Continuous Assessment Overview Goals of Continuous Assessment CA

Continuous Assessment Overview

Goals of Continuous Assessment (CA) ü to promote student participation & engagement with their own course content ü to use assessment to reinforce and extend learning, i. e. , assessment acts as the learning tool ü to utilize formative assessment practices

Goals of CA (cont. ) ü to allow for the production & assessment of contextualized, communicative tasks ü to promote the regular provision and uptake of individualized feedback to students regarding their performance ü to foster students’ motivation

CA Task Distribution CA Task Weighting 1 five-week long process writing (PW) task 5% 1 reading comprehension quiz 4% 1 dictation quiz 4% Class participation assessed over an 8 -week period 2% Total 15%

CA Semester 2 Schedule CA Task Process Writing Dates of Assessment W 3 – W 7 : 11/02/2012 – 14/03/2012 Reading quiz W 11 : 14/04/2012 Quiz on Sat. Make-up on Tues. Dictation quiz W 12 : 21/04/2012 Quiz on Sat. Make-up on Tues. Participation W 4 – W 7 : (18/02 – 14/03) W 10 – W 13 : (7/04 – 2/05)

Teacher 1 • Teacher 1 is responsible for the accurate delivery of the CA program this semester

Elements of the CA program 1. Process Writing Task 2. Quizzes 3. Class Participation

Process Writing Task • Designed specifically to develop students’ writing skills by providing them multiple opportunities to both receive and provide structured feedback • Details of this task covered in following presentation

Quizzes • • Level-based In-class Timed Two Types – 1 Reading Quiz – 1 Dictation Quiz

Reading Quiz ü One reading passage ü A set of 10 multiple-choice questions that targets key reading skills ü Similar in format to reading tasks on Midterm & Final Examinations

Dictation Quiz • Dictation tasks are some of the most integrative forms of testing with several skills being brought to bear simultaneously (Kidd, 1992; Alkire, 2002) : ü listening skills to decipher the meaning of the message and to generally decode the sounds ü writing skills and grammatical knowledge to attend to the form of certain words or sentences ü learner expectancy grammar or so-called “predictive capacity” (Kidd, p. 50, 1992)

Dictation Task (cont. ) It is this potential for a student to practice multiple interacting skills that led to the inclusion of this task within CA. • In light of feedback from last semester please note that: üKey words will come from a specified unit üSpecified unit will be disclosed to teachers and students to allow time to review üMarks will be awarded for both meaning & spelling üFewer gaps

Class Participation Teachers must appraise their students every week based on the following criteria: ü Attentiveness ü Communicating as much as possible in English ü Active listening to classmates and teacher ü Over-all attitude/behavior ü Preparedness for class

Class Participation (cont. ) • Assessed using a holistic rubric • Each student is given a mark out of 3 for each week based on the following rubric: Mark Descriptor 3 Has shown a continuously high level of participation throughout the week Has shown a minimally adequate level of participation for most of the week Has failed to participate adequately for most of the week 2 1

Class Participation (cont. ) NB The rubric is from 1 – 3 meaning that a student cannot be awarded a zero regardless of conduct in class or even in the case of absenteeism.

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