I found this video:  what are the common misunderstandigs about child assessment 

Enjoy it!!

                                                           (video taken from youtube)

ASSESSING MY BABIES! :)

Assessment plays an important role in how students learn and how teachers teach. According to Black and William (1998)  assessment refers to all those activities undertaken by teachers - and by their students in assessing themselves- that provide information to be used as feedback to modify teaching and learning activities. (p143).

I have taught English since almost one year. During this time I have worked with little kids between 4 to 5 years old. I have worked hard looking for activities that help them to learn due to they do not read and write yet.

My babies are in the Piaget's stage: Properational stage. In this stage children are able to think about things symbolically. They also develop memory and imagination. For that reason, it is necessary to create activities that help them to internalize all those words in a funny and innovative way. I use several materials in their learning process: flashcards, games such as "run and stop" or videos. Although, they do not write or read, I always include the word in the pictures because in that way they start to relate "the signifier" with "the signified". According to Ferdinand Saussure (1991 ) language is made up of signs and every sigh has two sides: The signifies, the "shape" of a word, its phonic component and the signified, ideational component, the concept or object that appears in our minds when we hear or read the singnifier.

Image taken from Wikipedia

I usually use observation for assessing them. Through this tool, I can see if they use English words when they want to say something like: "teacher, ayer mi mother me compró un black dog". so, in this way I know about  their English learning process. Gardner (1993) has suggested that children can vary individually across eight types of intelligence - linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatical, bodily kinesthetics, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic. Taking into account that, I  use flashcards, games, videos and songs for assessing them. I use some phrases like: " corazón, te quedó muy lindo pero recuerda que debes colorear sin salirte de la línea" then, they ask me for another copy and try to do their best.

Another tool that I use in their assessing process is test with close-ended questions in their listening and speaking skills. They listen and connect dots or circle the word that they hear and they say the word that I show them.

 I love teaching English to little kids. They have made me discovered my creative sense in the way to teach them. I feel great when I see that my babies  know how to say many words in English, for that reason, I feel that I am in the right place. I do love my little kids!!!!

Image taken from wikipedia

EVALUATION WITH TESTS

Testing, in education is an attempt to measure a person's knowledge, intelligence, or other characteristics in a systematic way. There are many types of tests. Teachers give tests to discover the learning abilities of their students. They also give tests to see how well students have learned a particular subject.

Testing is important, because through teacher knows how much the students have learned. However, as I have said before, tests are not the only way to assess our students. This is necessary, not only in terms of the students but also for the teacher so that he or she can know where the class is holding when preparing the material for the next lessons. It can also show who the weaker and stronger students are - who needs extra help and who needs more of a challenge.

For the student, testing is a good idea because this is an ideal opportunity to pause, take stock of the material studied over the recent period, and process it so that it is properly understood. In addition, there is always the satisfaction of passing the test and really feeling that you know something. And if you don't pass, there is the challenge of having to relearn the material and make sure that you do know it next time. We as teachers should know how to design a good test, it is very important that the test has a purpose.: why am I creating this test?. We need also to establish clear objectives if we want that the test be successful. 




STANDARDIZED TESTS IN EDUCATION: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES. :)

http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/standardized-tests-in-education-advantages-and-disadvantages.html

Image taken from "google imágenes"

 USING JOURNALS IN THE CLASSROOM

Before I started to take my assessment class, I did not know that a teacher has many different ways to assess his/ her students.

Now, I have learned that tests are just a subset of assessment. There are other tools that help teachers to provide students a formative feedback that make them to be more aware about their learning.

One of those tools is the use of journals in the classroom. Through it, teachers can learn about their students' anxieties, problems, excitement, joys and so on and so forth.

It also allows teachers to examine the relationship between the students and the world; or reflect on personal values, goals and ideals.

Students have the freedom to write what they think about their classes, teachers, classmates and even about themselves. However, this tool can fail if the teachers do not explain the objectives of using journals in the classrom. For that reason, before the students start to write their journals, they should know the main goals and objectives of using that. 

Keeping a Journal is a great learning tool. It is a way to get students to write down what they think, see, or hear and to promote both learning and thinking about a subject. Often this is a way for teachers and parents to help the student learn to self direct their own learning. Students often write more and more often about the things that they are interested in, and by facilitating this type of learning, the student often learns more effectively.

Taken from google imágenes

Importance of Listening

ASSESSING LISTENING

There is a huge difference between "hearing" and "listening." Hearing is the physical ability in which the ears receive sound and transmit those waves to the brain. Listening is a skill that allows for comprehension of those sounds. It requires concentration. And it is essential for success in 

school and at work.

Image taken from google imágenes

 Listening skills are an important part of communication skills, although they haven't been given as much focus as speech or reading skills. However, it takes a good listener to create a good speaker. It's basic. A baby starts speaking after listening to the words parents and other adults or children say to the infant.

Listening is also important because it:

·  Occupies a big chunk of the time we spend communicating in the language. Think about the times you spend listening to others speak or listening to songs, news, lectures, YouTube, etc. Recent advances in technology have served to raise the profile of the listening skill in language teaching.

· Provides input that can be very significant for second language acquisition in general and for the development of the speaking skill in particular.

·Promotes non-linear processing of language and encourages learners to develop "holistic" strategies to texts.

Qualities of a good assessment

We need to take into account five important principles at the moment to design our tests. These are:

Image taken from google imagénes

In the following link, we can understand better the importance of all of these principles:
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/qualities-of-good-assessments-standardization-practicality-reliability-validity.html

We must comprehend all about a good assessment because we as teachers are  responsible for help to create a better society.

Image taken from google imágenes

Assessment learning

There are many ways to assess the student's knowledges and skills. Many teachers thought that tests were the only and effective way to measure the students' learning.
However, there are other ways that not also measure their learning but it also provide a powerful understanding and feedback about their knowledge.
This video show us some useful ways to assess our students.
Enjoy it!!!!!

Test and Assessment

Assessment vs Evaluation

ASSESSMENT VS EVALUATION

Image taken from google imágenes

I always had thought that assessment and evaluation was the same, but after reading "Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Grading" by Craig I realized that those terms mean different:

Evaluation is more focused on making a judgment or determination concerning the quality of a performance, work product or use of skills against a set of standards. Evaluations are designed for and intended to document the level of achievement that has been attained.

An assessment, on the other hand, is more focused on  measuring a performance, work product, or skill in order to offer feedback to document strengths and growth and to provide directives for improving future performance. Assessments are nonjudgmental and are designed and intended to be helpful to produce improvement.

We as  teachers  need more instruction on assessment and evaluation. Both teachers and students need to be aware of the importance of these concets and how it can improve the learning and teaching process as well. For this, we need to keep learning about it and more importantly, start applying this knowledge in our classrooms.