How to Plan a Successful Lesson Series: Informal Assessments

 Last week, I did an overview of assessments.  What they are and when to use some of them.  You can check it out here.  This week we are going to talk about the types of informal assessments that can be used in an English as a second language (or any other class for that matter) class. 

Informal assessments are "observing the learners' performance as they learn".  I like the above definition from here because it is simple and straightforward.  

Below are listed some different types of informal assessments along with their description, possible examples, and when they can be used.  
Types of informal assessment:

• Checklists: Checklists are where a teacher writes down the objectives in the unit and the students' name.  When a student has accomplished the objective, all the teacher has to do is write a check mark under the specific objective next to the student's name.  
• A checklist can be one sheet for the whole class like here or one sheet a paper per student (for a more detailed account).  
• The teacher can make a check mark on the sheet as they see students understanding the objective during practice and production of the lesson.  

FREE download HERE

• Portfolios: A portfolio is a collection of student’s work to chart progress and achievements. 
• For teaching English as a second language, a portfolio can include a recording of student’s reading, a writing assignment, a reading assignment with comprehension questions, self evaluation, and student selected pieces.
• Teacher puts in turned in homework or projects in the portfolios
• Self evaluations: Self evaluations are documents that allow students to "grade" their own progress.  
• Teachers can make self evaluations using the objectives of a unit, just put them in “I” statements.  For example: I can describe the parts of the body.  I can identify prefixes.  And then having columns labeled in various ways so students can mark if they understand the objective(s), need more help, or don’t understand. 
• This can be used as an Exit Ticket to be handed in at the end of the day or as a warm up the day after learning a certain objective. 

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• Exit  Ticket: Students take about 5 minutes to write down what they learned from the lesson or unit or answer 1 or 2 questions about the objective.  
• The students give it to the teacher (who is standing at the door) as they leave the classroom.  
• Enter Ticket: Students take about 5 minutes to write down what they learned from the lesson or unit or answer 1 or 2 questions about the objective.
• The students do this as a warm up the day after the objective was taught
• Peer teaching: Students teach their classmates what was learned.
• This can be after the first few students have completed the practice OR in pairs.  
• Participation: Students fluency and understanding can be graded with participation.  In a class that requires students to talk, the teacher can state a certain amount of times a student must talk in order to receive full credit for that part of the grade.  
• For example in a 40-minute class, a teacher can state that students must talk a minimum of 5 times.  
• Teachers can monitor this with a checklist or simply by keeping tally on the board each class.

Tallying Up how many times a student talks