Do teachers meet the minimum standards?

Hi Everybody!

In this entry I discuss the importance of setting standards of competence for English Teachers.

Brown suggested that in the same way that there exist standards that describe the competences of language learners; there are also standards for teachers. He stated that those standards have to do with the teacher’s linguistic and language development, culture and the interrelationship between language and culture, and the planning and managing of instruction.

Let’s consider the case of those teachers that joined the public sector before the process process known as “concurso docente”was implemented. From my experiences in high school I can say that most of my English teachers would have score very low if they would have been evaluated according to the criteria Brown proposes. 

Do you know of any ways in which those teachers who have been in the profession for more than 15 years are evaluated? I’ve heard of many cases (specially in rural areas) of teachers that have been working for a very long time and never got any degree apart from the high school diploma they obtained 20 years ago. Why do u think this happens? In which ways it affects the quality of instruction? What could the ministry of education do about it?

It is all about common sense!

Hi everyone! This entry is about Chapter 11: Assembling and Scoring Tests.

While reading the chapter I came to realize that the authors we´ve read had provided such a comprehensive explanation of all the concepts related to assessment, that every new concept they explain rings a bell and relates to something else.  To be honest, that made the chapter a little repetitive; however, I consider that thinking those concepts over and over again led me to conclude that what Genesee and Upshur are trying to emphasize this time is that at the end of the day the best advice they can give to teachers is to follow their common sense.  

Teachers need lots of common sense for every decision they make. I looked up the meaning of the word and the dictionary says that it is “the ability to behave in a sensible way and make practical decisions”. It sounds very straightforward in the definition but let’s face it, it is not so easy when you try to put that into practice. When it comes to designing tests, we need common sense to know how to limit the time for each of the language skills; how to provide instructions which are clear enough so that they don´t interfere in students showing what they really know; how to come up with different sources of data so that we can triangulate test results; and finally, how to order test items in a way that is beneficial to most students.

So the question is, how can we develop that common sense? I think the best way of doing it is by “being aware” and that implies mastering all the concepts related to assessment and also knowing ours students learning styles and needs. What do you think? Did you feel the same while reading the chapter? Do you consider that common sense is important? If so, why?

My Rating Scale

Hi everybody!

Do you remember the activity we had in class the other day in which we had to make a rating scale?, well, this entry is my attempt to make a rating scale for assessing reading.

I thought how difficult it is for me to give my students feedback on reading comprehension exercises. What I usually do is to do something else while they read and then, when they are finished, check groupal answers. I think that from now on, I could take advantage of that time to assess my students, specially those who have difficulties in this type of tasks.

I would like to invite you to take a look of the rating scale and let me know what you think. Please feel free to share the ones of your own so we can all disscuss them.  Thanks!!!

1. The student stays focused during the reading activity.  1   2   3   4

2. The student takes time to read the complete text and then each paragraph more in detail.  1   2   3   4

3. The student identifies possible cognates.  1   2   3   4

4. The student identifies unknown words. 1   2   3   4

5. The student uses the dictionary when needed. 1   2   3   4

6. The student identifies linking words and their respective functions. 1   2   3   4

Observation in the classroom

Before reading chapter 5 of Brown’s book I used to focus my classroom observations on analyzing the extent to which my students had attained specific learning objectives. For me it was a matter of paying attention to who of them had and had not completed a task successfully, or had learned something with ease or difficulty.

Now that I have read about the topic I have come to realize that observations are excellent tools for assessing not only what my students have and have not learned, but also my own teaching strategies.

Brown suggests that in order for observations to be effective and reliable they must have a specific objective, be recorded and kept in an organized way, and occur frequently. I remember that in many of the occasions in which I attempted to record my observations I was not even close to do any of those things.  First of all, I did not have clear objectives. The second mistake was that I just used to take random notes which I almost never used again because they didn´t make any sense, maybe the reason for that was that my observations  lacked coherence and details such as the what, why, when and who. On top of that, I wasn´t very consistent so at the end I stopped doing them (oops, I failed! L ). 

Well, the good thing is that now I have a clearer idea of what classroom observations are, how useful they are for improving our students learning and our teaching practices, and also of the things I have to take into account for making them effective and reliable ways of assessment. What was your experience?,  has it happened the same to you?

The Enigmatic Reading Process

Reflecting on Brown’s suggestions I’ve come to realize that in most of the cases I’ve given my students poorly designed, multiple-choice, non-illustrated reading tests expecting them to answer the questions correctly.

I have to admit that I don’t usually ask myself if their answers in the tests are carefully thought or just guessed. In my defense I have to say that it is not because I don’t care about their learning process, but because I tend to forget that reading is a very complex skill and that its tasks need to be very well designed, applied and assessed.    

In order to explain the complexity of the reading process I will compare it with doing magic. One may think that reading is as easy as putting words into sentences, throwing them into a magic box and then with the help of the magic powder...voilà!, in the blink of an eye you have the outcome you are expecting, which in this case is not the cute bunny but the specific reading performance that you want to assess.

You may say, come on!, That is not new, everybody knows there are always secrets behind magic. Well, the same happens with reading, there are so many things happening into our students’ brain, but we only get to see the outcome.

The trick's success depends on how well that “mysterious” process is made. In our particular case, our reading comprehension depends on how well we use our linguistic knowledge which involves morphological, syntactic, lexical and semantic knowledge.

Our role as teachers shouldn’t be limited to just being spectators who only watch for the outcome (answers to test questions), we should care about what happens behind the visible. In order to do this we have to teach our students strategies so that they can improve their reading comprehension, and during reading tasks we should provide them with the necessary input for them to activate all their knowledge and fuel their brain’s engine so it starts working.

Just like in any other skill, practice makes perfect, so I invite you to spend more time doing meaningful reading tasks during your English classes. 

Should we ask “do you speak English?” or “do you understand and speak English?”

Human communication takes place when there is an exchange of thoughts, messages, or information between two people: a sender and a receiver. Such exchange occurs between the participants (with or without the receiver being present of aware of the senders intent to communicate) by means of speech, visuals, signals, writing, or behavior.

When we communicate orally, our listening, and speaking skills are essential. In the language teaching field these two aspects of the language are also interrelated. However, when it comes to assessment, Brown (2000) suggested that “listening has often played second fiddle to its counterpart, speaking” as can be seen in the emphasis that exists on speaking rather than on listening in the standardized testing industry. 

Brown’s comments on this matter made me think of the many occasions in which I have unconsciously supported what he calls a “universal bias toward speaking”. I have to admit that I have sometimes underestimated the importance of designing listening assessment tasks that will give my students the positive washback they need.

Assessing listening should be more than a way of telling if students have heard correctly or not. Listening goes beyond recognizing speech sounds and therefore, its assessment tasks should be designed according to the different types of performance that we want students to achieve such as the intensive, responsive, selective and extensive listening performance.

        To conclude I would like to invite you to consider Brown’s words the next time you plan your lessons and assess your students. By doing so, I hope your students receive the proper input, practice and assessment to improve not only their listening performance but all the other aspects of the language learning process.

        Good listening comprehension abilities are prerequisites for good oral production, so the next time you ask people about their proficiency in English don’t forget that what you really want to know is if they can UNDERSTAND as well as speak English. 

Introduction to Evaluation

Classroom-based Evaluation in Second Language Education

Second language evaluation involves taking many kinds of decisions. Decisions about many different aspects of teaching and learning such as the placement of students in a particular level, the units of instruction, the instructional objectives and plans, the homework, the materials used in class, etc.

In many of the cases teachers are in charge of making the decisions; sometimes they collect the information for others to make the decisions; or sometimes they help others make the decision by offering interpretations of students' performance. However, teachers are not the only participants in evaluation; parents, other teachers, non-instructional educational professionals (counselors and remedial specialists), and students also play an important role in the evaluation process.

Second language evaluation relies on many different kinds of information about students achievement, their behavior in class, their attitude towards school or themselves, their goals and needs, and their work habits, learning styles and strategies, etc. These types of information can be gathered through tests, observation of the students behavior, students comments during individual conferences, or through entries in students' journals.

Before making any decision it is necessary to identify the purpose or purposes for collecting evaluative information. Depending on the nature of the purpose there is specific information needed and a particular method of data collection. Once the information has been collected, it has to be interpreted in order for it to be meaningful so that it can be analyzed to make the final decisions. To sum up it can be said that classroom-based evaluation has three essential components: information, interpretation, and decision making.