How to test and assess students' knowledge in English lessons?

In addition to traditional tests, there are other types of assessment that encourage students to take an active part in learning. They help children find out what they have learned and what they have not, and what measures to take. So how do you get kids to evaluate their own progress? How to test and assess students.

Assessment in English lessons often takes the form of unit tests and progress tests. These types of assessments give us teacher™s useful information about students' progress, but they do not involve children and show them how to learn English further.

What types of evaluation to use?

Students consider repetition and testing to be the worst part of learning, even if they generally like the topic. Remembering all the information from the section under pressure is painful and difficult, repetition is boring, and they generally perform the test task as well as when studying the material itself. In this case, it is better to consider whether to change the method of assessment to another: assessment for learning (assessment for learning) or self-assessment (self-assessment).

Assessment for learning. It is important that students are aware from the beginning what goals are being pursued and what the end result should look like. This is the assessment for the sake of learning. We need to describe to them what will happen in our lesson and what we expect from them. Once this is done, follow a few simple steps:

1. We tell students what we will do. Here it is important to motivate them to keep this mood throughout the lesson. We observe how the tasks are perceived: do students understand what is happening, or does everyone participate?
2. While students complete tasks, we move around the class, listening to the answers. We determine how well they are doing, comparing with the goals set before them. We politely correct them when needed and identify gaps in achieving the lesson goal.
3. Our task is to fill the identified gaps. You need to find a convenient way for different learning styles. If we introduced a new language through reading, we can now try speaking; if they sang a song, now you can ask them to write something and so on.
4. We use knowledge for one cognitive step forward. How exactly? Students express their thoughts related to the topic, and then the teacher asks "why?" / "why not?". Don't demand more than possible.

Self-assessment gives students the opportunity to stop and think for a moment: "What will I get out of this?" or "Did I really learn anything in this lesson?" Research shows that as a result of self-assessment, students develop positively over time self-perception, fluency, vocabulary and confidence in the use of English. Self-assessment should be individual and private to prevent students from influencing their classmates.

We set clear goals

First, write down the goals you want students to achieve while working on the topic. In addition, you can come up with your own, based on the needs of a particular group of children. For best results, make them as specific as possible, for example:

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• Ican talk about my family
• I can describe my bedroom
• I can read and understand a text about shopping
• I can write sentences and questions using the Present Continuous

At the beginning of each lesson or topic, write them on the board so that students know their goals. Show them again at the end and ask students to think about whether they can do all of the above, as well as write in a notebook those with whom they agree.

What tasks to give students?

Own test. At the beginning of the study, tell the students that you are tired of taking tests for them, so now they will do it themselves. Tell them how many questions there should be, how many points, and so on. Divide the students into pairs and tell them to start developing their version of the final test. When studying the topic, emphasize the questions that will be in the test, remind students not to forget to include them in the test.

Give students time to write the final version and write the correct answers (answer key). Assemble the works and give everyone "excellent". Surprise your students and say that taking different versions of the test was actually an assessment. Don't forget to review the student test tasks yourself to identify problems and mark the best work. Keep these tests, because you will probably find a lot of useful and interesting!

Two stars and one wish. This great task will help you to introduce mutual evaluation in lessons, and students - to use critical thinking to their own work and the work of others. This tool will be useful for large groups. Students share completed tasks. Write the evaluation criteria on the board. The children evaluate each other's work and fill in a card, where two stars are what is well done in the work, and one wish is what needs to be improved.

Student portfolio. This is not only the best method for self-assessment, but also one of the ways to instill in students self-confidence and pride. At the end of the topic or course, invite students to share their own self-developed portfolios with the class. Together with them, make a list of goals that they need to achieve during the presentation of the portfolio. For example: speak clearly, have an organized outline, use note cards, demonstrate with examples from the portfolio, etc.

Provide the class with evaluation templates by which students will evaluate everyone who submits their portfolio. At the end of the presentation, collect the completed templates and share all the positive results with the class.

Self-assessment forces students to analyze how and why they are learning English. It helps them determine what needs to be done to improve it, and also gives them important feedback on progress. Although not all strategies seem easy to implement, they should be tried and adapted to the specific learning context.

In the teaching profession, it is also impossible without self-assessment and self-development.