MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

LAC HONG UNIVERSITY

--------------------

FINAL ASSIGNMENT
Subject:
LANGUAGE TESTING AND ASSESSMENT

Lê Huỳnh Long - 921000137

Đinh Nữ Hồng Anh - 921000102
Convenor: Huynh Thi Bich Phuong, PH.D

Bien Hoa- 2022

Question 1: State and give an analysis of differences in formative and summative
assessment.
Which one do you support to assess the learners of English at high school? Give reasons
and explanation.

Assessment in the classroom allows educators to ask and answer vital questions: Are
students learning what they were intended to know? Are they making progress? How can
teachers adapt their instructional tools and methods to improve the learning experience
and academic outcomes for all students?

Evaluating student progress and learning can range from brief in-person teacher
observation to sophisticated software programs that measure many data points.

Along this continuum, various assessment strategies can be applied, including interim,
benchmark, diagnostic, and screening assessments. At each end of the evaluation spectrum
lie two often-used types of reviews: formative and summative.

Many educators are likely familiar with these terms but may sometimes feel lost in the
terminology. How do they differ? How are they applied? And what are the purposes of
these two different types of assessment? In this article, we’ll define formative and
summative assessment in the classroom, explore their differences, and share a few
examples of each.

1. What is Formative Assessment?

In a nutshell, formative assessment can be thought of as checkups to monitor and evaluate

students’ progress during the course of their learning. The word “during” is vital, as this
type of assessment gives teachers feedback to help them improve student learning
outcomes in real-time. With formative assessment, teachers have endless opportunities to
shift and adapt their instruction.

“Formative assessments guide instruction and are, arguably, the most powerful assessment
tool an educator has at their disposal,” writes Peter McLaren, executive director of Next
Gen Education and Into Science author. “Like a GPS device in an automobile, the teacher
can use formative assessment to ‘recalculate’ and move the students back on the right
road.”

Formative assessment can take many forms, among them quizzes, class games, on-the-
spot evaluations, teacher observation, and exit tickets. For example, a science teacher
might design an exit ticket for a lesson on states of matter by handing out an informal end-
of-class query asking students to name an example of a solid, liquid, and gas. These “mini-
quizzes” can give the teacher a quick overview of students’ understanding of the concepts.
The formative assessment presents an opportunity for the teacher to personalize
instruction to the unique needs of each student. Insights from the formative evaluation can
guide teachers to adapt lesson plans and offer alternative teaching methods. For example,
a student failing to grasp a concept after completing a worksheet might benefit from a
class game that practices the same skills and concepts.

Formative assessment presents an opportunity for the teacher to personalize instruction to

the unique needs of each student. Insights gleaned from ongoing formative assessment
can guide the teacher to adapt lesson plans and offer alternative methods of instruction.
For example, a student who is failing to grasp a concept after completing a worksheet
might benefit from a class game that practices the same skills and concepts.

Formative assessment tends to be qualitative; teachers often use them to just get a “quick
read” on how well a student is progressing. Even observing students as they work and
jotting down notes can be a type of formative assessment.

While formative assessment is often informal, it can still be rigorous. We consider this in
our own HMH programs; for example, by using data from Waggle to give highly targeted
suggestions for practice and instruction, or by being strategic and specific in teacher-
facing formative assessment suggestions in the teacher’s edition of our core offerings such
as Go Math or Into Reading.

2. What Is Summative Assessment?

Summative assessments occur “after the fact” in that they measure how much a student
has learned, retained, and mastered throughout the study, instructional unit, or lesson. Did
the students actually learn what they were expected to know?

Summative assessments can take a variety of forms, including state tests, final exams,
reports, presentations, and projects that demonstrate the cumulative knowledge a student
has gained over the course of study or during a specific lesson or unit. They are usually
aligned with specified and standard criteria, benchmarks, and rubrics, and tend to use
quantitative data that delivers results in the form of a scale score, percentage, or grade.

Small-scale summative assessments, such as chapter tests, can guide future lesson
planning. Large-scale summative assessments, such as final exams and statewide tests,
can be more far-reaching and affect student class placement and district-wide curriculum
planning.

Of course, not all assessments fall into the strict categories of formative or summative;
interim and benchmark assessments; for example, help educators monitor student progress
along the way.
3. What Is the Difference Between Formative and Summative Assessment?

If formative assessment measures how a student is learning during a course of study,

summative assessment is designed to measure “how much” a student has learned after a
unit or course has reached its completion. One way in which the two are commonly
distinguished is that formative is considered assessment for learning while summative is
considered assessment of learning. Formative assessment can happen as frequently as a
teacher needs, and the information gleaned can impact one’s teaching in real time.

Summative assessment provides teachers with an overview of what students have learned
throughout a particular unit of study—a semester, a full year, or, in the case of the SAT,
all the cumulative knowledge and skills that they have gained over a long span of time.
Summative assessment can also help teachers determine if their students are ready to
proceed to the next level. Have they gained the necessary knowledge and skills to graduate
to the next course or grade?

Because summative assessment can carry high stakes, such as program admission or final
grades, it is important to have the assessment be valid and reliable. Multiple-choice items
should be written carefully, and written and oral responses should have clear rubrics and
consistent evaluation in order to give accurate, reliable measures of student achievement.

Lower stakes does not mean less importance, however. “Although formative assessments
have lower stakes, they are really changing the learning trajectory for students,” says
David Bain, SVP, Innovation and Analytics at HMH. “They are more important because
they change the student’s learning path. Teachers make instructional and programmatic
decisions based on these assessments.”

Both forms of assessment have effective uses but can leave gaps in our overall
understanding if not used wisely and in conjunction with one another.

“With formative assessment you stand a much better chance of getting a clear picture of
what the students learned that day or week, but you won’t be able to determine what
they will retain over the course of time from that particular assessment,” says Robert A.
Southworth, Jr., EdD, president of The SchoolWorks Lab. “With summative assessment,
you can see what they retained, but at that point it is too late to change your teaching and
correct the past. Ideally, both forms of assessment should be combined into an integrated
system that can deliver learning data all along the way.”
4. Similarities Between Formative and Summative Assessment

Formative and summative assessment in the classroom can often take the same shape. An
essay demonstrating knowledge of the American Revolution, for example, could be
assigned in the middle of a unit to give a teacher a clear read on what a student has learned
thus far. Or it could be assigned at the end of the semester as a summative wrap-up of
everything the student has learned during the unit.

So while similarities exist in the methods used to measure student understanding and
progress, we should consider formative and summative assessments in the light of how
we intend to use the results. Will the assessment deliver insights that can be used
immediately to change a student’s learning experience? Or might the insights be used
more broadly; e.g., to look back over an entire course of study or evaluate a student
population as a whole?

“The distinction between formative and summative assessment is primarily related to the
ways in which assessment results are used, as many assessments developed for formative
purposes can be used for summative purposes and vice versa,” according to UC Berkeley
education professors Dante D. Dixson and Frank C. Worrell.

5. Formative vs. Summative Assessment Comparison Chart

Occurs frequently throughout instruction Occurs after the instruction is complete

(e.g., during a unit of study)
Focuses on assessment for learning
Informs ongoing instruction to improve
student learning outcomes in real time
Usually covers discrete content (e.g., one
skill or concept)
Often uses qualitative (descriptive) data to
evaluate a current state based on informal
measurement
(e.g., at the end of a unit of study)
Focuses on assessment of learning
Evaluates how well the instruction
worked in the past
Covers larger instructional units of study
such as a full semester or a year
Often uses quantitative (numerical) data
to apply formal measurement and
evaluation techniques to determine
outcomes

6. Examples of Formative and Summative Assessments

Formative assessment can be used to guide instruction on an ongoing basis. Some

common types of formative assessment include:

• Exit tickets
• KWL charts
• In-class discussions, coupled with teacher observation and note-taking
• Quizzes
 • Games
• Polls during a lesson
• Class projects

Summative assessments can take different forms, but are generally used to “provide
information about students’ achievement of academic content standards following a
longer period of instruction, such as a full semester or school year,” according
to WestEd.org. For example, many students must take certain state-mandated
achievement tests to measure progress towards grade-level performance expectations.
Other forms of summative assessment can include:

• Multiple-choice exams
• End-of-unit tests
• Final class essays that demonstrate cumulative knowledge

7. Which one do you support to assess the learners of English at high school? Give
reasons and explanation.

Periodic assessment and regular assessment do not contradict or contradict each other in
teaching practice. Thus, the joint assessment does not mean that we suddenly stop grading
and commenting on student learning, and periodic assessment always has a place in
teaching practice. Instead, stock assessment and periodic assessment are complementary
approaches, and regular assessment will help students perform better during periodic
assessments. Systematic reviews can reflect the impact of routine checks.

In all cases, teachers are advised to use regular assessments in their teaching practice. The
introduction and use of standard checks in the classroom can help teachers fulfill program
requirements. In addition, a routine inspection can also have tangible benefits for students.

For assessment for the sake of learning, in particular, regular review:

There is a strong emphasis on transferable learning. Judgment becomes a much clearer

process because it relies on the most important information shared with learners, and
learners can take responsibility for their learning and ultimately self-assess their progress.
Regular assessment is nothing new addition to a teacher's job. It integrates very clearly
into the teacher's daily routine in the classroom.

One of the assessment criteria for the learning process is the regular feedback (formative
feedback) of teachers to students. Good feedback will motivate students, help students
build self-esteem, and have positive thoughts. Feedback must be no less, not late, not
``faint,'' and not carry personal feelings. Teachers can use feedback for student products
such as ``Okay'' or ``Need more effort''. However, such feedback is not always good
feedback for students. Teacher feedback on student learning products will be meaningful
to students if it advises them on what needs to be improved.

- The first is to let students know where they are (this means how far they are compared
to the requirements of the program);

- Defining the required goals to be achieved;

- The solutions to achieve that goal.

To be truly meaningful, teacher feedback needs to help plan the next step in student
learning.

Regular responses need to be timely; related to academic expectations; determine when

to be considered successful; determine when and how improvements can be made, and
finally give feedback through ideas or words that the students can do.

One of the most frequent forms of feedback teachers use written feedback. Written
feedback is typically found in one of three ways: scoring/rating, rating/rating+comment,
and comment only. Studies show that students make the most progress in learning when
teachers give them feedback only with comments without grades or ratings.

Currently, I am an English teacher at Tran Dai Nghia highschool. The current assessment
test at my school will follow two solutions. On every flag-raising Monday, each block
will randomly select one student to test their vocabulary from grade 10 to grade 12. And
this test helps them reinforce their English vocabulary every week. During the flag-raising
ceremony, the children were more motivated by the cheers and expectations from their
friends. In addition to the above test, every Friday night, students will have an online
multiple-choice quiz on the Google classroom app to check their understanding of the
week's lesson for teachers to grasp students quickly. From there, change the way of
teaching directions to suit students in each class.

Even with comments attached, students often ignore them because the mood of receiving
success or failure is already dominated by numbers or words from grades and ratings.
When students receive their scores with comments, the first thing they look at is their
score, and then they care what your score next to them is. In that case, the student will
not usually read the comment.
Question 2: Suggest the assessment criteria for the final test of the course named
Writing 4.
Writing is one of the most specific abilities which could help students easily distill their
ideas into meaningful illustration in a digestible way. Acording to Harmer, he said that
writing skill plays an pivotal part in majority of activities where the focus is on something
else such as language practice, acting out or speaking.
On top of that, , writing has been the representation of the language in textual medium
through the use of a set of sign or symbols. Indeed, ones consider that writing is incredibly
complicated. Elbow once said that writing is not only the ability to generate words and
ideas, but it is also the ability to criticize them in order to describe which ones to use.
Moreover, writing has been widely regarded as a crucially essential skill in the teaching
and learning of English as a Second Language (ESL) as it is a comprehensive skill that
helps reinforce vocabulary, grammar, thinking, planning, editing, revising, and other
elements. Writing also helps to improve all the other skills of listening, speaking and
reading as they are all interrelated (Saed and Al-Omari in Yunus, and Chien 2016: 1).
As far as I am concerned, many EFL leaners have encountered to a smorgasbord of
obstacles during studying English, and most of them consider writing is the most
challenging skill. EFL students are required to complete several courses of writing during
their university time. It takes such a long time for anyone to improve their writing skills.
In order to assess writing’s performance of EFL learners, writing assessment can be
considered as an intergral part which do wonders for teachers and students in terms of
evaluating their level appropriately. Acording to Cambridge, understanding the
Cambridge English Writing Assessment Scale Every Cambridge English Qualification
targets a specific level of the CEFR and includes a range of tasks that are suitable for
learners at this level. The detailed descriptorsin the Writing Assessment subscales are
slightly different for each exam and are based on its target CEFR level.
To understand the considerable role of writing assessment, the researcher would like to
suggest the assessment criteria for the final test of the Writing 4 course for junior English
majors. The core material is based on is Research Methodology: A Step-by-step Guide for
Beginners (Kumar, 1996). EFL learners are assumed to be able to write good basic types
of short essays in English after three courses of Writing. At the end of this forty-five-
period course, students are supposed to be able to write a writing report/paper
academically in the length of about 3000 words with the standards including organization,
format, language use, citation and reference.
To be more specific, the validity and reliability of writing assesment must be taken into
consideration, so the detailed descriptors in the rating scale must be prestigious.
Furthermore, The scales should be graded descriptions characterizing different levels of
performance. It is also the rating scales that contribute to the validity of the assessment.

This is the criteria for the course of writing 4 depicted clearly and appropriately based
on the rating scale

Excellent Good Satisfactory Poor

Minor
Relevances and
All content is irrelevances Content is
misinterpretatio
Content relevant to the and/or totally
n of task may be
task. omissions may irrelevant
present.
be present.
Uses the Uses the
conventions of conventions of
the the
communicativ communicativ Produces text
e task to hold e task in that
Communicativ
the target generally communicates
e Achievement
reader’s appropriate simple ideas in
attention and ways to simple ways.
communicate communicate
straightforwar straightforwar
d ideas d ideas.
Text is Text is
generally well connected and
Text is
organised and coherent, using
connected using
coherent, using basic linking
Organisation basic, high
a variety of words and a
frequency
linking words limited number
linking words
and cohesive of cohesive
devices devices.
Uses a range of everyday Uses everyday Uses basic
Lexical
vocabulary appropriately, with vocabulary vocabulary
Resource
occasional inappropriate use of generally reasonably
 less common lexis. Uses a range appropriately, appropriately
of simple and some complex while . Uses simple
grammatical forms with a good occasionally grammatical
degree of control. Errors do not overusing forms with
impede communication. certain lexis. some degree
Uses simple of control.
grammatical Errors may
forms with a impede
good degree of meaning at
control. While times.
errors are
noticeable,
meaning can
still be
determined.

References
B., K. (2010). Balanced Assessment: From Formative to Summative. Solution Tree.

Harmer, J. (2001). The practice of English language teaching. London/New York, 401~405.

Hawkey, R. &. (2004). Developing a common scale for the assessment of writing. Assessing writing,
9(2), 122-159.

K., D. (2008). AN INVESTIGATION OF FORMATIVE AND SUMMATIVE PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT

METHODS. Mary Frances Callele.

Kumar, R. (2018). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage.

learning, C. (. (2004). Formative and summative evaluation. Retrieved March.

M., M. (2009). Measurement and Assessment in Teaching (Tenth Edition). Pearson Education.

Moore, T. &. (2005). Dimensions of difference: A comparison of university writing and IELTS writing.
Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 4(1), 43-66.

Weigle, S. C. (2002). Assessing writing. Cambridge University Press.