English teaching talks – Assessing learning

English teaching talks – Assessing learning

In this series of six short videos, Richard Spiby and Carolyn Westbrook explore assessment and how it can help learners reflect their abilities and guide them in their learning. They explain how to effectively integrate both formative and summative assessment of reading, listening, speaking, writing and integrated skills, and give practical examples to help teachers:

• identify which reading or listening skills we want to assess and choose suitable texts and tasks for assessing them
• design real-life speaking tasks and rating scales to assess how our learners communicate
• design motivating writing tasks and appropriate rating scales for assessing writing
• consider what exactly we want to assess in an integrated skills task.

For each video in the series, there are some questions for you to reflect on and discuss with colleagues if possible.

Pre-viewing task

Before you watch the videos, think about the questions below. If you are using this resource as part of your professional development in your institution, discuss the questions below with your colleagues.

1. What percentage of your time is spent on assessment? Why do we spend so long assessing our learners?
2. KWL: Choose one of the bullet points above. What do you know about this topic? What do you want to know? After watching the videos, you can come back to this and add what you have learned. 

Part 1: Why do we assess learning?

In this first video, Richard and Carolyn explain why assessing learning is important for both learners and teachers.

Before viewing

• Why is it important to assess our learners? Brainstorm some ideas with your colleagues or on your own. 

While viewing 

• What are the main differences between formative and summative assessments?
• What examples does Richard give?

Watch Why do we assess learning?

After viewing

• How are formative and summative assessment combined in your current teaching context? Do they effectively support your learners? Why or why not?

Part 2: How to assess reading

In this video, Richard talks about the different skills involved in reading and the types of texts and tasks we can use to assess our learners' reading.

Before viewing

• What should we think about when choosing reading texts to assess our learners? Discuss with a colleague if possible or make your own notes.

While viewing

• Richard mentions several factors to consider when selecting reading texts for assessment. Do his ideas match with yours? Why or why not?

Watch How to assess reading

After viewing

Richard mentions several different question types.

• Which do you use to assess your learners?
• Do you experience the same advantages and disadvantages he describes?

Part 3: How to assess listening

In this video, Carolyn talks about the different skills involved in listening, and the type of texts and tasks we can use to assess our learners' reading.

Before viewing

• What do your learners find difficult about listening tasks? If you can, discuss this with a colleague, or make some notes yourself.

While viewing

• What listening skills does Carolyn mention and which does she say are the most challenging for learners? Does this match your experience?

Watch How to assess listening

After viewing

• What question types does Carolyn recommend? Are these the types of questions you use?  

Part 4: How to assess speaking 

In this video, Richard talks about the importance of assessing speaking in the classroom and provides examples of tasks that can help with your assessment.

Before viewing

• What challenges do you experience when assessing speaking?

While viewing

Richard talks about designing speaking assessments using:

• a teacher–learner interview
• a monologue (presentation)
• tasks for pairs/groups of learners. 

What are the most important factors to consider with each of these types? Make notes about what Richard says about each one.

Watch How to assess speaking

After viewing

• Which of the different types of speaking assessment have you used before? Which might you try?

Richard says that speaking assessments are a good opportunity for peer and self-assessment to help learners identify what makes a good speaking performance. 

• Do you ever ask learners to do peer or self-assessment? 
• Would you like to try this type of assessment?

Part 5: How to assess writing

In this video, Carolyn talks about how to assess writing and the importance of setting meaningful, appropriate and relevant writing assessment tasks.

Before viewing

• Do your learners like doing writing tasks? Why or why not? 
• How can we design assessment tasks that will motivate them?

While viewing

• According to Carolyn, what do we need to consider to ensure that our learners are well prepared for writing assessments?

Watch How to assess writing

After viewing

Carolyn also talks about marking criteria. 

• How are rating scales designed in your context? 
• How do you define success in a task?

Part 6: How to assess integrated skills

In the final video in this series, Carolyn talks about the importance of assessing multiple language skills at a time, providing ideas for tasks and advising on the areas to assess.

Before viewing 

• What assessment tasks could you give your learners that would integrate two or more skills? Can you share some examples that you use?

While viewing

• What areas does Carolyn say can be assessed with integrated tasks?   
• Why are both output and input important?

Watch How to assess integrated skills

After viewing

• Which of the ideas from the video could you use for assessing integrated skills?

 Reflection 

• KWL: In the pre-viewing task, you chose one of the bullet points and answered the questions: What do you know about this topic? What do you want to know? Now you have watched the video, add what you have learned. 
• What are you going to do differently after watching these videos?