Hi everyone,
 
Wow, no takers on the formative assessment question.  There's a wealth
of ideas and info to share here so I'm throwing out my prompt to you.
 
Here are some examples of the types of daily/weekly, ongoing, formative
assessment that I would do with adult students to get a sense of where
they were in their learning process, and what they needed to work on.  I
am trained in both teaching ESOL and Basic Literacy, so I'm drawing from
both those venues.  I'm sure many of these examples are quite familiar
to you.
 
For reading:  
-I liked to have students read out loud sometimes so I could hear how
they pronounced words, get a sense of their understanding of
punctuation, get an idea of their fluency; I also liked to ask
comprehension questions after an out-loud reading so I could see if the
person needed to use all their concentration to decipher/articulate the
text, or it they were able to comprehend the text at the same time.
 
For writing:
-I always liked to use dialog journals in the classic way of not overtly
correcting errors, but rather writing back with the same language but in
corrected fashion.  You can see over a period of time when the person's
writing starts to change and the person begins to notice correct forms
and use them.  This progression is fairly slow and so you can really get
a sense of the learning journey for that person.  
 
For speaking:
-I always began class with the same routine which was often a set of
casual questions thrown out to whomever would like to respond (i.e.:
how was your weekend?  What did you do? etc).  I can see who speaks
right up, and who does not; you can see over time how that dynamic
starts to change because the students have the expectation after a while
that this will happen and they start mentally preparing for it.  They
will often ask each other as well once this has been established.  I
sort of feel that in an ESOL class, especially one focused on
speaking/listening, formative assessment happens anytime anyone opens
their mouth (or doesn't) - but wouldn't that be really hard to
document?!
 
For pronunciation:
-There are so many formative things you can do with pronunciation; I ask
students to bring in their own pocket mirror so that they can look at
their mouths while they are practicing sounds.  I ask them to look in
their mirror and see if what they see looks like what I am doing; they
also monitor their progress during class.
 
For self-assessment:
-Student self-assessment is really powerful - people can really take
control of their own learning if they are guided to do self-assessment;
once they learn how, they don't need much guidance anymore; this is
especially important in today's world of Distance Learning, and for
those students who stop out of programs but wish to carry on their study
by themselves.  Here's an idea if you are asking people to provide
definitions of words/terms or to discuss the meaning of a particular
concept:  ask them to first write what they think is the correct
response, even if they are not sure; then provide them with where to
find the correct answers so they can go there and add the correct
response to their own and the question at hand.  This makes the activity
much more of a critical thinking process and it is organized to provide
a self-assessment.
 
So that's a few examples for you - I hope that it prompts you to add
your own ideas, or ask questions.  
 
Thanks!
 
Marie Cora
Assessment Discussion List Moderator
 
 
 
Marie Cora
 <mailto:marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com> marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com
NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator
http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/assessment
Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection
http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/
 
 
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