Page 213 - Teaching English at Primary Level: From Theory into the Classroom

Formative Assessment and Feedback

Table 14.1 Examples of AfL Strategies for YLLs
Strategies Description
Think-Pair- The teacher asks a question and the pupils think about their ideas before first
Share sharing them with a partner and then with the whole class.
Traffic Lights Traffic light cards (red, amber or yellow and green card) are used by learn-
ers to communicate to the teacher how confident they are about what they
are learning. Red may stand for ‘I don’t understand.’, amber for ‘I understand
partly.’, and green for ‘I understand fully.’ A simple alternative to traffic lights
is the thumbs up/down activity in which pupils show they are confident by
holding their thumbs up, horizontally to show that they partially understand
and thumbs down when they feel they need more time or support.
Admit and Exit Pupils write their feedback on small pieces of paper either at the start or end
Tickets of the lesson. Admit and Exit tickets may serve different purposes. The for-
mer may be used to get learners’ feedback about homework or their previous
knowledge on a particular topic, while the latter may be answers to teachers’
questions about what they have learnt or how they have felt during the les-
son.
Learning Pupils are organised in pairs as ‘learning partners’ or ‘buddies’ and are en-
Partners couraged to provide feedback, monitor and evaluate each other’s work.
Self-check A teacher can ask students to complete a short questionnaire with emojis at
Questionnaires the end of the lesson (Figure 14.4). In such a survey, they can discover what
their learners have found easy or difficult, what they have mastered or any dif-
ficulties they have experienced in the class.

Key Takeaways
• It is important to understand the benefits of using different types of as-
sessment.
• There are several informal ways of assessing YLs which are in line with the
principles of formative assessment.
• Assessment for learning allows learners to gain confidence in what they
are expected to learn and to what standard.

Further Reading
Britton, M. (2021). Assessment for learning in primary language learning and
teaching (Vol. 5). Multilingual Matters.
Brumen, M., & Garrote Salazar, M. (2022). How to assess primary school learners
of foreign languages: A guide for classroom practice. McGraw Hill.
Nikolov, M., & Timpe-Laughlin, V. (2021). Assessing young learners’ foreign lan-
guage abilities. Language Teaching, 54(1), 1–37.

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