Continuous Assessment

Continuous learning is to seek improvements. Learning process can happen at anywhere and anytime for anyone. One familiar place for learning is school. A school is a place for students to enquire knowledge, for teachers to groom the next generation, and for parents to provide promising future for their children. Therefore, identify and utilize effective and continuous assessment to support student performance is crucial throughout the entire learning process.

Instead of summative assessment, formative assessment is another approach to help improve student performance. Based on “Formative Assessment That Truly Informs Instruction” article approved by the NCTE Executive Committee, “formative assessment is the lived, daily embodiment of a teacher’s

For this effort, teacher plays an important role in observing students’ expressions in class. As the article “Formative Assessment That Truly Informs Instruction” elaborates, once a teacher notices puzzle or confusion in a student’s facial expression, immediately and proactively provides additional explanations. If necessary, the teacher can have the students to question for clarification for the topics that trouble them. With instantaneous feedback, the student is able to have their queries answered immediately which help to improve their academic

Teachers conduct their assessment work based on various strategies and tools with one common objective, which is to improve students’ performance. Based on the article, “Formative Assessment That Truly Informs Instruction”, these strategies and tools can be grouped into four types: Observations, Conversations, Student Self-Evaluation, and Artifacts of Learning. For observations strategy, a teacher needs to carefully observe the way a student engage in language use and learning. Through the observations, the teacher is able to identify the student’s strengths and challenges. Then, the teacher can plan supportive classroom learning more effectively with the aim to improve student’s academic performance. A few techniques can be adapted, namely field notes, running records and miscue analysis, and checklists and observation guides. For teachers with strong observation analysis skill, observations strategy can be useful. Instead of through observation, conversations strategy is another way to help improve students’ performance. Through conversations strategy, a teacher may directly ask a student for further clarifications instead of judging via observation. The conversations strategy can be conducted through surveys, interviews, and/or conference. Thus, for expressive and honest students, conversations strategy will be an effective tool to help improve students’