Paper Example on Teacher Assessment: Key to Student Performance

A teacher is one of the people who contribute to the development of a child academic excellence. Therefore a teacher is responsible for the performance of a student. For a teacher to know or improve a student's performance, he or she applies different strategies.one of the common strategies teachers we are assessing the child. Through assessment, the teacher will be able to grade the student based on the score that will be obtained (Aufa, 2013). It will be essential for a teacher to use in an evaluation that best suits every student he or she is teaching. Additionally, the assessments to be used vary; one might decide to use an assessment written while another person may choose to use an oral assessment. The two assessments differ in the aspect of the mode used to conduct them. For my case, I have decided to use an oral assessment once I become an ESL teacher. The assessment will involve having a conversation with my learner, providing writing samples, and recording their reading errors. For the assessment to be reliable one has to consider particular elements.Steps of ENL Assessment

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

For the assessment ELLs to be reliable, it will be necessary for the teacher to know the initial performance of the student. These steps include; looking at the reading proficiency of the leaner, this will allow the teacher to see the reading capabilities of the learner. The second step is looking at the students writing ability (Rivera & Collum, 2014). The will help in knowing the grammar of the student. The third step is the student's overall grade. It is essential for the ESL teacher to understand the whole student's performance. It includes getting information from the teachers responsible for other subjects such as mathematics and sciences. Additionally, the reclassification of students will be based on the class teacher monitoring report. In case a student is finding it difficult in academics, he or she will have to be enrolled.

In every assessment, there are vital factors that the assessment instrument should possess for it to be considered of good quality. The tools used by the teacher can be either formal or informal. An example of an essential indicator of a good instrument is its validity. The instrument should evaluate what is meant to assess (Aufa, 2013). The instrument used should fair and not discriminate based on ethnicity background or favour others. Additionally, the instrument used should be feasible; this means it should be practicable, in that the available resources will be able to fund it. Although a tool might have excellent quality, it does not mean it lacks its advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage of assessing ELLs is essential in helping the teacher decide how to help a student improve. The assessment also informs the students of his or her responsibility as a student. The assessment also gives the ELL student immediate feedback which is essential towards helping the student improve. Although of the advantages, the assessment also has its limitations (Rivera & Collum, 2014). A good example is that the student might not be able to demonstrate what he or she knows due to the issue of limited experience with the test. This will result in cases of anxiety to the student since he or she will fear to be incapable of demonstrating his or her proficiency in English. Additionally, the assessment might not be fair since it does not consider the level of the student's ability. Lastly, a teacher might have a hard time during administering, scoring, and interpreting results in case he or she did not design the assessment.

It is essential for a teacher not to assume that all the students are the same. The students vary especially when it comes to ELL. Some students might be gifted; others might have language difference while others require special needs education. It will be therefore necessary for the teacher to distinguish these learners. In my case of assessment, the best way for identifying leaners is by giving them a standardized test the test will allow me to know the students level at the moment. Additionally looking at the past performance in English proficiency will enable me to evaluate the level of the students in terms of well proficient, intermediate proficient as well as limited proficiency in English. Through these steps, I will be able to categorize the children.

Teachers often use different type of assessments for their students. For example, a teacher might decide to use criterion referenced and norm reference assessment. Criterion reference assessment involves assessing the students using a fixed set learning standard. In the case of ELLs, a fixed standard will be how a student can read compared to the fixed standard. This form of assessment is not that reliable since it will not adequately reflect on the student level of knowledge. On the other hand, the norm reference assessment involves comparing children scores (Rivera & Collum, 2014). For the case of ELLs, comparing the student's proficiency in reading will be an example of the norm reference assessment. Despite the two types of evaluations yielding results, their reliability is not that accurate as well as their validity.

Performance-based assessment is suitable for assessment when it comes to ELLs. It involves a student doing a specific task based on what he or she has learned in class. The student is permitted to develop his or her response rather than choosing from a list of reactions developed for them (Aufa, 2013). Additionally, the teacher can learn more about the strength and weaknesses of the learner from the obtained portfolios, classroom observation checklist, and recordings. All these documents are obtained during the assessment. From the obtained result the teacher will be able to know how to improve the students' performance since he or she has the progress of the learner.

The best way to learn English is through content area learning. But to know content learning has taken place there is a need for assessment. Assessment of content area learning involves various techniques. They include writing it out. Writing applies to any subject when assessing content area learning. Reading learners writing will give an excellent clear picture of what the student knows as well as where their weaknesses might be. Additionally taking of notes on clipboards and rubrics is another good technique for assessing content area learning. It allows the teacher to keep track of the students' knowledge. As a result, the teacher will be able to know where the student needs improvement.

Communicative competence and language skills are essential to ELLs. It is, therefore, necessary for the teacher to assess the two. A good way a teacher can determine the language skills of a student is by use of a rubric to evaluate their language skills. The rubric will give a clear summary of the level of the student's language skills. Also use of checklist will be another excellent way of assessing the student's language skills. On the other hand, communicative competence of the learner will be well evaluated according to how the student communicates with others (Aufa, 2013). Additionally, a teacher can involve the student in a conversation and record the conversation. Based on the teachers understanding after hearing the interview, he or she will be able to grade the student.

For one to be able to assess his or her weaknesses, it will require the help and guidance of the instructor. One way an instructor can prepare the students for self and peer assessment is by having a practice session where instructions for evaluation in a particular area are given. The teacher also can help prepare the students by allowing them to set their objectives. With one having his or her objective self-assessment will be more comfortable. Lastly, it will be good for the teacher to give immediate feedback to the student. The feedback will allow the student to know where to improve.

The most common way teachers prefer to assess is by the use of a rubric. A rubric is a document explaining the criteria the teacher is using to grade the students. For a teacher who is assessing the student's language development in a classroom, he or she can develop a rubric containing the following language domain (Rivera & Collum, 2014). An oral field which looks at listening and speaking skills, a literacy domain which looks at the reading and writing skills, a productive language domain which looks at the reading as well as speaking techniques, and lastly a receptive domain which looks at listening and reading skills. A rubric makes the teacher work easier during an assessment.

Teachers often assess for a reason. The main purposes for assessment are to enable the teacher to improve on his or her teaching methods as well as the students' performance. Additionally, assessment gives reasonable feedback will allow both the teacher and the learner know the next learning step to take. Assessment can be used by the teacher to plan for future strategies for the improvement of the student's performance (Aufa, 2013). Lastly, the teacher can use a variety of assessment to improve the learner's performance, as well as the teachers, own improvement. For example, the teacher can use self-assessment to evaluate his or her performance.

Conclusion

ENL, or English as a Native Language, is a popular style of classroom teaching where students come together to improve on their English. Bilingual classrooms differ from ESL classes in distinct ways. Students in a bilingual classroom all speak the same native tongue, as does their teacher. Because students of all different languages, from Spanish to Tagalog to Mandarin, can come together in an ESL classroom, the teacher speaks only English since there is no way for them to know the languages of all students. In addition, ENL classrooms focus first and foremost on teacher students English, while bilingual classrooms give instruction in both languages.

References

Aufa, F. (2013). The assessment tool of L2 learners' pragmatic competence: Written discourse completion test (WDCT). UII Journal of English and Education, 6(1).

Rivera, C., & Collum, E. (2014). State assessment policy and practice for English language learners: A national perspective. Routledge.