Assessment and Evaluation of English Learning Modules

Assessment and Evaluation

We did the worksheets for the Standard Four pupils in SJK (T) RRI. The worksheets that we did are Unit Six to Unit Ten. Unit Six is Tell Me A Story, Unit Seven is Be Safe and Unit Eight is Save, Spend Wisely. Unit Nine which is Stories from other lands and lastly Unit Ten is Let’s Celebrate. We based our questions on the English Year 4 textbook and other relevant resources such as workbooks and educational newspapers. The worksheets consist of three levels. The first level would be the High English Proficiency (HEP) and the symbol would be a triangle. Second level would be Average English Proficiency (AEP) and the symbol represented it would be square. The third level is Low English Proficiency (LEP) which is a circle. We tried our level best to come out with worksheets which are suitable for all the students to answer. All the worksheets given have its’ own answer sheets as well. This is to enable teachers to know the answers.

There are different number of questions and sections in each unit. This is because; every unit has its own types of questions that can be formed. One question will be one mark. The worksheets consist of Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs), fill in the blanks, rearrange and rewrite the sentences and write sentences. We also take into account skills such as reading, listening and speaking into our worksheets besides just writing. By this, students can improve and do well in their future test or examinations. From the trial worksheet, some students are capable of completing the worksheet, but most of them need guidance from the teacher. They like the multiple choice questions because they just need to circle the answer instead of writing the answer by themselves. These worksheets can help them because it is a form of practising for them.

Unit Five which is “Tell Me A Story”, the first section is where students are required to choose the correct sentences by filling in the number in the correct box provided. In this section, the students need to read through the story first and then figure out the sequences of the story. The story in this section is “The Mouse- Deer and the Crocodile” (Wignell, 2009). This enables students to think well. As for the second part, students must join the two sentences into one. They must use “and”, “but” and “because” in order for them to join the sentences. The reason for this exercise is to enable students to learn how to join two different sentences into one. In order to let the students understand how to join the sentences, there will be an example provided for them. This will make it easier for the students. The last section of the worksheet is fill in the blanks. This part, students are required to fill in the blanks to complete the story. The story is “The Fox and the Grapes” (n. d, 2013). By this, students will be able to read the story and learn at the same time. This enables them to be creative in putting words that fits and tally with the story given.

For Unit Seven, activity 1 and 2 are for the LEP students. Activity 1 is a reading activity which uses simple English for students to read. Activity 2 is MCQs. This can help the LEP students to choose answers from the choices given. However, question five will be fill in the blanks where students can give their own point of view. Here, students are required to think a bit. This can help in their Creative, Critical Thinking Skills (CCTS). Activity 3 is a reading activity, but it is for the AEP students. It uses long and difficult words. Activity 4, students are required to circle the words with the correct spelling. It is for AEP students. The words are longer and the word choices are close to each other. What makes it more challenging is that, the spelling might be wrong, but the pronunciations can be the same. As for activity 5, students need to put the correct punctuations in the sentences. There are short and long sentences. The longer the sentences the more punctuation needed in one sentence.

In Chapter Eight, students are going to learn about how to save and spend money wisely. It is important to teach children about the financial skills from young (Shin, 2013). In the first part of the worksheet, we try to enhance their reading and speaking skills. Reading and speaking skills are critical to children’s development, but it is important for their success in school and work (Boyse, 2010). Multiple choice questions can consider as an easy level, because they just need only recognize a correct answer (Popham, 2011). For the AEP students, they can train their critical thinking skills from finding out the words from the diagram that had shown in the worksheet. Here, they can also improve their grammar skills. The students will do some exercises on the “do” and “don’t”. They will be asked to write down a short sentence regarding the action in the pictures that had been shown.

Moving on, there will also be questions where students need to calculate the total cost for owning each type of pet and write a short sentence in response to a direct question (Popham, 2011). In additional, since the topic is about saving and spending wisely, students need to write down their daily usage of their spending. Picture of what they are saving for also can be drawn in the space provided, as they will be asked to draw it. This can enhance their awareness in saving money.

Chapter Nine would be Stories From Other Lands. We first started with MCQ’s. Students will be required to read a passage given and answer the questions. In the second section of the worksheet which is filling in the blanks, the students’ grammar ability is being assessed. Section D, students was asked to complete the short sentences based on the pictures. In this section, we had given some words to help them construct and complete their own sentence. Besides that, complete the sentences based on the pictures are a useful way of finding information about physical objects (Yeh, Lee, & Darrell, n.d.). These pictures also help students to construct sentences easily. Thus, this enables them to construct their own story. As for the last questions for Unit Nine, students ought to create any sentences regarding the pictures given. The story given was about the The Crow and the Pitcher. This is for the HEP students because students must make sentences with the correct grammar and punctuations.

Lastly, in chapter ten, students are going to learn about festivals. Firstly, the LEP students will start by reading short paragraphs about other cultures. These include the cultures of Chinese, Muslims and Murut. We included a paragraph about the culture of the minority group in Malaysia which is Murut. By doing so, students will be exposed to more minority groups in Malaysia besides Kadazan-Dusun which will be taught in the textbook. In the second session, for AEP students, we had prepared questions where students are required to fill in the blanks with the help of the picture given at each blank. With the help of visuals, students will be able to accurately retrieve the content associated with the visual (Kouyoumdjian, 2012). Besides filling in the blanks, MCQ’s were also being included in the worksheet. Lastly, as for the HEP students, they are required to complete the sentences based on the pictures and words given. The last question for this activity requires students in their CCTS where they have to think and answer the question.

In conclusion, the purpose of all these worksheets is to make sure that the students improve on their English. A slight improvement is always better than nothing. When we interviewed the English teacher who is Ms Siti, she told us that the students there do not have high performance in English. They are weak in grammar and spelling. Most of them cannot spell words correctly. This happens even though teachers try to guide them by going through all the exercise, question by question. Therefore, by giving them our worksheets, we hope to help them to be better in English and know the importance of that language.

References

Book

Popham, W. J. (2011). Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know. United States: Pearson Education.

Internet resources

Boyse, K. (2010). Reading, Literacy and Your Child. Retrieved from http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/reading.htm

Chin, S. (2012, November Thursday). The goose that laid golden eggs. Retrieved July Tuesday, 2014, from Enjoy Reading, English Story Books: http://englishstorybooks01.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-goose-that-laid-golden-eggs.html?m=1.

Dr. Savitz, J. (2014). Tips for being safe. Retrieved July Thursday, 2014, from Rowan University: http://www.rowan.edu/open/studentaffairs2/sexualviolence/tipsforbeingsafe.html.

Emma. (2004). Top 10 tips for staying safe online. Retrieved July Wednesday, 2014, from Safety net Kids: http://www.safetynetkids.org.uk/personal-safety/staying-safe-online/.

Haker, F. (1931). Safety first. Retrieved July Thursday, 2014, from Books of Short Stories: http://bookofshortstories.com/stories/safety-first.htm.

Kouyoumdjian, H. (2012). Learning through visuals. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/get-psyched/201207/learning-through-visuals

(N. d.). (2013). The fox and the grapes.Retrieved 21 July 2014 from http://www.moralstories.org/the-fox-and-the-grapes/

Panda, S. L. (2013, January Monday). A beautiful poem on Children’s’ Day. Retrieved July Thursday, 2014, from PoemHunter.com: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-beautiful-poem-on-children-s-day/.

Shin, L. (2013). The 5 Most Important Money Lessons To Teach Your Kids. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2013/10/15/the-5-most-important-money-lessons-to-teach-your-kids/

Stephen. (2008, September Saturday). Learn and earn. Retrieved July Wednesday, 2014, from Motivation: http://academictips.org/blogs/learn-and-earn/.

Wignell, E. (2009). The mouse-deer and the crocodile. Retrieved 21 July 2014 from www.edelwignell.com.au/docs/the-mouse-deer-and-the-crocodile.pdf

Yeh, T., Lee, J. J., & Darrell, T. (n.d.). Photo-based Question Answering. Retrieved from http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/pubs/vision/Yeh – Photo base d-1.pdf