who speaks and who doesn’t, who is progressing well and who isn’t. The tests, acutually were not a good measure of that.
I still do informal oral evaluations and check up on the homework and class exercises. That is all it takes to know who is going forward.
I did like the idea of having a standard questionaire with many questions on increasing difficulty, to be given every 6 months or year. Each semester, the students can see how many more questions they can answer, than the time before.
ESL Teacher Talk podcasts is a great, great program for a niche audience. We appreciate you.
July 28th, 2007 at 4:40 am
I agree with you guys that paper-based tests can be tedious, and irrelevant. Tests should measure one’s ability to perform using knowledge he has learned. For example, as a restaurant manager, I ask potential staff to perform certain action to check his or her knowledge of doing that routine. If she can’t perform it well, it just means she needs more training. In the academic world I usually see written tests that require student/learner to reproduce memorized facts. This isn’t useful. As an employee, does one ever have to remember detailed rules one had memorized in school? We usually work as teams at companies, and with open books and resources. So I really get irritated at sadist teachers who still make tests that require remembering facts (that can be outdated in 1-3 years).
The ultimate test should be this instead. A teacher will have his or her teaching contract renewed or not based on how effective he or she can impart knowledge to the learners (in this case corporate students) so that they can perform better in their work. If the students cannot increase his work efficiency, then fire the teacher (or better yet, sue the teacher for wasting the student’s time and money)!
Sincerely,
Kenneth K
MBA and TEFL certificate holder