Getting To Know Our Students Through Formative Evaluation
By Gena Bennett

An instructor cannot effectively teach a student without knowing his or her needs. Jim Cummins says, "Human relationships in the classroom are the foundation of students' learning. Teachers need to learn about their students so that they can respond to them knowingly and can focus and adjust their instruction." These needs are revealed by the process of assessment, the collection of data on a student and evaluation, the interpretation of that data, looking at a learner's strengths and identifying the next learning goals. When we think of assessment, traditionally we envision a formal measurement, designated moments when we administer a prepared instrument for the purpose of measuring competence, such as a test administered for placement in a program. The need to learn about our students, personally and academically, is met, however, through informal measurement. Also known as formative evaluation, or assessing students in order to help them continue the growth process, informal measurement is the moment by moment, incidental and intended judgments of students' performance; evaluative coaching and feedback on tasks designed to elicit performance, but not for the purpose of recording results. Douglas Brown says, "Our success as teachers is greatly dependent on constant informal assessment, for it gives learners information about how they are progressing toward goals and what the next step in the learning process might be." And, as John Murphy says, "Getting to know students better is also one way that English language teachers can grow as professionals." Hence, the need for formative evaluation is vital.

More research and attention has been given to formative evaluation tools in the past decade; these tools have become known as "alternative" methods of assessment. I am not sure what your reaction to the term "alternative" is; some people raise their eyebrows and instantly take a greater interest, while others lower their eyebrows and automatically become suspicious. If you respond like the later, do not let terminology mislead you. Because knowing our students is so paramount to the success of our students, I want to discuss 5 alternative methods of formative evaluation that we as teachers can use to ensure we identify and meet our students' needs. Each tool is wonderfully non-obtrusive. None of these tools are novel; you have probably encountered at least one somewhere in your education or previous classroom experience. Nonetheless, these tools are simplistic, and, therefore, easily carried out in even the busiest classroom, ensuring our students continue the growth process.

The first tool is goal setting; many researchers actually site goal setting as the cornerstone of a learner-centered environment. I have already mentioned the word goal twice in defining assessment and evaluation, both times in reference to helping students reach goals and form new ones. Goal setting, both long-term and short-term, helps both teacher and student build a framework for planning and organizing lessons and monitoring progress, as well as maintaining motivation in students. Generally, the long-term goal of an ESL/ EFL program is to continually improve the student's knowledge and use of the English language. More specifically, a short-term goal may be to prepare students for a certain test or experience. Many of the decisions about which methods and materials to use in a program or classroom should take into consideration the learner's long-term goals as well as the program's. From interest inventories completed by my students I know approximately 98% of my students, current or former, have already identified long-term goals. ESL/ EFL students' long-term goals may range from attending an American university or entering graduate school to being more competitive in business or mastering the English language. By having the students write down and verbalize their long-term goals, we are constantly keeping the goal in front of them, helping to ward off discouragement and maintain motivation.

I mentioned earlier a program may have a short-term goal such as preparing students for a certain test or experience. Most students, however, have not thought to set short-term goals for a single academic session. Often, they are also not able to detect their own progress in such a short time. I taught in a private, pre-academic English program which gave teachers the short-term goal of completing the textbooks for each session. At the beginning of each session, I also specifically set aside time for students to review their texts and set specific short-term goals for that session. For example, one level included intensive grammar study and a tremendous amount of reading in history texts. A student in this level, after reviewing his texts and syllabus, could make a short-term goal to improve his/her reading skills (by reading at least 4-5 hours per week) and also to make a conscience effort to integrate clauses (as we discuss noun clauses, adjective clauses, adverb clauses) into his/her speech and writing so his/her sentences are not short and choppy. The chances are high the student would accomplish these particular objectives as a result of his/her study time even if he/she did not identify and write them down. But, in doing so, he/she now has concrete goals on which he/she can focus in the midst of his/her intensive study, and concrete, personal accomplishment at the end of each session. Instead of just completing textbooks and another level, he/she gets a real measure of having improved his/her English. In addition, a special bond has been created between teacher and student through the process of setting and realizing the goals. The most important result of goal setting, though, is the student sees progress and remains motivated.

Personality profiling and learning style testing can be a somewhat controversial topic. A company for which I worked based their entire hiring process on the results of a personality test. Although this is a little extreme, some usefulness can result from personality profiling and learning style testing in the classroom. The key to these tests, however, is to use them as guides to help the teacher interact and communicate more effectively with the individual student.

There are actually several published personality tests. Level 3 of the New Interchange series has a simple test that can be used in intermediate level classes. Brown makes mention in Teaching by Principles of the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI). The test with which I am most familiar is the DISC test. On one side are columns of adjectives, such as decisive, talkative, patient, and detailed, which the test taker ranks as being most or least like him/herself and a chart to plot the results. The other side contains the "interpretation" of the plotted results. A student who ranks high in the first column, D, may have strengths that include "problem-solver" and weaknesses that include "dislike details." These personality tests provide us with a general understanding of who a student is and his potential tendencies, enabling us to more effectively communicate with that student.

Similarly, a learning style is the way a person takes in, stores, and retrieves information. Ehrman did some research in the early 90's demonstrating a direct correlation between personality styles and learning styles. People differ in which of the five senses they rely on when learning. You probably know the three main senses a learner uses are sight, hearing, and touch. As with personality profiling a learner can be described according to which sense he relies on most: Auditory-hearing; Visual-sight; Kinesthetic/Tactile-movement, touch. An auditory learner learns by listening and discussing; a visual learner learns by visualizing and looking at text, charts, pictures, etc., and a kinesthetic/tactile learner by doing and being physically involved in a task. Laubach (1994) offers a chart which outlines some learning style characteristics and ideas for activities you can conduct in the classroom to appeal to each style. For auditory learners, it is helpful to ask the learner to repeat instructions or to use music and rhythm; for kinesthetic learners, you can develop writing activities to reinforce the reading skills being learned or use computer simulation and board games. For visual learns, flash cards and diagrams are helpful.

In the late 80's, K. Willing did some research of specifically second language acquisition learning styles. Willing found four "learner" types: concrete, analytical, communicative, and authority-oriented. Concrete learners like games, pictures, and talking in pairs; analytical learns enjoy studying grammar, finding their own mistakes, and studying alone. Communicative learners learn by watching television in English and talking with native English speakers; authority-oriented learners prefer the teachers to explain everything and write everything in a notebook. You can see the overlap of preferences between the standard learning styles and the second language acquisition styles. By being aware of students' learning styles and personality traits, teachers can better instruct with activities and presentations that meet those styles.

You are probably familiar with dialogue journals, at least in name if not in practice. Dialogue journals are journals written by students with the teacher as the intended audience. The teacher reads the entries and writes a response, thus opening a dialogue with the student. In this exchange, the teacher is able to make honest responses to what the student writes, not necessarily to teach, but to converse. There is some debate as to whether the dialogue journal is a formal measurement of assessment, measuring competence, or an informal tool, simply a dialogue. Although you can use the journals to assess writing style and instruction needs, be very careful that you are not "recording results" as this goes against formative measurement. Many teachers who use dialogue journals see them as a way to listen to students and build relationships, a real key to focusing your instruction. Simply put, the dialogue journal is the student writing you a note, and you writing him back. From the students' entries, you may be able to detect minor, or even major, issues in their lives that are potentially affecting their academic performance. For instance, although many students in intensive English programs have F-1 visas and are not supposed to work, they very often do; this potentially interferes with their studying or leaves them literally "worn out." And, although we "speak" with our students on a regular basis, they may feel embarrassed or uncomfortable voicing their situation. It is almost always easier to write something rather than say it. Dialogue journals give students a non-threatening opportunity to share with us. I use dialogue journals very informally in the form of e-mail. At the beginning of each session, I give students my e-mail address and invite them to e-mail me with any questions or concerns they may have about the class, to let me know when they will be unable to attend, or just to say hi. In my response, I never correct, but often model. In my responses, I also try to ask questions that will keep the dialogue going. I rarely refer to these "dialogues" in class, but my communication with the student is evidenced by a more relaxed, effective relationship in the classroom. We know each other better and have a better rapport.

Anecdotal records are the written records a teacher keeps of her observation of students. Increasingly, teachers are finding that while testing and work samples are helpful, their knowledgeable observations of students at work can be very useful. As a formative evaluation tool, anecdotal (defined in the dictionary as short narratives of interesting or amusing incidents) records describe important observations of students that have important implications for noting progress or defining future instruction. The major purpose of anecdotal records is to record your discoveries of what a student can or cannot do. By keenly observing the student and recording the observations for later reference, you can identify strengths and weaknesses, and then use these understandings to identify next learning goals. If you notice, for example, while a student is reading aloud he/she notices a mistake he/she makes does not make sense and he/she goes to correct it, you can reinforce and praise this later, and see if there is any follow-up you can do to develop this skill. Another purpose of anecdotal records is to track changes in attitude or behavior. If a student initially balks at every writing assignment but later approaches the assignments with enthusiasm, this is an important change that can greatly effect the acquisition of this skill. Often I like to provide my students with supplemental materials as I see they need them. When I was recently teaching past and past-passive gerunds and infinitives, I noticed one student was having trouble with the simple passive construction. I quickly noted this on my anecdotal form, and later provided him several supplemental materials on the passive. Anecdotal records can help teachers keep track of the observations they make of students and allow teachers to follow up on those observations.

Interest inventories are written questionnaires developed by teachers to tap into students' interest in learning, general interests, or school-related interest. Similarly, interviews are question and answer sessions conducted one on one with teacher and student. Knowing the interests of our students can help us select appropriate reading material, or make connections to the materials we use, guide students in the selection of writing topics, or even to make curriculum changes. As any good formative evaluation tool, interest inventories help teachers learn about their students so that they can respond to them knowingly and can focus and adjust their instruction. Interest inventories can be used to begin conversations with students or to group students by interests for some activities. You can also use interest inventories in collaboration with dialogue journals to assess students' interest. Interest inventories have been very useful for students who are not especially motivated to do well or who do not exhibit much enthusiasm for the topics assigned in school, or for those who lack intrinsic motivation or have disabilities. Specifically, we are learning more about how the student views him/herself as a learner in order to gain instructional insight. Interest inventories and interviews are a way to listen to students, and in the process, learn to be a more effective teacher. Questions for inventories and interviews usually include: What hobbies do you have? What is your favorite television show/movie? How do you practice English outside of class? Etc. This knowledge about students' interests can be invaluable to a teacher in preparing curriculum and classroom activities.

Assessment and evaluation we know are extremely important for learning. Although formal measurement is important, informal measurement, especially formative evaluation, is crucial for the teacher in the classroom. McPherson (1997) conducted research on action research by a teacher in her own language classroom; her most important conclusion was "there is more to learning a language than learning language." The five tools I presented today-goal setting, personality profiles and learning styles, dialogue journals, anecdotal records, and interest inventories and interviews-can give teachers that insight into the student we would not otherwise have, allowing us to better focus our instruction. In addition, each of them provides an element of reading, writing, and/or speaking, allowing students an authentic way to practice their English. Most importantly, they allows us to learn about our students-who they are, their tendencies, their goals, life circumstance, and interests-so that we can effectively help them learn and continue the growth process.

Gena Bennett is currently a curriculum/program developer for the Topia English Zone in Seoul, South Korea. She can be reached at genabennett@yahoo.com

References
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