HOW
TO TEST REAL PROGRESS
Richard Bradford
Dear All,
Following our recent SIG meeting
in Cieszyn Dave has asked those of us who gave presentations to write a
follow-up piece for the newsletter. Quite exactly what to put in a follow-up
piece I'm not entirely sure as those most interested in my presentation
already saw what I had to offer, but I'll write a few words anyway.
Firstly, having been away from
Poland for 5 months, teaching English in my home town of Canterbury, I had
forgotten how much I enjoy being involved in the SIG and the wonderful
discussions we have on a topic we view in a similar way, namely adapting our
teaching methodology to best enable students to learn.
Secondly, for those who missed my
presentation, I basically covered two things:
1) My
theoretical explanation of the difference between Communicative Pull and
Grammatical Push teaching.
2) Some
practical examples of some things my classes involve.
Of the examples I covered,
perhaps the most notable was the progress test, developed in direct response
to criticism from my students who, having had the coursebook removed, felt
they were making no progress because they had no numerical way of directly
viewing their progress. The fact that they actually made excellent progress
counted for zero in their minds because they couldn't see it. Progress, by its
very nature, progresses step by step, bit by bit so the most students ever see
of their progress is one little bit. They forget how bad they were at the
beginning and don't appreciate how good they have become thanks to your
lessons and guidance and their real English practice. Ironically, it is not
only the students who can forget how bad they once were, teachers and parents
can too.
Thirdly, having said all that,
here is an example of one of my Progress Prover tests:
Progress Prover 7
Part 1
Please complete the following sentences, using as
many correct words as you can. Remember:
each correct word = 1 point but each incorrect word = -1 point
For example: Cars are... good to getting to work in the
morning.
This has 7 correct words and 1 incorrect so
= 7 points - 1 point = 6 points.
You now
have 10 minutes to do exactly as much as you can for the following 15
sentences:
1) People love...
2) Diets are...
3) Pizza...
4) Potatoes are...
5) Murders...
6) Computers create...
7) Computer games are...
8) Medicine is...
9) Colourful...
10) Flying is...
11) Mobile phone radiation is...
12) Exams are coming...
13) English is...
14) Last night...
15) Tomorrow...
Part 2
Please
listen to this text being read and fill in the missing words:
Today the world is ________ a
'global village'. More and more people of differing ________ are able to meet
and communicate. International ________ is no longer something unusual.
Foreign ________ are the norm. However, the threat of ________ and the
destructive impact of mass ________ on beauty-filled ________-spots has called
the ________ thing into question, for some. Perhaps we ________ re-think how
we travel and by how much. Perhaps we will, but, ________, I doubt it...
The answers for the gaps are:
called, nationalities, travel, holidays, terrorism, tourism, hot, whole,
should, somehow
Part 2 is read by the teacher,
twice, at close to normal speed – not only does it measure their general
aural comprehension and spelling it also gives a good indication of how much
their smiling faces really understand the words you speak. For each gap
correctly filled they get 2 points, if there is a small mistake then 1 point,
otherwise zero points.
The scores for both parts of the
test are added together; the next time such a test is given the important
figure is the % improvement in the score. A student going from 100 in the
first test to 106 in the second has not done as well as a student going from
40 in the first test to 76 in the second. It's about improvement and all
students, weak or strong, have their work effort equally measured.
For reference here are some
typical results from student tests, taken every 3 months over:
Anna:
17+17=34
56+17=73 (114%)
65+20=85 (250%)
Kasia
61+16=77
97+17=114 (148%)
153+20=173 (225%)
Daniel
5+12=17
14+11=25 (147%)
22+15=37 (218%)
Wojtek 71+19=90
82+15=97 (108%)
187+20=207 (230%)
These results are taken from
Polish but such results are typical for all students, from all nationalities
– my others were from French Guana, Mauritius, Re-union Island, the Congo,
France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Japan, China, Switzerland, the Czech
Republic and South Korea.
As always, any comments or
suggestions are more than welcome.
Happy teaching and hope to see
you at the next meeting.
Big smiles,
Richard Bradford