Home > Assessment > Teacher's Book Class VII
Assessment - Class VII
The overall assessment pattern for the middle school is along the lines of the new CBSE English curriculum for course A. The testing policy for Class IX envisages a combination of two kinds of assessment: an end-of-the-year examination and continuous assessment. A similar pattern is recommended for New! Learning to Communicate
| 1. |
Final Examination
|
... |
40% |
| 2. |
Continuous Assessment |
... |
60% |
Final Examination
Please study the sample question paper provided at the end of the Workbook.
| Blueprint of the Question Paper |
Question I:
(This question is meant to test the learner's understanding
of a significant part of one of any two or three reading texts
that appear in Section 2 of the Coursebook.) |
5 marks |
Question II:
(This question is meant to test the learner's understanding
of either a poem that appears in Section 3 of a unit in the
Coursebook or a text from the Literary Reader.) |
5 marks |
Question III:
(This is a composite grammar exercise meant to test
the learner's knowledge of the important areas of
grammar taught in the Coursebook and the Workbook.) |
10 marks |
Question IV:
(This is a vocabulary exercise meant to test the learner's
knowledge of any significant area of vocabulary taught in
Section 2 of the units in the Coursebook and the
Word Power sections of the Workbook.) |
5 marks |
Question V:
(This is a writing task that is similar to the exercise
that appears in Section 4 of the units in the
Course-book and the Guided Composition exercises
that appear in the Workbook.)
|
10 marks |
Question VI:
(This is a reading comprehension exercise based on
an 'unseen'/'unfamiliar' reading text comparable in
terms of challenge to the text that appears in Section
2 of the units in the Coursebook.) |
5 marks |
| TOTAL |
40 marks |
Continuous Assessment
Continuous assessment refers to the assessment of a student's achievement and progress throughout the academic year. We believe that this kind of assessment is superior in many ways to a single final examination. Hence, a large percentage of marks is given for continuous assessment.
It should be noted that oral skills generally are neglected at school because they are so difficult to test in a final examination. It is therefore essential that listening and speaking are not only taught regularly but also tested through an annual programme of internal assessment.
It is suggested that the marks reserved for continuous assessment be calculated as follows
| |
Unit Tests |
... |
20% |
| |
Assignments and Projects |
... |
20% |
| |
Oral Tests |
... |
20% |
Unit Tests
Please refer to the sample unit tests in the Workbook.
It is suggested that eight tests be developed (one for each of the units) based on the samples provided. The design of the test could be as follows:
Question I:
(Comprehension questions on the reading text in Section 2 of the unit in the Coursebook.) |
10 marks |
Question II:
(A contextualised exercise based on the grammatical item/area taught in Section 2 of the unit in the Course-book and the Worksheet concerned.) |
10 marks |
Question III:
(One or two vocabularly exercises of the kind that appear in Section 2 of the unit in the Coursebook and the matching Worksheet.) |
10 marks |
Question IV:
(A guided composition task of the kind that appears in Section 4 of the unit in the Coursebook and the matching Worksheet.) |
10 marks |
| TOTAL |
40 marks |
At the end of the year, the teacher could do one of the following:
- Work out the average of the student's performance in the eight unit tests, and convert it to 20%;
- Work out the average of the student's three best scores in the eight unit tests, and convert it to 20%;
- Select the student's best score in the eight unit tests, and convert it to 20%.
Assignments and Projects
'Assignments' refer to the variety of activities based on the Coursebook and the Literary Reader and related in particular to the skills of reading and writing. We suggest that ten tasks be chosen on reading and writing from the two books, and administered periodically as class (or even home) assignments. These assignments have necessarily to be written out.
It might be a good idea to select synoptic, summary questions rather than questions dealing with details.
'Projects' refer to the projects included on pages 43 and 89 of the Coursebook. Since these projects are largely participatory in nature, the assessment of a student's performance should be based on observation of their degree of participation in the tasks. Obviously, it cannot be based on the 'correctness' of the result as the projects are open-ended in nature.
We suggest that the teacher maintain a record of each student's performance in the assignments and projects, and at the end of the year convert this record to 20%.
Oral Tests
As has been said earlier, one of the salient features of New! Learning to Communicate is the importance it gives to the teaching and testing of oral skills. It is therefore recommended that the testing of listening and speaking be included as an essential component of the annual schedule for the teaching of English.
| Here are some guidelines for conducting oral tests. |
| |
Oral Test (group) |
10% |
| |
Oral Test (individual) |
10% |
| |
Total |
20% |
Oral Test (group)
This can be further divided into (the student's performance in)
| a) |
Communicative tasks.
(These tasks appear in Section 1 of the units in
the Coursebook. A note on how teachers should
respond to students' participation in communicative
tasks appears earlier in this book.)
|
5 % |
| b) |
Listening and dictation tasks.
(Two samples of listening and dictation exercises
appear in the Appendix. Use them in the form in
which they appear or as a base for the preparation
of similar activities.) |
5 % |
Oral Test (Individual)
This can be further divided into (the student's performance in):
| a) |
Discussion with the teacher.
(This is an activity in which the students take
turns to have a private discussion with their
teacher. The teacher assesses each student's
conversation skills in terms of their ability to
talk about themselves, their family and friends
with fluency and confidence.)
|
5 % |
| b) |
Reciting a poem or reading aloud.
(The students can take turns to recite a poem
of their choice from Section 3 of the units in
the Coursebook. Alternatively, they can read
aloud a self-contained portion of about 100
words from any reading passage in the Course-book.
The teacher can help by identifying appropriate poems
and reading texts for the purpose.) |
5 % |
It is suggested that oral tests be administered at least once in a term. A record of each student's performance should be maintained and the scores converted to 20% at the end of the year.
Note: Trial runs should be conducted before the assessment.
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