Fear, anxiety, low self-esteem, depression, and PTSD: many of our ESL students experience these. Why? The causes are messy and complicated, from difficult experiences in their homelands to the challenges of settling into Canada without moorings. So, when these students are evaluated through traditional, formal means (standard essays, short-answer tests, book reports) on topics they have little connection with, they crumble – with damaging and even permanent effects on their motivation and confidence.
Some will drop out quickly; others will rely on AI to do their assessments for them. When they’re caught, they feel ashamed and drop out too. By the end of last session, my class had shrunk by at least a third. Many of my colleagues reported the same, and I realized, not for the first time, that change is needed. We cannot stand idly by as students reach the edge of a cliff and jump off, one by one. Our job is to build them up, not down.
Shifting our assessment approach
Traditionally, assignments are given at the end of each unit. These include the standard five-paragraph essay, reading response, summary, short-answer test, and so on. However, these types of assessments are not ideal for ESL students because they:
- are open to inappropriate uses of AI (e., ChatGPT, write the following essay for me, but be sure to include some grammar errors)
- do not give students enough leeway to probe, think critically, and reflect
- focus on a single output rather than the process of getting there
What if we assess our students more often, on a rolling continuum, to get a more genuine reflection of how they’re progressing, from the learning stage to the point where they demonstrate their skills? When assessed this way, students do better and learn more because they feel more relaxed and engaged. Further, by assessing more often, we ensure that students are grasping the foundational skills that they need to move forward. Another benefit is that students can see, measure for measure, how they are doing and find ways to improve before it’s too late. Ultimately, students produce work more naturally and meaningfully and we, in turn, get a more accurate picture of what they’ve learned.
Putting it into action
We would evaluate and provide feedback through a series of small task-based activities and larger multitask projects based on course outcomes. To get the most out of the students, we would let them choose topics that they care about such as climate change, artificial intelligence, unemployment, rising costs of living, and human rights, as well as general interest topics related to Canada and their homelands (food, lifestyle, sports, arts scene).
Short task-based assessments (individual or group)
We would create a rubric based on the skill we’re teaching (say, present perfect). After we’ve taught and demonstrated the skill, gone over it a few times and answered questions, we would do a practice activity. Here, we would pay close attention to the students’ work to gauge their understanding and provide clarifications. We would then check off the rubric boxes next to the learners’ names. The grading could be done the same day or another day if they need more practice.
The activities we choose (conversations, skits, probing discussions, poetry, writing prompts) would depend on what the class is working on. For example, if we’re teaching intermediate students how to paraphrase, we could put them into small groups and have them ask each other questions about their favourite musician. Students would then transcribe or record each other’s responses, paraphrase them, and either present or submit their work.
Long-term projects (individual or group)
Long-term, multitask projects allow students to consolidate their skills. Once again, we would tie the projects to course outcomes, and we would divide these projects into manageable steps, each with its own rubric. Students would do a portion of the work in class, so that we could monitor their progress and guide them.
Here are some project ideas:
- A collection of short stories/poetry/songs
- Magazines with interviews and images
- Memos
- Cartoons
- Screenplays
- Lesson plans (where the students teach a unit of the curriculum to the class)
- Portfolios of daily/weekly learning
- Portfolios of daily/weekly “on-the-street” experiences and challenges divided into categories (rising prices, climate change, traffic, homelessness)
- Short plays
- Podcasts/videos (We could show a podcast or video in class, then ask students to choose something that resonated with them and do some research on it. They could then show us their research through screencasts and summarize what they find. Or we could have them create their own podcasts or videos).
- Tourist brochures for students’ homelands
- “Best of” guides for the Canadian city, town, region the students live in. These could include the following:
- Cultural events (performance arts)
- Sports events
- Fashion
- Art galleries and museums
- Restaurants
- Grocery stores
Final thoughts
Some may argue that this more casual approach to evaluations doesn’t prepare students for the stresses of the real world. But I say the opposite is true. After all, in business, employees are evaluated on the work they do day-to-day, week-by-week, not on a few isolated outputs. For instance, if a person works in sales, they are assessed on the quality of their work, how they contribute to the team, how they communicate with clients, and how they meet sales targets. The same holds true for students, only instead of sales targets, they have learning outcomes. And just as in a business, there are criteria to meet and regular check-ins.
These types of evaluations rely on student participation. Typically, we don’t require attendance because adults are old enough to make their own choices. True enough, but can we truly measure their learning without their participation? Isn’t that like trying to ride a bike with no wheels? Of course, students will miss the odd class, just as employees will miss the odd day of work. But would you promote, or even keep on the payroll, someone who rarely shows up or doesn’t show up at all?
If we want our students to be prepared for real life, they need to learn by doing, so that they can develop their skills and confidence, bit by bit, naturally and authentically. As Benjamin Franklin once said:
Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.
1 Comment
Hi Jennifer,
You make good points about assessments. Overall, I think our PBLA task based assessments are accurate reflections of a student’s progress, at least in my experience. I like your suggestion about group assessments. I don’t think I’ve done one of those. They’ve all been individual. Yet, work often requires us to work in teams, or to collaborate, so I think group assessments should be used. Our students need interpersonal skills, along with the ability to communicate in English.
Your post, along with a few recent others, focuses on the person, rather than the ‘Student’. Interesting. Maybe this focus reflects the way our system sees our students not as people, but as Students, objects. As the school year goes along, teachers get tired and overwhelmed, and we, too, lose our focus on the human factor, and for the sake of efficiency and expediency, we don’t see our students as people so much as names on the attendance list. Teaching is a grind.
What I like about your post is your emphasis on the human factor. You remind the reader that we are teaching people, and that’s how we need to engage them. It’s hard to do at times, but you make a good case to keep that as our aim.
Thank you for your post.
Derek