Seminar on “Preparation for School-based Assessment of 2007 CE English 2 nd July 2005 Sharing of the Trial Experience – Rosaryhill School (Mr. Ricky Lam)

Trialling Experience I have tried the new SBA component twice in the second term of the school year 2004 – The first trialling experience was integrated into an action research called “Students’ perceptions of the implementation of portfolio assessment in language classroom”. The target group is the S.4 students of average ability. I ran a series of writing workshops and teacher- student conferences to motivate Ss to write multiple drafts of their essays in February and March.

Trialling Experience After Ss wrote their final drafts and reflective essays, they had to prepare for their individual presentations based upon the essay they had drafted. After their presentations, they submitted their writing portfolios to me.

Reflection The individual presentation is part of the final product Ss produced for their portfolios, so it does not intrude the whole learning process. The assessment task – oral presentation – is also a part of the learning process. It comes so naturally! Ss can be engaged more in their learning tasks through SBA and they may build up a sense of ownership towards their learning easily. Ss are no longer limited and confined by the one-off traditional assessment which may affect their performance.

Reflection The assessment task is also very authentic in terms of genres or contents as Ss were free to choose whatever genres and topics they wanted to put into their writing portfolios. Integration of learning, teaching and assessment can be achieved through implementing the SBA component. Learning TeachingAssessment

Reflection The washback effect of SBA can make Ss put more effort on improving their spoken proficiency of the target language. Both the learning task and assessment task help arouse Ss interest in learning as they are less frightening and intimidating.

Trialling Experience The second trialling experience was part of the Ss Easter holiday assignment. I asked my S.4 Ss to select a fiction or a film which they like most from the SBA recommended list to read or to view during the Easter Holiday. After the holiday, Ss needed to hand in a 300- word film review or book review based upon the printed or non-printed text they read or viewed during the holiday as one of the assignments.

Trialling Experience Then, Ss were asked to form groups of four to talk about their films or books they had viewed or read. They were, in the meantime, given an assessment task to prepare for their group interactions. The assessment task is to ask Ss to think of a character or a short segment of the film or the book with which they were familiar. After that, they need to think of a gift for the character to help solve his/ her problems, change his/her attitudes or improve his/her life conditions.

Trialling Experience After revisiting the book or the film, Ss brainstormed and discussed what kind of gift they bought for the character who was in a dilemma. Each group presentation lasted about 6 to 8 minutes. All the presentations were video-taped for the purpose of peer evaluation to be conducted afterwards.

The Sample SBA Group Interaction The group that I am going to show you has Vivian, Jessie, Maggie and Katie (their seating arrangement is from your left to your right.) Vivian viewed the movie ‘My Fair Lady’ and the rest viewed the “Bend it Like Beckham”. Now, let’s see how my students did their group interaction. group interaction

Judging criteria There are four areas I judged my Ss performance: 1. Pronunciation and delivery 2. Interaction 3. Vocabulary and language patterns 4. Ideas and organization

How does the assessment task influence my daily teaching? More emphasis on reading and speaking In line with the department policy that speaking should occupy half of the class time More student talk and less teacher talk More support and input given to Ss so that their learning can be facilitated More focus on speaking skills such as turn- taking, negotiation skills, self-correcting strategies, etc.

Students’ Feedback In order to know how Ss feel about the SBA assessment task, a focused group interview was carried out in June.focused group interview

Students’ Feedback The assessment task was manageable. Ss liked to work with their partners. Ss could get the mutual support in preparing the task. Ss learnt how to cooperate with others. Ss learnt the speaking strategies such as reading aloud and having more eye contacts. Ss could be engaged more in the task. Ss had more autonomy in their own learning.

Comments from the peer evaluation I played the video clip in the class and asked other students to evaluate their peers’ performance. The following is some comments they gave to their classmates: “Jessie did very well, her pronunciation is quite clear and she spoke naturally. The grammatical accuracy is also good, but the content is not abundant. In the group, she should speak to each other and she should not read from the paper.” By Carmen Tsui

Comments from the peer evaluation “Vivian had done a good job in the discussion. She spoke loudly and fluently, but not clearly. It is because she spoke too fast. During the discussion, she had eye contact all the time and the content she presented was so rich. Her grammar is also very good.” By Charlotte Kwok “Maggie spoke seriously and discussed thoroughly. She always smiled and acted naturally. Her voice was so clear that I can listen to every word she said easily.” By David Li

Reflection The SBA component is actually part of our daily routine, not something new. The learning task and the assessment task can become one. Ss can be really engaged in authentic tasks. Teachers do not have extra workload. Independent learning can be fostered with this kind of alternative assessment.

Implications The SBA component in the CE English is highly contextualized in a sense that teachers can choose the texts that suit their learners’ abilities and the assessment tasks can be negotiable based upon the needs of the learners. According to Chu (2002: 7), “students can experience meaningful learning from cooperating with others on authentic tasks.” This quote captures the quintessence of the SBA component.

Thank You Very Much