Evaluation/assessment

•Hi everyone• Hope you are all doing well, since we are no longer in lockdown all the time. 

Let’s have a look on this weeks’ topic. As we know, assessment is a key feature of today’s educational system. It is a way to compare students’ improvement throughout a period of time. We, as teachers, use assessment to gather information about students progress and to make judgements about their process of learning. The purpose of this is to reflect on student’s improvement, to see how have they improved their language skills and to customize their teaching plans.  

Students need assessment. Im saying this because of my personal experience. I always needed my teacher’s opinion or judgement in a specific situation, it encouraged me to work harder and to improve my learning skills. That assessment is so important is very obvious, but the real question is why it is so necessary? Okay, here we go, because there are so many answers to this question:

1. The teacher uses assessment to check students understanding using formative assessments. 
2. Students may encounter difficulties while learning, and a well constructed  diagnostic test can be very helpful in this case. The teacher will be able to detect the problems that may be numerous. For example, reading comprehension problem or inability to memorize written and spoken words and many more problems that may arise from moment to moment. 
3. Also the teacher can use assessment to determine student’s level of achievement and to give feedback on their weaknesses or strengths. This will encourage the students, for sure.
4. Self-assessment is another reason. Students need to express what they think about the process of learning, and what should they do to improve. Also peer assessment helps them to compare and get information from classmates on what to revise and what areas they are good at. 

There are so many ways to assess students’ achievements. The teacher only needs to find out the best one for her/his students. Here are some examples:

1. Open book exams. Students can use books or notes that help the students to memorize the information. Also they are very entertaining and less anxious for the students.
2. Take home exams. Some tasks take more than a regular class to complete, that’s why students need to use different variaties of referents. 
3. Performance tests. In this kind of tests students are required to complete a specific task or a performance or to create a product in which they need to apply their knowledge that they have learned. The teacher needs to observe and to evaluate all this process. Regular tests are time consuming and are very difficult to assess but performance tests are the perfect ones. 
4. Student portfolios. Many teachers use this method in which they ask the students to complete some class assignments. Mostly are written works, but they may include other works as well. They require a more specific viewing of students achievements in a specific period of time. 

The above information show how important is assessment in the class. It has various functions and the teacher can use different methods to assess the students. The teachers only need to observe the students achievements, and to help them when they may encounter difficulties. Just choose your favorite  method and the students will improve their learning process. Be patient and everything will be just as you like.

Thank you for your time and feel free to speak your mind in the comment section. I would appreciate it if you have any suggestion for me!

STAY POSITIVE :)