Assessing Writing

Assessing Writing

 

SEPTEMBER 15^TH, 2011

A station hostess attends travellers at her/his counter, for them to check in at the airline. The station hostess fills the documents for baggages and suitcases weight.

Then handing the boarding passes, seat numbers and baggages tags to the client. These are a set of writen form requirements for travellers who expect to fly with an airline.

Writing ability isn´t only important it is necessary, because along with reading they are expected for a student academic development to be effective.

Constant writing permits teacher a beneficial washback because it encourages research.

  As station hostess gathers information for travellers, putting their information and baggage together, teacher’s desire is to have their students putting ideas together in their writings.

The approaches to writing assessment are two:

•  Indirect measure: refers to student´s correct use of writing.
•  Direct measure: refers to student´s ability to communicate through written form.

     RUBRIC        PROMPT

                          

    EXPECTED RESPONSE   POST-TASk EVALUATION         

                  

                                  

·        In this case the rubrics correspond to the instructions given to carry out a task.

·        Writing prompt has to do with stimulus students must respond to. This element also divided in three formats:

1. Base prompt: state the entire task in simple terms.

2. Framed prompt: It presents a situation that stands as a frame for interpretation.

3. Text-based prompt: It uses a text for students to respond or utilize in writing.

Issues in Writing Assessment

·        Time Allocation: time to complete writing task.  

·        Process versus Product: test in which the whole process from brainstorming to final product is assess.

·   Use of Technology: The access to computer, online dictionaries and others.

·        Topic restriction: The advantage of allowing students to select alternatives to do their writing task.

Techniques for Assessing Writing

·        Free writing: For this technique to be done it requires manipulation of content provided in a chart or diagram.

·    Guided writing: Read a situation then start writing a planned response base upon personal background knowledge and also background knowledge of the course.

Note: Examples of authentic assessments:

Student- Teacher Conference: Conferences between teachers and students to learn about their writing habits.

Self-Assessment: Students personal writing assessment of in the form of dialogue journal and learning logs.

Peer Assessment: Receive feedback by learning to evaluate the work of classmates using checklist, scoring rubrics and others.  

Portfolio-Based Assessment: Collection students writing over time.

ASSESSING READING

September 8^th, 2011 

 

 

By Shanny Glaston

Most of The agencies give recommendations about countries and interesting things to do on vacation, questions like:

Can I have a nonstop flight?

How long will the flight take?

Are all your documents in order?

Emulating the communication between the traveler and the agent, teachers face a dilemma to assess an invisible skill, which seems to be not important because it´s complicated to assess.

Nevertheless, as Coombe, Folse & Hubley said in their Practical Guide

”Assessing reading is a the backbone of most overall assessments. Reading is fundamental for academic success and is a major component of any type of assessment.”

At this point we consult t o our readers.

 What is reading?

Reading is the ability to translate symbols in words, sentences or furthermore; arguments and texts.

Since it is difficult to assess reading teachers have the possibility to use techniques or sub-skills that are divided in

Major: skills pertain to large segments of text that includes.

•  Reading quickly.
•  Reading carefully.
•  Reading transferring information.
•  Reading drawing inferences.

Minor: skills focus on local structure or lexical points such as:

•  Understanding components.
• Understanding different level.
•  Understanding vocabulary.

A traveler as we mention before, needs to put personal documents in order, for example passport, certification of vaccination and taxes are some of the requirements we  

should have, to go to foreign countries.

These documents travellers need to present to the agency, are comparable to the specification teachers handing to administrators:

Content: Material covered in class.

Conditions: Are the information, formats, access and time given for the test.

Grading Criteria: It base-up on how test should be graded.

 Note:

Create items that require students to think beyond information given.