Page 185 - @ccess 1 Teacher´s Book

Assessment

The main aim of assessment is to provide information about the degree of progress each student
achieves at different stages of the teaching and learning processes. This enables the teacher to
help students identify what they have learned after a period of time (month, term, semester, year,
and cycle). It also helps them to consider how teaching situations, classroom working modes,
use of materials, and the kind of help or guidance provided are aimed at the achievement of Key
Learnings.

Assessment is a core element because it can influence teaching and learning processes, as
well as its outcomes. In other words, what is assessed becomes the main focus of attention for the
teacher, students and parents. It also affects the interaction between students, and between them
and the teacher in the classroom.

The aim of formative assessment is to develop “actions with the aim of gathering information
about the students’ performance so as to intervene in different moments (before, during, after) of
1
the learning process” (Vargas, M.R y Ban, A.R 2001)

The purpose of assessment is to observe and monitor what students feel, know and do in the
process of learning English, suggesting precise ways of improving their performance in different
moments. A successful formative assessment:

• gives students insight into what it is expected from them from the beginning.
• eases access to good models of tasks students are expected to carry out.
• provides many opportunities to give and receive constant feedback about their strengths and
areas to review regarding their progress learning English.

The levels of mastery and proficiency in English, as well as their descriptors, were created to
determine the extent and amplitude of the curricula. These constitute the grounds to explore the
role of language and other means of communication in the youngsters’ cultural and social life, as
they progress through the education system towards attaining knowledge about the world.

In order to monitor your students’ progress, it is important to take into account their level of
mastery and proficiency in English, its descriptor, as well as the social language practice and the
Key Learnings for the 1st grade of secondary school.

Cycle 4 purposes

The assessment purposes show links to the four pillars of education, as set in the report Education.
The treasure within (Delors, 1995). Thus, it is crucial to monitor and register the students’ progress
in their classwork. With the objective of helping you in this task, we crafted an instrument to
register the aforementioned progress on 3 separate occasions throughout the schoolyear.

1 Vargas, M.R. y Ban, R.A. (2011) Paso a paso con el PNIEB en las aulas. Ciudad de México: Latin American Educational Services, Inc.

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