Thursday 23 February 2012

Adult Language Training

If I don't write this right away I will probably get lazy and not write it.
I went to the Adult Language Training Conference today at CMU, it's been a long day, so here I am totally wiped from a long day of EAL workshops, but I made it and I took some notes to share with you.

- Joanne Pettis said
"Assessment is a systematic approach to collecting information on students learning and performance based on various sources of evidence to inform teaching and help students learn."

She used some 'fancy' words for this but I am going to simplify it here. Assessment is for A)placing students at a starting point , B)informing the learning process along the way and for C) feedback to determine if a goal has been reached

She asked - Does assessment improve learning? If it does are there assessment practices that are effective? --the answer YES and these are the effective practices to make it a resounding YES
the approach to assessment has to be
- planned for
- goal driven
- engaging the teacher and student in reflection and dialog

"Don't do more assessment do more with assessment" - I see this as a good statement to encourage not overdoing it in assessment. When I think about this statement and consider my observation after a full day of listening to assessment talk. I wondered about the pendulum factor. After just studying the approaches and methods that have swung the pendulum over the last 100 years is the pendulum of assessment swinging now? How far will it go?

"Assessment will empower students to be life long learners"

"Assessment will inform teaching and excite students"

Thank you Joanne for collaborating with my present learning journey.

1 comment:

  1. Cindy,

    This is a very clear, comprehensive, and concise way to look at assessment. Thank-you so much for sharing your notes!

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