[jeanette66]

After our team watched the ‘What did you have for lunch?” video, we completed the oral assessment criteria matrix separately. We found that we differed markedly in our opinion of their achievements based on our own teaching background. We found that the mainstream classroom teachers marked them much lower than the new arrival EAL teacher. Did anyone else find such a variance between teacher judgements?

We found the task was really interesting and highlighted the importance of moderation between teams and school staff.

[Anna-Lise]

Hi jeanette66

That’s really interesting. I have done quite a bit of assessor training and there is often a lot of ‘disagreement’ at the start of the discussion. Even very experienced markers/teachers will see different things in different pieces and it takes a while to reach a consensus. I agree, it is really important to have these discussions to make sure everyone’s on the same page, so to speak!

[noelene1]

Perhaps this is to be expected and teachers must remain mindful of results and ensure they are considered within the context of the assessment forum. The mainstream classroom teacher could potentially be comparing with the other cohort of students, whereas the EAL teacher would be more familiar with the presenting standards of EAL students.
Also need to consider that EAL specialists are often part time, making moderation often delayed and therefore not as powerful.
(from Noelene, Diana and Meredith)

[stephmpps]

My partner and I completed the oral assessment criteria together after we filmed our students and ‘what they had for lunch’. I found that we were really similar with where we wanted to place each student but I wonder if our assessment would come out noticeably lower than if an EAL trained teacher completed the same oral piece (we are not EAL trained).

[linda2]

I did the ‘What did you do on the weekend?’ task with a student and then used the Oral assessment criteria sheet. I only teach this particular student once a week, along with his whole class, so it was very interesting to have a one-on-one conversation with him. I haven’t noticed him participating in whole class discussions, and it’s not his day for ‘Show and Share’ when I’m there, so I haven’t observed him speaking in front of the whole class. However, one-on-one, he spoke clearly with good sentence structure, needing some encouragement to elaborate. As someone who is not familiar with the EAL continuum stages, I would say he is progressing towards A2.

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