TI-AIE: Supporting language learning through formative assessment

What this unit is about

This unit is about supporting your students’ language learning through formative assessment. This kind of assessment is continuous and is carried out regularly throughout the school year. Formative assessment means collecting information about each of your students through a variety of activities, which helps you to assess their learning and progress. It will therefore help you to identify the students who are struggling, and to adjust your teaching so that you can support them. Similarly, it allows you to identify the students who are doing well and to plan how to provide them with challenging learning opportunities and use different learning materials so that they can progress. Formative assessment is promoted by the Right to Education Act 2009, as part of a curriculum that ensures the all-round development of the student.

The unit shows how you can carry out assessment of English in the course of your regular classroom teaching. It provides some ideas of how you can assess the different language skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing. It also has some suggestions for managing formative assessment within large classes.

What you can learn in this unit