Unit - 5 - Assessment in CLIL
Unit - 5 - Assessment in CLIL
Unit - 5 - Assessment in CLIL
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UNIT 5 Assessment in CLIL
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Assessment and Evaluation: differences
3. Assessment Principles in CLIL
4. The Main Issues for Assessment in CLIL
5. When is Assessment effective? Diagnostic, Formative and Summative
Assessment.
6. Some distinguishing characteristics in CLIL
7. Self and Peer Assessment
8. Assessing Content & Language
9. Strategies and Tools For Assessment
10. Summary
OUTCOMES
1. Introduction
Teaching involves assessment. In making decisions about lesson content and
sequencing, about materials, learning tasks and so forth, teachers have to
determine the strengths and weaknesses of the alternatives available to them.
They make selections based on their experience, on their understandings of
learning, language development and of language proficiency itself, together
with what they consider to be most appropriate and in the best interests of
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SOURCE:
http://cefire.edu.gva.es/pluginfile.php/498574/mod_resource/content/1/Unit%205%20ASSESSMENT%20IN%20CLIL.pdf
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CLIL Assessment in CLIL UNIT 5
those they teach. Equally, as part of their professional practice, they are always
involved in the observation of their learners, which leads to the development of
insights about learner progress and judgments about specific learning
outcomes and overall performance. (Rea-Dickins 2004:1).
The theme of assessment is a difficult and sometimes contentious area amongst CLIL
teachers. In some respects it lies at the heart of the question of how to define the level of
content-language integration, because, ultimately, no matter what is taught and how it is
taught, the mode of assessment determines how the learners perceive the teacher’s
intention and of course, also shapes performance data.
The term assessment is sometimes used interchangeably with the term evaluation.
Assessment more often relates to individual students’ achievements, whereas evaluation
deals with systems, materials, procedures and their values.
Assessment: a process of collecting and interpreting evidence for some purpose. In
education, assessment is intended to be a tool that supports learning and helps measure
progress being made toward achieving planned learner outcomes.
Evaluation: the term is often used ‘to denote the process of collecting evidence about
programmes, systems, procedures and processes‘ and the interpretation of that evidence
with respect to stated or desired objectives (Harlen,2007). For example, evaluation
provides information about the quality of a curriculum, a study programme or teaching.
The distinction between assessment and evaluation is important as each serves a
different purpose. However, there is a potential overlap which is relevant to the question of
whether we are assessing content, language or both. Programme evaluation might centre
on learners' language attainment (many research reports do so) and this might be an
appropriate place and method to carry out discrete language assessment as well.
Teachers’ role in assessment is inevitable by:
Making decisions about the process of the lessons
Determining the strengths and weaknesses of alternatives available to the
learners.
Making selections on their experience and making judgments about their learners’
progress.
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Do we sometimes assess one and not the other? If so, which, when, why and how?
What about cognition and culture?
What tools can we use for assessment?
Who assesses?
When do we assess?
How do we assess?
What is the role of standard examination systems?
Is there a role for the Common European Framework?
These are the key questions asked by the majority of CLIL teachers when they meet to
discuss practice. CLIL Units must have clear objectives. What really matters is priority.
Being content teachers, CLIL teachers should always have content as dominant objective.
Then, of course, language will be learnt in the process. Therefore, content first, then
language.
Assessment in general can be defined as the process of deciding, collecting and
interpreting information about children’s learning and skills and use it for some purpose.
a) Why do we assess?
According to Harlen and Qualter (2010:172), there are two main reasons for assessing:
1. The use of information to help learning;
2. To find out and report on what has been learnt at a particular time.
The first of these is described as formative assessment or assessment for learning. The
second is described as summative assessment or assessment of learning. These are
not different kind of assessment but different purposes. Whether they serve their purpose
depends on how the information is used. Formative assessment is, by definition, used to
make decisions about how to advance learning while it is taking place. Summative
assessment has several uses including reporting to parents, other teachers, tracking
progress and sometimes for grouping and selection.
Teachers have to decide on:
The purpose of the assessment (help learning, find out about previous knowledge,
report on outcomes, etc.);
Information required to serve the purpose of the assessment;
How to gather the information so that it is suited to the purpose;
How to interpret the information;
How to report and communicate the results.
b) When do we assess?
Assessment is part of the teaching therefore it is relevant at any point (before, during and
after a didactic unit). Formative assessment means taking action as appropriate but
equally refraining from spending time on things the children already know or can do for
themselves. Harlen and Qualter,(2010:174).
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c) How do we assess?
First of all we have to establish an appropriate classroom atmosphere in which student
sfeel comfortable and secure.
There are different ways of gathering information about children’s ideas, learning and
skills such as questioning, observation, testing, concept mapping, discussing, etc. The
most important thing to focus the information gathering is to be clear about the goals of the
children’s activities.
It is also very important to consider students’ role in assessing their work. First of all,
knowing their goals puts any learner in a better position to achieve them, and much more
if they have participated in setting the outcomes. It provides for independence and can
lead to self-regulated learning and an increase in self-esteem.
d) Who should assess?
Teachers wish to retain the major role in this, but we can consider the following factors in
establishing the possible range of teacher, self-and peer-assessment methods available:
Clear success criteria enable learners to peer-assess or self-assess in certain
kinds of tasks.
Assessment can be collaborative within the whole-class setting if the teacher
shows anonymous extracts from work and invites constructive amendments.
Presentations can be assessed for a range of factors; for example, the
communication of certain items of content, use of media, use of effects to scaffold
understanding and contribution of members of a group.
Self-and peer-assessment can be used as a platform to elicit comments about the
learning process by asking why the judgments are as they are.
Relying on teacher assessment alone could impoverish a CLIL classroom. The teacher
will still be the main assessor, but there are numerous possibilities to vary this in
appropriate circumstances.
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a) Diagnostic Assessment
It gives the teachers specific information about when and how to proceed with
instruction.
It establishes a baseline from which to observe growth.
It is assessment for learning.
b) Formative and Summative Assessment.
Assessment processes can be broadly divided into summative and formative and this
division forms a major distinction. Formative assessment is more complex than
summative assessment, as its intention is to be directly diagnostic with a view to
immediately impacting on the learner's next steps. It is also formative for the teacher,
because it can alter planning and practice mid-unit (or even mid-lesson) and not just after
all the work is complete, as a summative test might do.
According to Harlen and Qualter (2010), the characteristics of formative assessment are
that:
it takes place as an integral part of teaching;
it relates to progression in learning;
it depends on judgments which can be child-referenced on criterion-referenced;
it uses methods which protect validity rather than reliability;
it uses information from children’s performance in a variety of contexts;
it involves children in assessing their performance and deciding their next steps.
According to Harlen and Qualter,(2010:179), "There is a good deal of common ground
between formative assessment and learning through inquiry-both serve to develop
learning with understanding and to enable pupils to take responsibility for identifying what
they need to do to achieve the goals of their activities. It could almost be said that inquiry
requires formative assessment."
c) Summative assessment makes a judgment on the capability of the learner at that
point in time and, apart from offering that judgment back to the learner, it often
leads to some form of information-giving to another party, for example the school
management or the learner's parents. It is therefore associated with testing in a
more formal setting or an end-of-unit, 'final' result, even if this is not obtained
through an examination.
Summative assessment has an important but different role in children’s education.
According to Harlen and Qualter,(2010) the characteristics of summative assessment are
that:
it takes place at certain intervals when achievement has to be reported;
it relates to progression in learning against public criteria;
it enables results for different children to be combined for various purposes
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• Disadvantages
Additional briefing time can increase a lecturer's workload.
The process has a degree of risk with respect to reliability of grades as peer
pressure to apply elevated grades or friendships may influence the assessment,
though this can be reduced if students can submit their assessments independent
of the group.
Students will have a tendency to award everyone the same mark.
Students feel ill equipped to undertake the assessment.
Students may be reluctant to make judgments regarding their peers.
At the other extreme students may be discriminated against if students “gang up”
against one group member.
b) Self Assessment
This is similar to peer evaluation but students assess their own contribution as well as
their peers using an established set of criteria.
• Advantages
Encourages student involvement and responsibility.
Encourages students to reflect on their role and contribution to the process of the
group work.
Allows students to see and reflect on their peers' assessment of their contribution.
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• Disadvantages:
Potentially increases lecturer workload by needing to brief students on the process
as well as on-going guidance on performing self evaluation.
Self evaluation has a risk of being perceived as a process of presenting inflated
grades and being unreliable.
Students feel ill equipped to undertake the assessment.
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1.- Clear learning objectives; they will usually include content / skills first, then language in
some form.
2.- Because of integration and dual focus, in CLIL lessons we cannot always assess
everything
3.- We should use a mixture of formal / informal assessment, which is both task-based
and assignment based.
5.- Content knowledge should be assessed using the simplest form of language which is
appropriate for that purpose.
6.- Language should be assessed for a real purpose in a real context -sometimes it will be
for form / accuracy, sometimes for communicative competence / fluency.
7.- If assessment is orally-based, then wait time is crucial (thinking and expressing what
they think takes time).
8.- Scaffolding is not cheating. We need to assess what students can do with support,
before we assess what they can do without it.
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OPTIONAL TASK
What are the benefits of teaching students to assess their own work? How can teachers
achieve this kind of assessment?
APPENDIX 1
Template for Analytic Rubrics: Assessment
th
(Lend, Perpignan, March 10, 11 , 2011)
5 4 3 2 1
Criteria excellent good satisfactory almost unsatisfactory Score
satisfactory
CONTENT Use of basic
subject
concepts and
knowledge
(what)
Principles &
relationships
(how it relates)
Application of
knowledge to
new situations
Creativity /
evaluation
Use of
language
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
interaction
Cooperative
work
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
-Assessment in
CLIL: http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learning/exams/blooms-taxonomy.html
- ENLACE : (CLIL –The question of assessment by Richard Kiely)
http://www.developingteachers.com/articles_tchtraining/clil1_richard.htm
- Annex 1 is a leaflet about assessment written by Mini Dindayal and published by the
Toronto District School Board in 2005. It gives some examples of the most common
strategies and tools for assessment.
Annex 1: Assessment, evaluation and reporting. Supporting beginning teachers.
http://schools.tdsb.on.ca/asit/standards/btstart/BTAE.pdf
- Annex 2 consists on a table showing different assessment strategies and tools
accompanied by an explanation and an example.
Annex 2: Formative Assessment strategies and tools.
http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/file/view/03++Formative+Assessment+Strategies.
pdf
- Link to Alaska department of Education provide an index to Assessment strategies
and samples from graphic organizers to portfolios.
http://www.eed.state.ak.us/tls/frameworks/mathsci/ms5_2as1.htm
- Harlen, Wynne (2007): “The Quality of Learning: assessment alternatives for Primary
Education”.
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Education/documents/2007/11/01/assessment.pdf
- Harlen, Wynne (2007): “Assessment of Learning” SAGE Publications Ltd. ISBN
9781412935197
- Do Coyle, Philip Hood and David Marsh: “CLIL”. Cambridge University Press
- Rea-Dickins, Pauline (2004): Understanding teachers as agents of assessment.
Language Testing, Volume 21, issue 3 (July 1, 2004), Ingenta / SAGE Publications.
- Anne Qualter, Wynne Harlen (2004): “The Teaching of Science in Primary Schools”.
David Fulton Publ. DavidF
- Maria Pavesi, Daniela Bertocchi, Marie Hofmannová, Monika Kazianka: "Teaching
through a Foreign Language”.
A guide for teachers and schools: http://www.ub.edu/filoan/CLIL/teachers.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ech4DBEKMNg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMJoaJvFMZ0
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• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0nSW3W4MW0
3..a.- Set as OPTIONAL HOMEWORK: WATCH this VIDEO ON “The Power of Student
Self-Assessment” (5’: 10”) and WRITE DOWN the main ideas for:
• a) Students’ needs
• LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XJ8f9yLteQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMuJqO0llhg
• In this video, Dr. Paul Black discusses the values of peer and self assessment,
which benefit the student because they understand the purpose of their work more
and are more likely to ask and answer questions.
TASK: WATCH AND WRITE DOWN Dr BLACK’S MAIN IDEAS ON PEER AND SELF ASSESSMENT
SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnqHERCFsWM
END OF UNIT 5
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