As Brown clearly stated in the first chapter of his book Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices (2000), tests are only a tool to assess students' performance, but they do not represent the only form of assessment that a teacher can make. A couple of weeks ago I decided I would try something different in my class. I came up with an idea to evaluate the topic concerning daily routines. I opted for designing a test (yeah, I know, not very creative...), but I chose to give it a little twist by adding some questions my students would have to answer by watching a short and simple video. In my mind it was such a good idea, but I started questioning if my choice would cause more harm than good after some of my students showed confused when answering the questions I had prepared.
Did I fail? Did I succeed? Well, it was my first attempt, and as most first times, it did not result in a complete triumph.
According to Brown (2000), "A well-constructed test is an instrument that provides an accurate measure of the test-taker's ability within a particular domain". He also makes reference to the complexity of creating a good test, which he believes involves both science and art. I think many of my classmates would agree with the fact that being creative does not always come easily to some of us. As being artistic is considered a gift, some people actually have to invest a greater ammount of time and effort to cope up with the demands and challenges that being an amazing teacher brings.
Several questions arise as we go deeper into the topic of assessment: What is the best way to assess my students' performance? How can I avoid psychologically scaring low performing students? However, the main query that pops out in my mind is how to succeed at implementing different tools when assessing a topic? For now this questions remain without an answer. Hopefully, time and experience will show me the answers I need.
I think that nobody has actually said that a teacher's job was easy; we have to come up with innovative ideas to suit our students' expectations or at least, to catch their interest during the class. But the fact of being creative doesn't lead to think up definite strategies or activities; they already exist but we do not have a look at the authors that have preserved those for us. That's our job, to take them and transform them into more eye-catching and interesting ones for our students.
ReplyDeleteBeing a teacher is a profession that involves a combination of multiple attributes, including creativity, cleverness, and leadership, all these is needed to have succeed in creating that spark in our students that insentive them to learn. Evaluation is one of those challenges that we face daily as teachers, is there when we bring out all our best skills and ingenuity to find the best ways to evaluate them. it is not something that is acquired, we are human we work with humans and we are changing constantly, for this reason we shouldn't settle with what is already established. we must create, try and learn how to evaluate our students.
ReplyDeleteI think that the most important thing is that you tried something different and that you perceived evaluation as a tool and not as a strict way to see your students' process. You are rgiht when you say that not all of us have the same gift of creativity, but that is one of the main reasons this profession is so exciting, because you need to improve your own skills and you need to assess yourself. Thanks Mayra for sharing your experience and maybe all together can find the answer to the question you wonder and so many other questions that daily appear.
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