Designing a Formative Classroom Assessment - Essay Example

Designing a formative room assessment al affiliation Introduction As opposed to standardized assessments, valid classroom assessments can play a significant role in providing adequate and updated information regarding the language and academic proficiency of English Language learner. On most occasions, these students need proper articulation and simplicity of the language in order to understand the various concepts taught in classrooms. This is inconsiderate of whether the subjects being taught are science subjects, humanities or English as a subject.

Classroom assessments assist teachers and tutors in coming up with targeted instructions that in turn promote learning amongst students (Laureate Education, 2012). This paper provides a comprehensive formative classroom assessment for English language learners in grade 3.Body The English language learners targeted with this classroom assessment are students in grade 3. On most occasions, English language learners in this class have difficulty in comprehending lessons taught in English. It is because of this that the task chosen for the purposes of this assessment will be presented in very simple and easily understood English.

The objectives of this formative assessment are:To enable students to reflectTo enable students to make sense out of what they have readTo enable students derive meaning from the reading experience To increase the meta-cognitive skills of the students In this assessment, the students will be required to read a short essay and make sense out of the text. However, before the students are given a text to read, they will be asked to guess the storyline of the story book after having seen the cover page of the book (Gottlieb, 2006).

Web-based assessment toolThe assessment will also make use of VoiceThread that is a web-based assessment tool found in VoiceThread.com. There are countless reasons why this web-based assessment tool may be the most useful for English language learners. One of the reasons is that it allows it users to create conversations, documents, snapshots, videos and diagrams and share them with others; especially students. It is suitable for English language learners because the conversation voices and videos can be captured with utter clarity thereby helping these students note pronunciations in English and learn the difference of similar words when used in different contexts (Gottlieb, 2006).

Another important aspect of this assessment tool is the inclusion of pictures and diagrams which can be helpful in illustrating written documents for English language learners. For this reason, the tool will be invaluable in making the students further understand the short essay chosen for the purposes of this task.Appendix AContent-based classroom assessment Planning of the classroom assessment Learning outcomes Purposes of the assessment Audiences for the assessment What do I want the students to achieve, understand or be able to do by the end of the lesson Why am I assessing the students and in what way will the assessment information be put to useFor whom are the assessment contents and results intended Comprehend the meaning of a storyNarrate the story in their wordsAnswer various questions regarding the story To diagnose the needs and strengths of the students To give feedback on the learning of studentsTo guide and inform instructions To tell learning expectations To improve the efforts and attention of students To come up with a basis for the evaluation of students To obtain data necessary for the evaluation of students TeacherStudents Framework of assessment, methods and approachesSelected response items CONTENT-BASED ASSESSMENTSConstructed responses Products Performances Process-Focused Multiple choicesNarrations Definition of vocabularies Filling in blank spaces with wordsShort answers Labeling diagrams Essay Oral presentations Debate Dramatic reading Oral questionsInterviewObservation Appendix BA template for a classroom instructional assessment projectNature of the project: Formative Classroom Assessment Learning issue or big idea: Reading and understanding short essay Teachers involved (ESL, bilingual, general education): ESLGrade level or grade level cluster(s): Grade 3Classification of the project: Class Assessment I.

Planning: The parameters for the assessmentContent a) Content area(s), academic content standards, and performance indicators assessed:Language Arts/Reading Content objectives: Enable students to reflectEnable students to make sense out of what they have readEnable students derive meaning from the reading experience Increase the meta-cognitive skills of the students b) Language(s) of instructions and assessment: English Language a) Language domains, English language proficiency standards, and performance indicators assessed:Reading b) Language objectives: Make sense out of what they have readc) Targeted level English language proficiency: English language learners Type(s) of student response(s)a) Materials or resources (visual or graphic support): Web-based assessment tool (VoiceThread)b) Type(s) of documentation (rubric) or scoring guide(s): Students being able to retell the story in their wordsII.

Delivering: The instructional Assessment Sequence for a projectTask 1a) Grouping of students: Individualb) Description of what to do: Students reading the provided essay Activity 1.1Students will be asked to guess the storyline of the book after having been shown the cover page of the book.Activity 1.2Students will be asked to read and understand the provided text on their own. Task 2a) Grouping of students: Pairsb) Description of what students do: Students to discuss the story in pairs Activity 2.

1Students will be asked to pair themselves and discuss the story read.Activity 2.2Students will be asked to retell the story in their words while trying to capture all the important aspects of the story.III. Interpreting results Peer or student self-assessment: Be able to retell the storyTeacher assessment: Be able to capture all the important aspects of the story readIV. Feedback and use of informationFrom peer or student self-assessment: If the student retells the story accordingly then, the objectives of the task will have been met.

From a teacher: The objectives of the work would have been met if the student retells the story accordingly while capturing the essential aspects. References (2012). Activities for ESL students The Internet TESL Journal. Retrieved from http://a4esl.org/ (2012). List of English language tests & quizzes. Edufind.com. Retrieved from http://www.edufind.com/english/englishtests/list_of_english_tests.phpGottlieb, M. (2006). Assessment and the English language learner. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012). Strategies for creating assessments. Baltimore, MD: Author.