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Volume 2, Issue 1
1
Feature Article
continued on p. 3
2
"Effective Reading Assessment" continued...
principles of assessment, this task is very practical since correctly (Ekbatani, 2011). A disadvantage for the teacher
students are not producing a lot of language, which can be who is writing his/her own test is that it can be very
very time-consuming, to demonstrate their difficult to write questions with such absolutes. To say a
comprehension (Alderson, Clapham & Wall, 1995); statement from the text is absolutely true or false can take
although the more choices a student has, the less of a a lot of forethought.
chance that the student can just guess the correct answer.
Because students have a high chance of guessing the Another popular task is for students to provide a short
correct answer, the validity of this task can be quite low. answer. This can be a very authentic task for scanning
In my experience, some students also really struggle with charts, tables and advertisements, for instance, and while
this type of task because they aren’t adept with multiple- students are required to generate answers, they are still
choice questions. Perhaps they come from a culture where brief and structured, which helps keep reliability high
this type of task wasn’t common on tests or because of a (Coombe, Folse & Hubley, 2007). Conversely, when
language barrier; they don’t understand the nuances teachers are grading, they might focus too much on other
between answers that are almost correct (and therefore language factors such as spelling or punctuation, both of
still wrong) and ones that are best. On the other hand, which are not the main point of assessing Reading
some students have been taught by test-taking coaches comprehension. This can lead to lower validity value to the
how to use the process of elimination to get the correct assessment. Also, this type of task doesn’t work well for
score instead of actually demonstrating comprehension of making inferences and other abstract tasks as it is only
the text (Alderson, 2000). good with specific, detailed information in a text
(Ekbatani, 2011).
The next task to consider is true/false questions. Positively
for teachers, there is great ease of grading as it can be The last task to evaluate is the extended or open-ended
done quickly and reliably. It should be noted, however, question task. On a positive note, it contains a higher
that it can be difficult to determine whether a student has degree of authenticity (Ekbatani, 2011) than any other
written an F or T, so it might help to have those two form of assessment since it most closely resembles the
choices already written and students must only circle one purpose of Reading in most academic contexts. Also, the
of the choices (Coombe, Folse & Hubley, 2007). Also, if the validity of this task is high as students cannot guess the
statements are paraphrased from the text (and not written answer like some of the other tasks previously discussed.
verbatim), washback from the test can encourage In addition, a higher degree of cognitive ability is required;
vocabulary growth. On the other hand, similar to multiple- however, a possible adverse effect is less reliable scoring
choice questions, the validity is questionable as students (Bennett & Ward, 1993). Teachers, if there isn’t a clear
have a 50/50 chance to guess the answer
continued on p. 4
Learning Center Manager Sheila Mullooly, Volunteer Conver- Communication and Culture Program students with instructor
sation Partner Program Coordinator Peter Brown dos Reis, Amber Bliss Calderón at Portland State University's Intensive
and Learning Center Lab Assistant Abdullah Alothmani at the English Language Program.
IELP Learning Center front desk (Portland State University).
3
"Effective Reading Assessment" continued...
focus when grading, can allow too much variability and tasks that require more language production, such as an
perhaps even tighten or loosen their expectations (i.e., extended response, or tasks that require a higher level of
intra-rater reliability) (Abeywickrama & Brown, 2010) from cognitive ability, such as multiple-choice questions
the beginning to the end of one set of student responses. requiring students to make inferences, should be weighed
There are some solutions for maintaining reliability more heavily than their less difficult counterparts.
though. First, it is important to determine an answer key
beforehand and to consider what answers are or are not Another consideration is to look at how balanced the
acceptable (Ekbatani, 2011). Secondly, similar to writing scoring is between bottom-up skills and top-down skills
assignments, a simple rubric can be used, so that intra- within one assessment. For instance, I often assess
rater reliability improves. If the rubric is used to grade a vocabulary words and Reading comprehension in the same
common assessment amongst many practitioners, I also test. It takes more time for students to read a passage and
recommend providing some training on how to use the answer questions, so I usually have fewer Reading
rubric and perhaps have teachers score a few examples for comprehension questions; whereas, vocabulary questions
norming purposes. aren’t as time-consuming, so I have more of them.
Therefore, I want to double-check that the worth of each
SCORING of those skills is either even or perhaps more heavily
After reviewing the tasks of a Reading assessment, it’s weighted toward Reading comprehension, since this is the
crucial to evaluate the scoring to determine whether it’s more important skill, especially in a more academic-
balanced and appropriate. First of all, the weighting of oriented language program.
test questions should be clearly marked for the
information of both teachers and students. For students, it CONCLUSION
is only fair for them to know how much each question is As with designing any assessment, the practitioner has
worth, so they can use this information when making many decisions to make when creating a Reading test.
decisions while taking the test. for teachers, it can help as While keeping in mind principles such as validity,
a reminder as to the weight of the assignment when reliability, etc., the teacher needs to craft tasks that align
grading. The determination of the weight should be made
before the students take the test, and the teacher should continued on p. 5
consider the difficulty level of the tasks. For example,
4
"Effective Reading Assessment" Regional Assessment
continued...
well with the Reading skill and overall purpose of the Conferences
assessment and determine a scoring system that is fair
and balanced. Of course, a teacher is quite capable of
doing all of this, but I have found it very helpful to
collaborate with colleagues and to get a second or third
opinion. Similar to getting peer reviews before writing for
publication, getting a colleague to give suggestions for
improving an assessment ensures a much more polished
final product. I know I am thankful to have a vocation
where I can work with brilliant and supportive co-workers.
REFERENCES
Abeywickrama, P., & Brown, H. D. (2010). Language
assessment: Principles and classroom practices. White
Plains, NY: Pearson Education.
Alderson, J.C. (2000). Assessing reading. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Alderson, J.C., Clapham, C., & Wall, D. (1995). Language
test construction and evaluation. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press.
Bennett, R. & Ward, W. (1993). Constructed versus choice
in cognitive measurement. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum.
Coombe, Folse & Hubley (2007). A practical guide to
assessing English language learners. Ann Arbor, MI:
University of Michigan Press.
Ekbatani, G. (2011). Measurement and evaluation in post-
secondary ESL. New York: Routledge.
Grabe, W. & Jiang, X. (2013, November 6). Assessing
reading. Volume 1: Abilities, contexts, and learners.
Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/
10.1002/9781118411360.wbcla060.
Hubley, N. (2012). Assessing reading. In The Cambridge
guide to secondary language assessment (pp. 211-217).
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Recently, I taught a lower-level grammar class in our IEP three random pictures, and they needed to use
with 14 students from Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Rwanda, their newly learned grammar skills to comment
and China. In that class, I also mentored a TESOL student- on or query about the pictures for 3–4 minutes.
teacher from West Washington University’s TESOL Student responses were all digitally recorded so
certificate program. I was lucky to have my student- I could review them as needed.
each of three quizzes throughout the term; my student- The students had many questions during the
teacher could proctor the written exams while I held the first of these quizzes, but once they understood
oral exams individually in another room, or vice versa. my expectations, they tore into the tasks. Who
In this series of exams, I tried to allow my students more once, a student quietly asked me during a
space to be creative when they showed me how they could written quiz which picture they should choose,
use their grammar skills. Also, I tried not to dwell in the only because they had too many ideas of what
quizzes (Remembering, Understanding). The written I learned that I could steer away from a straight
quizzes had three sections: 1) identifying various grammar ahead, top down, multiple choice, fill-in-the-
forms in sentences or questions, 2) writing short answers blank grammar quiz and offer students a little
(some sentences) and drawing a timeline about a ~300- more room to be creative. The paragraph
word story that I wrote, and 3) writing a 6–8 sentence answers were all very different and fun to read,
paragraph (while using discreet grammar points from and having the discreet grammar points in the
class) about one of three pictures given along with the directions, along with a rubric and the pictures,
quiz. Each student received a clear plastic page protector gave the students a structure upon which to
containing their paper quiz, the rubric for the paragraph, build.
picture was different, so the students needed to make sure If I could change anything from this experience,
they gave me their page protector back with their finished I might have asked for direct student input as I
quiz, three pictures, and their specific picture clipped to created the writing rubric. Currently, I have an
The oral quizzes had a rubric, which students had seen in drawing board with at least one impromptu
the previous class and were administered individually in a speech rubric. Their feedback holds much more
separate room. Students once again had a choice from value for me now than before.
6
Member Spotlight
Shelly Stoddard
instruction. Many times assessments are created for the
Shelly is an
purposes of assigning a grade to a student. However, I think
Adjunct English
it is more important to see assessments as a way to gather
Instructor at the
student data for analysis. I believe using data to guide
Virginia Tech
instruction is the most important reason to use assessments at
Language and
all. However, at the higher level, when time is short, content
Q. Describe your current position and teaching situation. Q. What have you learned about assessment in the past
A. Currently, I am an English instructor at the Language year that you have tried to incorporate into your teaching
teach all areas of English including Listening, Speaking, A. During the last year, my focus has been on instructional
Grammar, Reading, and Writing to a diverse population of strategies and authentic assessment of Listening. Teaching
learners. My students range in level from newcomer to Listening as more than “listen to the audio from the book and
academic user of the language and come from a variety of answer comprehension questions” has been an ongoing
countries around the world including China, South America, challenge for me. As a result, I have chosen to use some of
South Korea, and multiple countries in the Middle East. my professional development time to read articles, research
summative exams to student learning outcomes, creating Most recently, I have learned that Listening can be assessed
exams for personal use in the classroom, making informal in as little as 5 minutes a day using short, discreet mini
formative assessments, and analyzing test data to create lessons. Creating a short cloze activity that focuses on a
remediation or extension lessons where applicable. grammar point or vocabulary set within the context of
Q. Does your program have an Assessment Committee? integrate multiple language areas and assess student ability.
committee is made up of the Testing Coordinator and 4 to 5 Q. What is an area of assessment that you want to learn
creating summative exams for the various levels and A. One area that I would like to learn more about is rubric
subjects taught at the LCI. Additionally, the committee creation. I use rubrics, but typically they are just raw score
ensures that these exams align with the student learning ranges with descriptions. I want to learn how to use them as
outcomes, that the tests have a variety of question types, and an instructional tool rather than a way to attach a grade.
Q. In your context, with your students, what assessment- and work, what do you like to do to relax?
related issues do you and your colleagues have? A. In my free time, I like to escape by curling up with a good
A. In my opinion, the most difficult issue with assessment is book and warm latte.
7
CALT Best Practices
This section presents recommended assessment practices and principles that teachers should
incorporate in the courses they teach to maximize and measure student learning, as well as to
develop their own assessment literacy. (Compiled by Eddy White, PhD)