1. Modern Foreign Languages PGDipEd, UB
Assessment
Modern Foreign Languages PGDipEd, UB

2. Assessment – general considerations
Jargon buster
What is it? Why assess?
What? Who? When? How? Why/what for?
Learning Opportunity
Assessment
Feedback / Reflection
Planning

3. Nine stages of the assessment process
Decide on what learning objectives are to be assessed
Decide on the type of assessment
Define the criteria to be used in relation to the planned learning outcomes/objectives
Select tasks from the teaching material suitable for assessment purposes and/or design tasks reflecting the types of teaching materials used
Collect evidence
Pass judgement
Record the data
Report the data
Review and evaluate the assessment process and outcomes
Pachler N. and Field K. (2001) Learning to teach Modern Foreign Languages in Secondary Schools RoutledgeFalmer

4. Assessment of Learning (Summative)
Q&As
Tasks with a (recorded) mark
Tests
End of Unit tests
National tests
Exams

5. What do you know?
Name as many national tests and qualifications as you know that children aged can/have to take in England?
Curriculum and qualifications – considerations
Topics
Grades

6. Qualifications GCSE NVQs A level BTEC AS level Diploma IB FCSE IGCSE
... and tests:
SATs and CATs
FCSE
IGCSE
Apprenticeship
Vocational GCSE
Vocational A-level
Range of content, assessment, grades, etc.
National Qualifications Framework, NQF
BTEC may refer to: Business And Technology Education Council
CAT cognitive ability test (verbal, non-verbal, numerical)
SAT standard assessment test (maths, english, science)

7. Language Qualifications
GCSE
FCSE
IGCSE
AS/A level IB
NVQs
CBLC, etc.
Asset Languages
European Language Portfolio
Certificate in Business Language Competence
See: languages qualifications (CILT)

8. New NC
What information is there in the new NC on assessment?

9. Assessment for Learning (Formative)
Based on research, primarily from King’s College, London:
‘AfL is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there’. Assessment Reform Group (2002)
See also: Black, P and Wiliam, D Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment (1998)

10. Assessment for learning should:
be part of effective planning of teaching and learning;
focus on how students learn;
be recognised as central to classroom practice;
be regarded as a key professional skill for teachers;
be sensitive and constructive because any assessment has an emotional impact;
take account of the importance of learner motivation;
promote commitment to learning goals and a shared understanding of the criteria by which they are assessed;
receive constructive guidance about how to improve;
develop learners' capacity for self-assessment so that they can become reflective and self-managing;
recognise the full range of achievements of all learners.
Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency

11. Principles of AfL Clear objectives Clear reasons for learning
Clear criteria for success
Objectives and criteria shared
Modelling good performance and supporting progress
Thoughtful, useful, constructive feedback
Mistakes are used to provide insight into the pupil’s thinking, and take the learning forward
Target setting and monitoring
Pupil engagement in the assessment process

12. Assessment in MFL Some considerations for MFL teachers:
Purpose - what are we assessing?
Mixed skill assessment?
Assessing speaking skills
Error correction *
Assessment in the TL?
Homework: setting it and marking it
Keeping records

13. Marking and feedback challenge
Am Samstag spielet Mein Bruder Markus vier Uhren Fußbal.
J’ai allé au picine, et après je mangé dans le caféteria.
Ayer fuí a playa a con mi amigos, y era bien.

14. AfL – key general techniques
Pupil involvement
Questioning
Sharing criteria
Self-assessment
Peer-assessment
Formative use of summative tests
Feedback - what does good feedback look like? *

15. Questions, questions, questions!
What and how to assess?
What criteria to use?
How to design assessment task / identify opportunity?
What to mark, what to leave out? What constitutes good performance?
To give feedback? Will it be in the TL or in English?
How to involve pupils?
What to record?
How to record it?
How to monitor progress?
How to report on progress?
Evaluate assessment process and outcomes