Reflection of an assessment activity or test considering the 5 principles of assessment
Description The activity was a radio play written by the students. The purpose was assessing speaking, writing, and reading while also applying phrasal verbs already studied in previous classes. The students had to write in groups a radio play script through 3 classes. The student teacher would be a monitor of the work during those classes. The activity would start May 4th. Interpret At the beginning the activity looked attractive to them, however, I noticed they did not fully understand it. After a guide teacher recommendation, I brought examples for them to know what to do. This because the several explanations I gave them were not enough to clarify the activity. The student’s response at first was of confusion because although they had done something similar in another subject, they confused this with a play. Some of them actually asked me to create a play instead. Afterward, when they listened to and watched the examples, they were motivated, but due to an extracurricular activity with the cuartos medios we lost one key class where they would have started working on the scripts. The following class they were unmotivated and focus on studying for another test. In order to create pressure to work, I created a checklist to assess class work which did not help to motivate them either. In addition to all of this, there were many schedule changes because the students were absent due to school activities. This ended in a delayed in the date of the final presentation which ended being scheduled the same day it would be my supervision. At the end, the processes took more than three weeks which not only affected me as a student guide teacher but also their process. In retrospective, I failed in starting with the example and also being clear in the necessity of working each class in the script. I think I considered this would be a quick and easy way to assess many things at the
same time but ended being a complicated task for most of them. Plus, I was not able to motivate them appropriately. Regarding practicality, at first, this activity looked perfect, because it would have required quite a little time of preparation and few resources as well from my perspective. Unfortunately, the school activities with the students prevented it. At the end, I consider this aspect of assessment was not achieved or apply for the activity. It took much more time than I considered at first, so valuable time and resources were lost in the process. In respect to reliability, after applying this activity for the second time, now with a different group of students, I have concluded this aspect of assessment might be highly compromised. The reason is that the student related reliability is affected by this kind of activity. I saw it with both groups, but especially with this one. This kind of activity can not be done in one single class, therefore, the attitude and disposition towards work from the students will vary from class to class. In consequence, this will affect the outcome of the work, the learning process as well and quite probably their final mark. For instance, one of the students worked for all the classes, but the day of the presentation, he left the school claiming to be sick. Here evidently this aspect of the assessment of compromised and ended in that the student did not finish the process. On the other hand, the intra-rater reliability is also affected. The teacher not only is influenced by his/her opinion over the students but also is influenced by the length of the process and the way is done. No matter how many times I have heard that there are techniques to avoid this, teachers are humans with opinions and perceptions about other people (in this case the students). This perceptions and judgments related their students will affect the way he/she grades them. In relation to this, my guide teacher told me that as a teacher I should be always fair, but I think that is not possible. No matter how much you try, at some degree, you will not. Therefore, in relation to this activity, this factor is something to consider thoughtfully before applying it with the students. As for, inter-rater reliability this is was not affected, because of both of
us, the guide teacher and I, had the same opinion regarding the final scores and the previous process. Now in relation to validity I consider applies to the activity, this was valid because the task was in relation to their previous knowledge and according to their English level. Face validity varied through the process though, but at the end, the washback changed this and the end. I explained each of them why they were graded that way which helps them to conclude the process understanding their weaknesses and strengths at the moment of facing a task like this.Only one student looked disappointed and frustrated with the final mark. Her perceptions of her own work were not realistic and this influenced her attitude. Finally, concerning authenticity, it seems to me that this task was authentic because it connected the students with their real world. They could write about anything and despite they wrote fantastic stories, nevertheless those stories had a strong connection to their reality and teenager world. In conclusion, I consider this task is viable while considering the previous factors mentioned and supported by a well-constructed rubric. In general, I think there was a learning process, but the aim of applying and using phrasal verbs was not achieved as I will explain in my project inform.
Alternatives/ evaluation
Afterward, I think in the future I will establish first the work expectations and consequences in case of not achieving it. Also, I will pay attention to the rubric construction and to the time required. Finally, I will start giving examples to teach how to before assuming the students will understand easily what they have to do.