A.J. Lobo

The same day we developed some other activities, for example, we participated in the activity called the Exhibition Activity in which we exhibit the work we did the last class that consisted in creating a lesson plan with its corresponding assessing strategy. My classmate Tatiana and I developed a lesson about Holidays. This lesson contained its objective, procedures and its assessing activity. Moreover, we also discussed in groups topics related to the type of assessment such as Classroom-Based, Performance-based, and Alternative. Classroom-based assessment offers an opportunity to teachers and students to make reflections about the student’s learners and ways it can be improved. In this sense, teachers can adjust or make decisions about the methodologies of instructions so that students may succeed in the learning process. One thing to notice is the importance of assessing students according to what they have studied and practiced in the classroom.

On the third class session, we discussed some interesting topics. One of them was about standard-based assessment. What I find really important in this issue is that standard-based assessment results beneficial for students in the sense that it lets them know the criteria by which their performance or work will be evaluated. Besides, standard-based assessment allows teachers to have a route of work, that is, the standards will guide teachers through the whole process of teaching. Consequently, the content and pedagogical activities are designed to meet the learners’ need toward a specific goal or set of goals. It can be said that every standard is compound by a series of other elements or criteria that students need to accomplish in order to reach that standard. In this type of assessment, teachers have to be aware that all students should be actively engaged. When I started listening and reading about standard-based assessment, I just thought about the education in my country and I wonder to what extent teachers are familiarized with this issue of essential importance. Probably, our Panamanian educational system has most of this philosophy written in paper, but are our teachers really putting them into practice? To what extent are teachers trained to meet these parameters?

On Saturday 0, I learned several things that enriched my knowledge regarding assessment. One of those things I learned is the importance of the purpose in the assessing strategies or tools that we use. For example, although there may be distinctive characteristics about summative and formative assessment, the purpose of each of them is what makes them formative or summative. That is, if the assessment is formative, it will look for the reviewing of the students’ progress, that is, this type of assessment will result in valuable information to plan the next activities of assessment. On the other hand, a summative assessment provides teachers and students with concrete evidences of the knowledge of the students in a given moment in order to make comparisons of the students’ learning.

After developing the test in groups, we discussed the different suggestions and recommendations about the test we created. I liked this exercise because receiving feedback about the different activities we do as teachers is always relevant in order to improve. As teachers it is important to get feedback even from our students since they are the main protagonists of the learning process. In this case, we received feedback from our colleagues which is also very essential due to the fact that they may have some other knowledge that would benefit our own experience. Thus, I can say that having a second or third opinion about our work is always positive because we could grow and, above all, improve. According to the analysis made by our colleagues, the test we designed was very difficult to solve and lacked some principles that could have made it more adequate. Our test required that students put into practice the principles giving examples from the real life, so the students had to use higher thinking skills.

Having knowledge about the principles of assessment is not enough, it is necessary to put them into practice to master their implementation. So, the classroom was divided by the professor into several groups of four students whose task was to create a test in which they could implement or put into action the principles of assessment we just discussed earlier. Besides, designing the test, the test was shared with other groups which had to answer it. After that, a test analysis of each test was done by each group. I think it was interesting to see how each test was "tested" according to the principles. This practice was good because it gave me a better understanding of what happens when we as teachers don’t pay attention to the theory we have at hand to improve our work. I could see how many principles were overlooked in each test. Now with this new framework regarding assessment, I can design better tests to assess my students. Another important fact about the test analysis is that every group received feedback, recommendations and suggestions to put into practice in future performances.

The first day of classes, we developed different activities in which we discussed the fundamental principles of assessing second language learning. Those principles are validity, reliability, practicality, equivalency, and washback. It is very important to know each of these principles in order to have a better understanding of how assessment works when it is planned effectively. It should be said that probably not all the types of assessment comply with these principles, however, we as teachers should be aware of taking them into account when planning any assessing tool in the classroom.

On august 13th, we developed some activities that I really enjoyed. For example, first of all, we carried out a warm-up activity in which we had to group ourselves with two classmates and try to guess if some statements written by our classmates were true or false. I think this types of activities are interesting, because there are times in which we share for a long time with people, however we know very little about them, so I consider it was great to try to know more about each other. Thus, having a comfortable environment and establishing a good rapport with other colleagues or classmates in the classroom is beneficial for reaching out the goals of any course. It is fantastic to see how necessary it is to feel relaxed and comfortable in a place where all the people are willing to increase their knowledge through the interaction with others.

One of the first things I learned during the development of the Assessment in Tesol Course was the differentiation that was made among the terms testing, assessment and evaluation during the discussion we had on Schoology. After reading the different articles about these topics, I realized that I was putting much more emphasis on testing rather than on assessment and evaluation. It is very necessary for teachers to know the difference of the three terms in order to have a better understanding of the whole process of assessment. I think many teachers overlook the importance and function of each construct because there is a confusion and people tend to think that these terms mean the same. Consequently, when people talk about assessment, everybody thinks of testing, that is, the way teachers quantify the students’ learning, for example, through a written exercise. Thus, teachers should be interested in knowing more about these types of assessment to carry out a better work in the classroom.

This e-portfolio represents the journey of four weeks of learning about Assessment. Assessment is one of the most important phases of the learning process because in this phase we as teachers can see how much learning our students have assimilated during the whole process. This e-portfolio offers a review of the main points studied and discussed during the course. The e-portfolio has been divided into several sections for a better navigation of the web. For example, at the top of the e-portfolio you will see the menu with the sections Index, Introduction, Session 1, Session 2 , Session 3, Conclusion, Resources, and Feedback.

I can finally say that this course has taught me different things about assessment. Things that I really didn't now and I hope to put into practice. As I said in other sections, assessment is one of the main phases of the learning process because it helps the teachers to improve their pedagogical practices and to lead our students to progress and achievement. Certainly, we need to continue growing in this field of knowledge every day. Thank you very much!

LET'S GET STARTED... Hello dear visitors! This is my E-Portfolio in which I'm going to share some of the evidences that show some of my understanding and knowledge about the experience of taking this interesting course on Assessment in TESOL. Thank you very much for being here and for providing me feedback about any of the artifacts, reflections or any other element found in this site.