Hello adult literacy colleagues!
I’m excited to serve as the new moderator of this discussion forum on assessment. I want to thank Marie Cora for her capable facilitation of this discussion list over the past many months. To share a bit about myself, I have worked as a teacher and teacher educator in Pennsylvania for over 20 years, having taught ABE, GED, and all levels of ESL in various contexts. I also regularly facilitate professional development opportunities at the state and national level and teach graduate courses on topics related to adult literacy.
I’ve had an abiding interest in the area of assessment ever since I became an assessment trainer in Pennsylvania many years ago. Since then, my views on assessment have continued to evolve. While the word assessment can sometimes have a negative connotation, I consider instruction and assessment to be two sides of the same coin. I believe we can’t have effective instruction without accompanying high-quality assessment that is designed for adult learners to demonstrate what they are learning.
I expect that my understanding of assessment will continue to deepen and evolve through the rich discussions and meaningful interactions happening here in this community.
Warmly,
Susan Finn Miller
Comments
Welcome , Susan!
I share your abiding interest in assessment and its integral relationship to instruction. I am looking forward to lively discussions on formative and authentic assessment methodology in adult education.
Nancy Labonte
Adult Ed Specialist
Rhode Island
Susan,
Welcome and congratulations on becoming the assessment discussion moderator. Thanks to Marie Cora for her fantastic job as moderator. I appreciate how Marie was a great cheerleader and coach for us in our efforts to understand and use assessments to the benefit of students and teachers.
There is one topic that I would be very interested to know more about. What are some tools and methods that are needed to develop formative assessments for curriculum competencies in advance for teachers to use as they teach the competencies? This probably has been brought up at some point in the past, and if so, you can point me to the posts on it. I know the course from ELL-U shares ideas about developing formative assessments based on what a teacher is teaching in the classroom.
For example, one of the curriculum competencies of the Florida ESOL curriculum states, "Interpret classified ads, signs, advertisements for available housing, including abbreviations." The competency is listed in the category of Consumer Education, at the NRS Low Beginning Level for ESL. What tools or method would be appropriate for developing a formative assessment of this competency?
If anyone is interested in seeing the FLDOE ESOL Curriculum, this is the web link: http://www.fldoe.org/workforce/dwdframe/ad_frame.asp.
Phil Anderson
Florida Department of Education
Adult ESOL Program
(850) 245-9450
Hi Phil, Thank you for the warm welcome. Now that the government shutdown is over, we are allowed to continue (or in my case, begin!) our work as moderators.
There are so many ways we teachers assess learners informally during instruction. One form of formative assessment that is ubiquitous in our classrooms is teacher observation. As a teacher, I am observing carefully to see whether students are able to demonstrate the learning objectives that have been established by the students and me. If students in a beginning ESL class indicated there was a need to understand housing ads, then one thing I could do is design a checklist of outcomes that would allow students to demonstrate their understanding. I would probably want items on the checklist that would include indicators for speaking, listening, reading and writing, depending on the goals of the learners in the class. Has anyone on the list developed anything that could be used for a lesson on this topic? If so, please consider sharing it with us here.
Here's a blog which features 22 quick formative assessment processes. This is K12 oriented, but I think many of these techniques can be adapted for adult literacy classrooms, too. I didn't get to check out all of these ideas yet, so I'm hoping some of you will and tell us what you think.
Also, at this link, you can access the first chapter of a geat ASCD publication on developing formative assessment systems http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/111013/chapters/Creating-a-Formative-Assessment-System.aspx.
Cheers,
Susan Finn Miller
Moderator
Hello all, I just noticed that the link to the blog with the formative assessment techniques is missing in my message above. Here it is: http://www.nwea.org/blog/2013/22-easy-formative-assessment-techniques-for-measuring-student-learning/.
Which of these techniques have you used? How does the technique work for you? Which techniques seem promising?
Best, Susan