What is a Key Learning Area?

Formative assessment involves collecting evidence of student learning (e.g. through classroom observations, class activities, homework, quizzes), providing feedback and devising follow-up measures to promote better learning. However, formative assessment does not need to be conducted by teachers only. Students can also play an important role in it. To this end, peer review or evaluation, which is a valuable form of formative assessment, is encouraged as it enhances interaction and collaboration among students and enables them to understand each other’s points of view. Schools are also encouraged to extend AfL to AaL to allow greater involvement of students in the learning, teaching and assessment process. AaL can be promoted at an early stage of schooling.

Opportunities should be provided to develop young students’ learning strategies (e.g.

phonics skills, information skills, vocabulary building strategies) and awareness to reflect on their own learning through the use of appropriate guiding questions and teachers’ demonstration. Later on, students should be encouraged to set personalised learning goals, formulate plans to attain them, and monitor their own learning performance and strategies. When students engage in this ongoing metacognitive experience, they will develop a habit of mind to continually review their learning progress and make improvement. In this way, students gradually take ownership of, and responsibility for, their own learning. Example 25 illustrates how AaL can be practised to develop students’ reflection strategies and enhance their writing skills.

5.2.2 Different Modes of Formative Assessment

The following are some common modes of formative assessment which teachers are encouraged to use flexibly according to the school culture or policy, and the current educational context and practice. In addition to language knowledge and skills, other learning targets such as generic skills and values and attitudes should also be taken into consideration in formative assessment.

Learning Tasks and Activities

When carrying out well-designed learning tasks and activities, students demonstrate their progress towards the learning targets. Such tasks may include games, quizzes and oral presentations, which are commonly used in the learning and teaching process.

Evidence of learning collected should form the basis of feedback to promote further learning. It is not always necessary to record students’ performance formally.

Performance Tasks

Instead of setting tests which consist mainly of discrete items to assess students’

learning, performance tasks can be provided for students to demonstrate their learning and understanding of the target language items learnt. These tasks entail the application of language knowledge for a communicative purpose specific to a given context, and are set on the basis of specific performance criteria. The products can take a variety of forms, be it linguistic (e.g. designing a poster, acting out a story, producing a radio drama, doing a role play, carrying out an interview and survey, conducting a debate in class, producing a short video clip) or non-linguistic (e.g. making origami based on oral instructions, drawing the setting for a story, making a dish following a recipe, producing charts and graphs to present survey findings). Performance tasks are particularly suitable for young learners who may not be too advanced in writing skills development. They allow students to demonstrate learning and apply knowledge and skills in hands-on activities or authentic situations, which adds an experiential element to the learning and assessment process.

Performance tasks have a strong formative component and allow teachers to provide quality feedback to students throughout the process. To maximise students’ learning through the assessment, the success criteria for the final product can be shared with students before the assessment. This would not only deepen their understanding of the task requirements but also facilitate peer and self-assessment.

Projects

Teachers should assess the process as well as the product when assessing students’

performance in project work. They can use a variety of means such as observation, conferencing and monitoring the process of students’ writing. Continuous feedback should be given with the aim of stimulating students’ critical reflection and helping them improve their learning. Areas to be considered in assessing projects include:

• content (e.g. relevance of ideas, coverage of topic);

• organisation (e.g. logical development of ideas, connection of ideas);

• language use (e.g. appropriateness, fluency, style, accuracy);

• generic skills (e.g. communication, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, problem solving); and

• attitudes (e.g. confidence in using English, keenness to participate in activities, respect for others, an awareness of the potential influence of language use on others’

feelings).

Portfolios

A portfolio is a purposeful collection of a student’s work (e.g. samples of writing, recordings of speeches) that demonstrates progress in the development of knowledge, skills, and values and attitudes in a given area over a period of time. Guidelines for setting and assessing portfolios are provided in Appendix 13. Examples of two common types of portfolios for secondary students, i.e. theme-based portfolio and learning reflection portfolio are provided in Appendices 14 and 15 respectively.

Process Writing

Well thought-out writing involves a process consisting of the recursive stages of planning (i.e. brainstorming, researching, outlining), drafting (i.e. writing, rewriting, revising) and finalising (i.e. editing). At appropriate stages of the writing process, teachers can give feedback on students’ drafts. With adequate preparation, students can also be asked to provide feedback on the drafts of each other and of their own. Based on the feedback, students can improve their drafts with suitable revisions. Initial feedback can focus on global concerns, i.e. on ideas, organisation and text type conventions.

Thereafter, feedback can be given on local concerns, i.e. on language (including grammar and mechanics) and style.

Examples of feedback sheets for use at the secondary level are provided in Appendix 16. Teachers are encouraged to develop and use their own feedback sheets or guidelines with the appropriate criteria to suit the purposes of their writing activities and the needs of the students.

e-Assessment Tasks and e-Portfolios

e-Assessment tasks and e-portfolios are powerful tools for teachers to cater for learner diversity, provide timely feedback and promote AfL. e-Assessment tasks can be distributed, completed and marked automatically and administered electronically using the Internet or the local workstations. Some e-assessment platforms are equipped with an adaptive function, which can match items to students’ ability levels, and provide instant feedback so that students can have more active involvement in monitoring their own learning. e-Portfolios allow students to store, manage and showcase their work, which can be in the form of texts, images, and audio or multimedia files. They are both demonstrations of students’ abilities and platforms for self-expression, and can be regarded as a type of learning record that facilitates students’ reflection on their own learning.

Teachers are encouraged to make flexible use of e-assessment platforms, such as the following websites developed by the EDB and HKEdCity, to facilitate AfL and AaL:

• Online Question Bank

https://www.hkedcity.net/oqb

• Assessment Tasks Reference of the EDB One-stop Portal for Learning and Teaching Resources

https://www.hkedcity.net/edbatr/

• Student Assessment Repository (STAR) https://star.hkedcity.net/en/

5.2.3 Learning and Teaching Processes for Effective Formative Assessment

The following are some learning and teaching processes that facilitate effective use of the different modes of formative assessment outlined above:

Observation

By observing students’ body language, their facial expressions, how they use language in class, how they respond to learning tasks and how they interact during group work, teachers can gain insights into students’ affective, linguistic and cognitive development as well as their attitude towards language learning.

Effective Questioning

Through apt use of wait-time, cues, and a variety of question types (e.g. open and closed questions, content-centred questions, higher-order thinking questions, student-centred questions that prompt students to relate learning to their own experience), teachers can gather information about students’ performance in the development of language and generic skills as well as their values and attitudes towards specific topics or learning in general.

Effective Feedback

To promote learning, students need to be informed not only about their performance but also how to build on their strengths and address their weaknesses to make further improvement. Much of this information will come as feedback from teachers but some will be through students’ direct involvement in assessing each other’s, or their own work. Effective feedback that is timely and specific enables students to understand

where they are in their learning and what they should do next. It aligns with the assessment criteria and the learning objectives and helps promote self-reflection and the development of metacognitive skills essential to AaL.

One efficient and effective means of gathering and disseminating feedback for students is the use of feedback sheets (or checklists) for the various formative assessment tasks or activities. Examples of feedback sheets for common types of formative assessment are provided in Appendix 17. Please also see Chapter 5 of the Basic Education Curriculum Guide — To Sustain, Deepen and Focus on Learning to Learn (Primary 1 — 6) (2014), and Booklet 4 of the Secondary Education Curriculum Guide (Secondary 1 — 6) (2017) and the AfL website at: http://www.edb.gov.hk/afl_en for more information and examples on the topic.

Peer and Self-assessment as Learning Activities

In addition to giving feedback, teachers are advised to provide opportunities for peer assessment and self-assessment. Peer assessment enables students to learn among themselves and encourages interaction while self-assessment promotes reflective thinking, which is vital for developing students’ capacity for lifelong and self-directed learning. Meaningful peer and self-assessment does not mean the mere provision of assessment forms for students to evaluate themselves or their peers. Instead, teachers are advised to guide students throughout the assessment process, discuss or negotiate with them the success criteria, provide sample work for discussion or illustration of the expected standards, and explicitly introduce metacognitive strategies (e.g. goal setting, the use of reflection tools such as K-W-L charts) that enhance the depth and quality of students’ self-reflection. Examples of self-assessment forms that encourage students’

self-reflection and enhance their metacognitive skills are provided in Appendices 18 and 19.

Conferencing

Conferencing is generally held for the purpose of giving feedback and opening up communication between the teacher and students. Effective conferencing is focused and has specific achievable goals (e.g. revising a letter to better connect with the intended reader, discussing progress on a particular task or project).

During conferencing, teachers ask open-ended questions that encourage discussion and give students ample opportunity to ask questions and bring up issues. It is necessary to create a trusting atmosphere to facilitate effective conferencing. Teachers may contribute in a variety of ways (e.g. discussing problem-solving or time management techniques, modelling a revision or editing technique, offering feedback on ideas and language use), depending on the conference goals and the individual needs of students. Before ending the conference, it is important to summarise what has been covered and set plans for follow-up action.

For illustration of how teachers can make use of formative assessment to promote learning, see Examples 26, 27 and 28.

5.2.4 Implementation and Design of Summative Assessment

Teachers are encouraged to use assessment tasks to evaluate students’ performance against the learning targets. The design of summative assessment tasks for English Language and Literature in English is basically the same as that of learning tasks.

However, in learning tasks, teachers need to conduct appropriate pre-task, while-task and post-task activities to engage students in constructing knowledge actively and progressively, as well as to provide appropriate support and scaffolding to facilitate students’ successful completion of the tasks, whereas in summative assessment tasks, students are often required to carry out the tasks independently so that teachers can assess their achievement.

When designing internal summative assessment tasks or papers, teachers should take into consideration the following:

• There is an appropriate, balanced and adequate coverage of the learning targets and objectives. Summative assessment can comprise a number of tasks or activities that cover the major aspects of learning and teaching over a period of time. It should not focus mainly on specific language forms and features. Students’ knowledge and

mastery of such language forms and features can be assessed through short quizzes or daily activities.

• The scope and level of difficulty of assessment items, tasks or papers suit the abilities and needs of students. Students should be given opportunities to attempt questions which vary in terms of linguistic and cognitive demands so that they can be

reasonably challenged and progress along the developmental continuum.

• Internal summative assessment is NOT confined to a pen-and-paper test only.

Different assessment modes (e.g. reading aloud, discussion, individual presentation, performance task) should be adopted to promote the attainment of various learning outcomes (e.g. language knowledge, generic and subject-specific skills), and to allow students of varied abilities, interests and learning styles to demonstrate their achievements.

• The rubrics are clear, concise and correct. The choice of words is appropriate to students’ ability as well as the level of difficulty of the tasks.

• Task-specific criteria and marking schemes are agreed upon by teachers of the same level when deciding the extent to which the learning targets and objectives can be achieved. This in turn forms a solid basis for the diagnostic use of data gathered from internal assessments to inform learning and teaching.

• Due acknowledgement is given to fluency and effective expression of ideas in students’ performance in addition to accuracy.

• For the English Language subject, the design of the assessment tasks or activities stresses the importance of purposeful use of English for communication in meaningful contexts, the integrated use of the four language skills, and a balance of learning experiences in the Interpersonal, Knowledge and Experience Strands.

Assessment tasks should be contextualised, related to students’ experience and well-connected between parts to make the assessment an engaging learning experience for students. Open-ended questions, which can stimulate thinking and facilitate students’

integrative and creative use of language, can be included.

Examples of summative assessment tasks at the primary and secondary levels are provided in Appendices 20 and 21.