Module teaching and integrating language skills lesson 1

Activity 1 Assessing students’ writing
Objectives:

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  to uncover current practices of assessment of students’ writing
  
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  to raise awareness of assessment criteria
  
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  to develop unified criteria for assessing writing
  

Time: 30 min
Materials: handout 3 of the previous session (Teaching Writing II)
Procedure:

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   (10 min) In groups, tell students that they will have to read and mark student’s B writing from the previous session (handout 3 of the previous session) the way they would normally do at their workplace (0-5).
  
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  ☺ (5 min) Collect the marks that the groups put on the board. Ask a representative from each group to explain how they assessed the sample and why they deducted certain marks.
  
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  Summarise the discussion and say that when students were explaining their marks they were commenting on grammar (accuracy), organisation, vocabulary range, task fulfillment and some others. Write these on the board. Tell students that these are called Assessment Criteria and that not only teachers should be guided by them but students should also know them well before they start writing. Establish that having assessment criteria makes it easier for a teacher to mark students’ writing and makes assessment clear and transparent to students. Make a transition to the next activity by saying that now you will talk about how helpful these criteria can be for students.