Classroom assessment

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Classroom assessmentwriting

• Professor Liz Hamp-Lyons
• The University of Hong Kong
• The University of Nottingham

Sponsored by
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Assessment is

• A process of making judgements
• Of something
• For us its someone, some peopleOUR LEARNERS
• For a purpose

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Making Judgements about Student Performance

• Norm-referenced Assessment
• Performance is judged relative to other
  learners. The purpose is to rank and to select.
• Criterion-referenced Assessment
• Performance is judged relative to defined
  standards. The purpose is to select those most
  suited to a job, a course of study, a course
  level.
• Growth-referenced Assessment
• Performance is judged relative to defined
  standards and to the individuals own development
  towards those standards. The purpose is to
  ensure each learner develops to the full
  potential.

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Norm-referenced Assessment
The Bell Curve
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Criterion-referenced Assessment

• All learners can be successful if they meet the
  standard of performance (achievement)
• Requires descriptions of expected performance
• These descriptions should be based on the
  demonstration of learning not on percentage or
  score.

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Growth-referenced Assessment

• Learners are successful if they can show a change
  in performance over time.
• A baseline assessment is used as a starting point
  for measurement.
• Collaborative goal setting exercises (involving
  the student) identify growth targets.
• The process of learning is tracked.
• Judgements are made about the quality of the
  learning processes and products.

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Paired discussion activity

1. Think of a writing lesson you taught recently and
   briefly describe it to your partner
2. Did you feel satisfied that everyone had reached
   the lessons objectives?
3. How did you know whether or not your students had
   understood what you had taught?
4. What else could you have done to make certain
   everyone had learned?

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Purposes and audiences for classroom assessment

• Purposes
• monitor and record students progress toward and
  attainment of curriculum objectives
• Audiences
• Learner
• Teacher
• Local community of teachers
• Beyond the classroom
• Once beyond the classroom, we have a different
  construct

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Purposes and users beyond the classroom

• There is no wholly innocent assessment --
  (teachers, students, parents, school board,
  government etc)
• The power for decision-making is always in the
  hands of the highest authority expert knowledge
  is not a criterion
• Are your students the users, the decision-makers,
  or the objects/subjects of the assessment
  decision?
• Are we doing the assessment with our students or
  to our students?

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Making the most of classroom assessment
opportunities

• Assessment for learning is the process of seeking
  and interpreting evidence for use by learners and
  their teachers to decide where the learners are
  in their learning, where they need to go, and how
  best to get there.
• HOW CAN WE DO THIS?

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Paired discussion activity

• With your partner try list 3 or more
• of the following
• Examples of assessment we do TO students
• Examples of assessment we can do WITH students
• A lesson where you did some good growth-focused
  assessment
• A lesson that showed you where many students had
  needs for more help
• A technique you enjoy using in class that leads
  to good assessment for learning

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Hong Kong education policy for school-based
assessment

• teachers should use assessments (e.g. as
  simple as effective verbal questioning, or
  observation of student behaviour) and provide
  immediate feedback to enhance student learning in
  everyday classroom lessons. The focus is on why
  students do not learn well and how to help them
  to improve rather than just to use assessments to
  find out what knowledge students have learned

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Assessment for learning The 10 AfL principles

• Is part of effective planning
• Focuses on how students learn
• Is central to classroom practice
• Is a key professional skill
• Is sensitive and constructive
• Fosters motivation
• Promotes understanding of goals and criteria
• Helps learners know how to improve
• Develops the capacity for self-assessment
• Recognises all educational achievement

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How can we assess writing in the classroom?

• Formal or informal?
• timed and marked writing
• peer assessment
• writing portfolios
• kid watching
• Collaborative or solitary
• peer/collegial
• Teacher to single student
• Process or product?
• multiple drafts
• writing conferences
• focused marking/correction
• One-shot marking

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Paired discussion activity

• Look at the handout Assessment for learning
  (Chris Davison and Liz Hamp-Lyons)
• On page 3, which of the distinctions listed do
  you think makes the most difference when trying
  to make assessment formative instead of summative?

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Teachers classroom assessment practices

• most frequently used assessment activities
• exercises ? scoring
• in-class writing on a set topic ?
  marking/correction
• revision that correction ? checking compliance
• few teachers use
• peerwork
• writing journals
• case studies (teacher observation)
• portfolios
• diagnostic activities

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Hamp-Lyons, Chen and Mok, 2000
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What do teachers need?

• more time
• eg. more time to enjoy the work produced,
  time to read and digest students work first and
  understand their line of thought and structures
• better marking schemes to manage workload/guide
  feedback
• eg. it would be better is we can sometimes
  focus mark some of the writing assignments, a
  more effective and student-friendly system of
  symbol marking, a balanced marking scheme and
  not having every single mistake corrected,
  focusing on a major area may be more effective
• more professional dialogue/peer interaction
• eg. a sharing session whereby we can learn from
  each other, share with colleagues, peers to
  help marking.
• (Davison Tang, 2000, 2002)

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How can we fulfil teachers professional
development needs?

• systematic and comprehensive pre-service and
  in-service teacher training in classroom
  assessment
• appropriate assessment resources, activities and
  techniques to help textbookbound teachers assess
  more creatively
• structural support at the school and classroom
  level
• A network of colleagues with similar concerns

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Making it happen

• Exploring and discovering how assessment for
  learning looks and feels very different
  (Leung, 2002) to traditional assessments of
  learning.
• Providing teachers and schools with the
  opportunity to share evolving assessment beliefs
  and practices in order to develop a sense of
  ownership, common understanding of the assessment
  process, and a more critical but informed
  perspective on assessment practices.
• Recognizing that the problem of teacher
  interpretation and conflict is an inherent
  strength, not a weakness, of school-based
  assessment.

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HKU school-based assessment project(s)

• Undertake systematic Identify problem
• analysis identify patterns develop plan for
• assessment activity
• Structure observation Try out new assessment
  activity
• and evaluation collect data

• Collaborate
• (and disseminate)

5. Reflect
2. Plan
3. Act
4. Observe
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How can we be successful in changing assessment
in the classroom?

• A number of factors can help us be successful in
  making changes
• The change should support good educational
  principles
• Everyone involved should understand the reasons
  for the change
• Everyone involved should be kept informed of
  progress
• The assessment should focus on an important
  teaching objective
• The objectives of the assessment should be
  clearly stated
• The assessment should use authentic tasks and
  authentic texts
• Even classroom assessments must be careful and
  fair
• Students should take part in the assessment
  process as far as possible

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Implementation
Planning (and reflecting)
Teaching (and observing/monitoring)
Assessing (and feedback/reporting)
Teaching (and observing/monitoring)
Learning (and recording/self-evaluating)