Task details |
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| Name of oral assessment task | How to make an origami dog |
| EAL curriculum level range | A1, A2, BL, B1, SL, C1, C2 |
| Text orientation | Persuasive |
| Task type | Interaction and negotiation |
Task specification |
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| Purpose | To assess students’ ability to instruct the teacher to make an origami dog, after completing the activity themselves. (This activity is based on Writing Task 4 Origami Dog.) |
| Description | After completing and practising a simple procedure, making an origami dog, students instruct the teacher on how to make the dog. The task described is administered after the students have made the dog, and have completed the writing task worksheet in Writing Task 4: Origami dog. |
| Assumed knowledge and description |
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Learning/teaching context |
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| Language centre/mainstream class | EAL Support |
| Learning area | English |
| Topic/teaching Unit | Animals, art/craft |
| Assessment conditions |
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| Notes |
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Task implementation |
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| STAGE | ACTION STEPS |
| Pre-assessment activity |
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| Assessment activity |
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| Post-assessment activity |
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TEAL Oral Task 4 – Unmarked criteria sheet [PDF]
TEAL Oral Task 4- Unmarked criteria sheet [Word]
An explanation of the purpose, nature and use of criteria sheets is available at 4. Using the assessment criteria.
Purpose and value of task
This task assesses students’ abilities to instruct the teacher to make a simple origami dog using language relevant to giving instructions. This task relates to TEAL Writing Task 4 Origami dog. Other TEAL assessment tasks that involve procedural texts are TEAL Oral task 7: Playing a card game (spoken instructions) and TEAL Writing Task 13 Making a pizza: text reconstruction (recipe). Students can use their completed writing task sheet as a prompt, if they cannot remember the process.
The task assesses students’ abilities to instruct rather than just to listen and respond to instructions. They need to logically present the process, and to use task specific nouns and verbs as well as basic procedural and persuasive language. The task is quite demanding of their English language resources, as they need to explain the process in their own words. The task really encourages students to use these resources creatively to get the message across.
The task may not be suitable for students in Foundation or Year 1. Older students can be given a more complicated origami task as the basis for the assessment. The teacher interaction should be confined to asking clarifying questions.
Contextual information
The students in the samples were all prepared for this assessment task by completing the TEAL Writing task 5: Origami dog, which gives students the opportunity to practise making the dog, and completing a short writing activity. A day or so later, students undertook the oral assessment.
Commentary
The students all found the task engaging and enjoyed making their dogs. Most students also enjoyed the challenge of instructing the teacher and showing off their knowledge of how to make the dog. It is clear that at the earlier stages of English language development the students found the task quite demanding and found it hard not to take over the teacher’s paper to show how it is done. Even students at the more advanced Stages often struggled to explain what needed to be done, even though they were well able to understand the instructions themselves. This task contrasts with the Building a bridge task, which places fewer demands on students English language abilities, as they can avoid the need to verbalise complex instructions when working with another student.
Sample 1
Biographical information
Student A (left of screen)
Age: 10
Year level: 4
Home language: Greek
Student B (right of screen)
Age: 10
Year level: 4
Home language: Greek
Commentary
Student A
Student A is fully engaged in the task and eager to take part, but is very reliant on gesture and showing how the task is done, rather than explaining. However she provides a reasonably fluent commentary, within the constraints of her stage of English language development. Student A: … and after that fold another one smaller, and now you draw eyes nose mouth with black markers. She self corrects when she realises she has made an error, each other/other side.
The marked criteria sheet shows that the student meets most criteria at level 1 of performance, with some criteria at level 2.
The student’s language use in this task is consistent with the descriptions of students at Level B1, Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL.
TEAL Oral Task 4 – Criteria sheet – Sample 1 – Student A
Student B
Student B is less able to describe the process independently, relying on the teacher to provide much of the needed vocabulary, Teacher: The eyes or the ears? Student B: ears. He uses more gesture and is more hands on with the paper, needing to show the process – Student B: you can do that, and that … While he generally understands the teacher’s questions and instructions, he seems to be responding to non-verbal cues as well as verbal cues to understand what to do.
The marked criteria sheet shows that the student meets most criteria at level 1 of performance.
The student’s language use in this task is consistent with the descriptions of students at Level B1, Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL.
Sample 2
Biographical information
Student A (left of screen)
Age: 6 years 3 months
Home language: Dari
Student B (right of screen)
Age: 5 years 9 months
Home language: Tamil
Commentary
Student A
Student A is fully engaged in the task and understands the teacher’s instructions. He is eager to take part and show what he knows but has difficulty in conveying clear meaning. Student A: You first you get … that one … and you turn around and you have to do it … He uses a lot of gestures to assist his speech, but his meaning is still often unclear. He is more fluent when he is more confident of his own ability, with some quite long, but not always comprehensible turns. He sometimes seems not to understand the teacher’s comments or questions. He is less able to repair miscommunication or find other ways of explaining what he means than students at higher levels. He uses fewer spontaneous remarks or comments, indicating an earlier level of general fluency.
The marked criteria sheet shows that Student A meets all criteria at level 2 of performance.
The student’s language use in this task is consistent with the descriptions of students at Level A1, Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL.
TEAL Oral Task 4 – Criteria sheet – Sample 2 – Student A
Student B
Student B, while also understanding the task, is less confident than Student A. His comments and instructions are mostly shorter and rely more heavily on gestures. He frequently falls back on the phrase, Do like this … He often does not respond, perhaps because he simply does not yet have the English to do so. He shows generally good understanding of the teacher’s questions and comments. He seems to have fewer English language resources and strategies to fall back on when he is not able to say what he wants to say. His apparent shyness may also be impeding his performance.
The marked criteria sheet shows that Student B meets most of criteria at level 1 of performance in criteria related to some aspects of the interaction, but his performance on the task did not necessarily allow him to demonstrate other aspects.
The marked criteria sheet shows that the student meets most criteria at level 2 of performance.
The student’s language use in this task is consistent with the descriptions of students at Level A1, Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL.
Sample 3
Biographical information
Student A (left of screen)
Age: 6 years 3 months
Home language: Dari
Student B (right of screen)
Age: 6 years 5 months
Home language: Tamil
Commentary
Student A
Student A makes creative use of his English language skills to instruct the teacher. He uses some conventional procedural language such as next, then, now this side, but his use of inventive longer explanatory segments is most obvious. For example: touch it on top of it and move your (hand) on top of it. A bit more far. … this side and do to the other side, … a bit more far. Such circumlocution is used when the student cannot remember specific vocabulary such as fold, corner or press. He knows words like ‘rectangle’. His creative grammatical use when instructing is often in contrast to his more conventionally correct usage in more familiar contexts, You need black to make the nose and the eyes. The student listens carefully to the teacher’s questions, and responds appropriately, What part of the dog am I making? Ears.
The marked criteria sheet shows that Student A meets all criteria at level 3 of performance.
The student’s language use in this task is consistent with the descriptions of students at Level A2, Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL.
TEAL Oral Task 4 – Criteria sheet – Sample 3 – Student A
Student B
Commentary
Student B also is also fully engaged in the task. She gives quite understandable instructions and understands the teacher’s instructions. She uses novel sentences to describe the process, Fold it from this half and another half, We have to that one … to there and that one … to there. Press half … paper. Next put half ears like this. She uses gestures and has some interesting vocabulary, saying squash instead of fold. She frequently uses the phrases, and again, and like this.
The marked criteria sheet shows that Student A meets all criteria at level 3 of performance.
The student’s language use in this task is consistent with the descriptions of students at Level A2, Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL.
Sample 4
Biographical information
Student A: (left of screen)
Age: 10
Year level: 4
Home language: Greek
Student B: (right of screen)
Age: 10
Year level: 4
Home language: Greek
Commentary
Student A
Student A is confident in undertaking the task. She is clear in her explanations, fluently using some quite detailed language, Student A: you flip this to this corner, you have to put this … top corner … down to the bottom corner. She assists her partner, prompting him with words and phrases in English, and to help him remember the process. She covers most criteria at level 3.
The marked criteria sheet shows that the student meets most criteria at level 3 of performance.
The student’s language use in this task is consistent with the descriptions of students at Level B2, Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL.
TEAL Oral Task 4 – Criteria sheet – Sample 4 – Student A
Student B
Student B is more reliant on gesture and mime, and echoing what the teacher and his partner say. Although appearing less confident than Student A, he is still well able to describe the process, in quite simple but generally grammatical chunks, e.g. You put that there, in half. You have to turn it and now you are done. Teacher: … and then? Student: You draw it, the eyes. His accent is more pronounced than Student A. He covers all criteria at Level 2 and some at Level 3.
The marked criteria sheet shows that the student meets most criteria at level 3 of performance.
The student’s language use in this task is consistent with the descriptions of students at Level B2, Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL.
Sample 5
Biographical information
Student A (left of screen)
Age: 10
Year level: 4
Home language: Greek
Student B (right of screen)
Age: 10
Year level: 4
Home language: Greek
Commentary
Student A
Student A, while understanding the task, does not seem to yet have enough English to effectively describe the process. She relies more on gesture and showing how it is done, rather than on verbal instructions. She relies on leading questions from the teacher, whilst the task is being demonstrated, Teacher: do I fold it up? Student: Yes. She relies on prompting to describe what folds to make, echoing his use of the word fold. She can name what needs to be drawn, one nose, two eyes one mouth.
The marked criteria sheet shows that the student meets most criteria at level 2 of performance.
The student’s language use in this task is consistent with the descriptions of students at Level B1, Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL.
TEAL Oral Task 4 – Criteria sheet – Sample 5 – Student A
Student B
Student B is quite confident and fluent in his speech, using some fairly sophisticated grammatical structures: And then you do the same thing as there … And then you turn it around … And then that’s the fox face … He does not use many or varied time markers, but the nature of the context does not necessarily call for them. His explanation is minimalistic but effective. He does not use some of the more precise and technical language which might be expected for this task, such as ‘fold’, but uses effective circumlocution to explain what to do, you put it up for the ears.
The marked criteria sheet shows that the student meets most criteria at level 4 of performance.
The student’s language use in this task is consistent with the descriptions of students at Level B2, Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL.
Using this assessment to improve learning
For older students:
- Ask students what they could have done to make the task easier for the teacher to follow
- Students can watch their video again with the teacher. Together they can list some of the vocabulary that was difficult for them. They can then repeat the task, this time focusing on using the vocabulary which was difficult the first time.
- Students can learn another folding task, and after practising the verbs, can instruct a friend in how to make it.
