ELA/literacy assessment (PDF)

The focus for this English Teaching: Practice and Critique eBook was assessment practice in the context of the English/literacy classroom, and the many forms it takes, for good or for ill. In framing the rationale, we mentioned Alison Wolf's assertion that assessment is the most powerful single influence on teaching and learning. This statement, made 20 years ago, is certainly true in today's climate, where English teachers in a range of settings are finding ways of weathering standardized testing regimes. There are a number of reasons why Wolf's assertion makes sense. Assessment in its various forms is so pervasive in our classrooms and in society at large that it is hard to imagine schooling without it. What does change are balances of power: between those who are measured and those who measure them; between those who measure and the forces that determine the assessment regimes they work within. Authors from diverse countries discuss topics such as students and teachers of writing in high-stakes literacy testing in Australia, an innovative model of assessment in subject English in New South Wales, Australia, a case study of dialogic assessment in one secondary English subject classroom in the UK, a Hong Kong case study on bringing innovation to conventional feedback approaches in EFL secondary writing classrooms, developing a multi-aspectual framework for systematic evaluation of locally prepared ELT materials in Iran, a Taiwan-based study of college students' awareness in organizational strategy use in English writing and the issues facing the teaching of spoken English in Iran's private language schools.