Assessing young learners (5-7 years old) often comes as a challenge to even the most experienced teachers.
- When should we assess young learners?
- How do we do it without creating ‘winners’ and ‘losers’?
Assessment should be carefully designed to give the learners “the optimal chance to show what he/she can do” (Hasselgreen, 2012: 95). As assessment impacts on children’s views of themselves as learners, it is important to choose appropriate techniques and activities.
Assessment purposes
Formative assessment
Formative assessment monitors pupils’ learning through daily classroom activities, so it is known as “assessment for learning” (Black & Wiliam, 1998) or classroom assessment. McKay (2008: 174) emphasizes that classroom assessment helps young learners to thrive. As it is non-intrusive and takes place in a familiar learning context, it encourages confidence. Formative assessment also provides teachers with information needed to make any adjustments in instruction.
Summative assessment
Summative assessment involves “assessment of learning” (Shin & Crandall, 2014: 249) and it summarizes a child’s learning (what the child has achieved) at a particular instructional time.
The ways of incorporating assessment on a daily basis are endless. In the following three posts, I will share some ideas which will help you to think of young learners’ assessment as something to support our learners, to respect their learning preferences, and to nourish their language learning!
(This blog post is based on my article ‘Young learners' assessment step-by-step’ which was first published in Testing, Evaluation and Assessment 3 (October 2020), Faversham: IATEFL)
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