Page 185 - @ccess 3 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 process. This enables the teacher to help
students identify what they have learned after a set period of time (month, term, 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 syllabus element because it can influence both the teaching and learning
processes, as well as their outcomes. In other words, what is assessed becomes the focus of
attention for the teacher, the students and the parents. It affects the interaction among students,
and between them and the teacher inside 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
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, from the beginning, insight on what it is expected from them.
• eases access to good models of tasks students are expected to carry out.
• provides many opportunities to give and receive constant feedback about students’ strengths
and areas to review regarding their progress while 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. They constitute the means by which to explore
the role of language and other means of communication in the youngsters’ cultural and social life
as they progress through the educational system towards attaining knowledge about the world.

In order to monitor your students’ progress, it is important to be aware of their level of mastery
and proficiency in English, its descriptor and the social language practice and key learnings for 3rd
grade of secondary school.

Cycle 4 purposes

The purposes established in the English Syllabus show links to the four pillars of education, as set
in the report Learning: 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. You can access the instrument in full on the CD.

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

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