Students Project

The details my students put on these models were amazing. Final touches were great and the fact that many used material that can be reusable makes me think that they care for 
 nature which is very important.

Students Projects

Due to the new program from MEP, teachers must assingn projects to their students for each trimestre. So, these are some of my students projects for this year.

They had to build a model that represents a business, they had to describe it using the

vocabulary learned in class and they had to explain the vision and mission of their business.

Learning can be fun

Choosing a Textbook and Other Printed Materials

By Prof. Latoya Murray H.

Choosing a texbook may seem to be an easy task to carry out but the truth it is not anything like that. It takes time and dedication to find a textbook that can fullfl our students' needs as well as our own. 

There are many things that we need to take in account before deciding to use a textbook. Content for example, is an important part in a textbook, and we need to look at it because that is what we are going to be using to teach our lessons.

According to the article from Curtain ,H & Pesola "Many schools programs come up with a curriculum that is not dependent on the use of a text series for at least the two first years, but it is very hard to mantain a well articulated local curriculum over a large period of time without reference to a professionally developed text series. In the absence of  satyisfactory commercil text series, some school systems have invested the funding and the effort necessary to create succesful locally developed materials for an entire elementary school sequence."

A Practical Guide to Assessing English Language Learners

A Practical Guide to

Assessing English

Language Learners

Christine Coombe

Keith Folse

Nancy Hubley

Michigan Teacher Training

A Practical Guide to Assessing English Languange Learners

Chapter 5

Assessing Listening

Listening was considered at first as a passive skill because it could not be observed. But now we know that it goes hand in hand with the speaking skill and that makes it interactive.

Listening is more than just hearing words. It is an active process whereby students receive and construct meaning from and respond to spoken message.

Based on Nunan, before creating appropriate assessment to evaluate the listening skill we are due to understand its nature. There are two models of listening, which are:

1. Bottom up, where comprehension occurs when the listener successfully decodes the spoken text.

2. Top down, where the listener is directly involved with constructing meaning from input.

Based on Buck 2001, there are three major approaches to the assessment of listening abilities:

1. Discrete point: Breaks listening in components and assess the separately.

2. Integrative: The whole language is greater than the parts.

3. Communicative: Listener must comprehend the message and use it later in context.

We want our students to understand spoken messages and be able to comprehend what they hear outside, on the radio, on the news, and others. Furthermore, listening can take our students very far in life.

A Practical Guide to Assessing English Language Learners

Chapter 4

Assessing Writing

By Licda. Latoya Murray H.

Is it important to assess writing in our class rooms? Of course it is. It’s of great importance that our students be capable of expressing themselves in a written way. Therefore we should come up with our own creations or modifications of writing assessment.

Consider the two major approaches in writing assessment which are Direct and Indirect.  Indirect assess correct usage of grammar and it focuses on accuracy while Direct assess students ability to communicate and it requires the students to produce.

Consider also the basic elements which are:

-The Rubric: Instructions                                                                              

-Prompt :The task

-Expected Response: Teachers aspirations for students

-Post: Effectiveness of the writing task

Two techniques you can use to assess writing are: Free writing and Guided writing. Free writing requires student to read a prompt that poses a situation and write a planned response based on a combination of background knowledge and knowledge learned from the course while guided writing requires students to manipulate content that is provided in the prompt.

 

A Practical Guide to Assessing English Language Learners

By Licda. Latoya Murray H.
Assessing the Skills

Assessing the four skills can be difficult at times because sometimes teachers lead to put their feelings in the assessment process. How is this so? Well there are many kinds that really het to teachers in the way that they see them as role models and want to like them. This unable teacher to project the reality of these students

When creating our assessments we must make sure that these be valid and reliable and must important they should reflect the goals of the course.

Chapter 3

Assessing Reading

Reading is considered as an invisible skill, but isn’t something we can’t see invisible? Reading is the way people take in new information and the way they blend or complement that new information with their background knowledge. Therefore, reading is no longer invisible because teachers can acknowledge or see how troublesome it can be for students to decode, recognize and understand readings or even extracting the main point or ideas from a text.

The bottom line here is that there’s nothing invisible about reading but most importantly is that we must take it as an interactive skill.

How can we assess reading? To assess reading you must take into account the two reading sub-kills which are:

-Major skills         Deals with reading quickly and carefully.

-Minor skills         Deals with understanding.

Also bear in mind the specifications. These are aids that help teachers and test administrators establish a clear link between the overall objectives for the program and the design of particular assessment instruments. These are: 1. Content 2. Conditions 3. Grading Criteria

Taking all these ideas in mind and using them for the creation of your assessments, you will find yourself helping your students learn a lot better.

A Practical Guide to Assessing English Language Learners

Chapter 2

Techniques for Testing

By Licda. Latoya Murray H.

What is testing? What is a test and what is it good for? A test is an examination or evaluation of something or someone and testing is finding out how well something works. When it comes to human beings, testing tells what level of knowledge or skill has been acquired.

Test items are the foundation of tests and the backbone of most assessment instruments. There are various items that can be used in test such as: selection and copy, true and false, matching, and multiple choices.

Items are classified in Objective which test mostly recognition and Subjective which requires students to provide open ended responses.

Items are classified by the way they are scored. Objective test items can be scored based only on following an answer key. It does not require expert judgment, specialist knowledge.

Scoring subjective items require that the maker have knowledge of the content area being tested. Make this kind of item depends on impression, human judgment, and opinion at the time of the scoring.

But are test reliable? They are when you test what you teach and hopefully when your students study what they have seen in class.

A Practical Guide to Assessing English Language Learners

Chapter 1

The Process of Developing Assessment

Once I read that a great teacher is not a person who holds many titles but is the one who’s concern deals with their students’ academic performance and outcome.            

Teachers may check up on and follow up performance improvement by using assessment activities that can provide valuable information on how well they are doing.

Assessment is an integral part of teaching which involves planning, development, administration, analysis, feedback and reflection.

Using assessment is an important tool for both teachers and students, for such reason teachers must take time and good care in their decision when creating their assessment activities sheets taking in account the goals to be achieve and the approach for the English program to be used.