By Christine LAU
Chai Wan Kok Catholic Primary School (AM)
Tel: 2490-3490
Why?
Improvement
Curriculum planning + material design
Implementation INSIDE the classroom
(peer lesson observation -> reflection ->
further adaptation)
Assessment for learning through
observation an/or analyzing students’
work + follow-up
When?
Every day?
Once a
term?
Once a
year?
Too late? Too frequent? How to strike a balance?
How?
Quantitative
analysis?
All parts?
Selected
parts only?
Qualitative
analysis?
Both?
NO prescribed mode
Primary concern:
Looking for patterns in students’ work and understanding why
the students make mistakes (Misconception? Laziness?
Carelessness? Not taught before? Lack of input? Infrequent
practice / recycling? …)
What NEXT?




Re-teaching / re-cycling in the next module
Careful scaffolding
Change in teaching strategies
Designing worksheets etc.
Be specific, explicit and clear
What is the attainment target?
Is it handy?
Is it manageable?
What should be the focus?
What is the priority?
What can be the effect on new learning?
Answering yes/no
questions
Some students fail
to give their short
answers using the
correct auxiliary
verbs
Four steps in giving short answers to yes/no questions
1. Determine whether the answer should be “Yes” or
“No”.
2. Write down the subject pronoun.
3. Copy the auxiliary verb directly from the question.
4. If the answer is “No”, add “not” (i.e. negation) right
after the auxiliary verb (and produce an abbreviated
form).
e.g. Do Ann and Sam like reading poems?
1. Yes,…
2. Yes, they…
3. Yes, they do.
4. No, they do not. (=> No, they don’t.)
Answering open-ended
questions
st
1
Term Test 1
(October 03)
Open-ended question
The question “What do you think
of …?” has been introduced in
the lessons before and is used 3
times in this test. About half of
the students can describe
people’s character appropriately
though the rest show very little
understanding of the questions.
Less than half of the students
can give appropriate answer to
the last question which is openended. Most of them like “Tom”
most.
An activity sheet is
designed so that
students can
practise using
different adjectives
to describe people’s
character. An openended question is
also included in the
worksheet.
st
1
Term Test 2
(November 03)
Open-ended questions
Teachers continue to add in 2
open-ended questions, Q6 & Q7,
in Part I (Reading Comprehension)
of the Test Paper. This time, more
than half of the students can
provide appropriate answers.
There is slight improvement
compared to Test 1.
st
1
Term Exam
(January 04)
Open-ended question
Most students can give
appropriate answers for
the last question which is
not direct lifting
nd
2
Term Test 3
(March 04)
Open-ended question
nd
2
Term Test 4
(May 04)
There are three open-ended
questions out of six.
Q4: Which child do you like best? Why?
 I like Sue best because she is nice.
 I like Tom best because he is hardworking and good boy.
 I like Sue best because she is helpful.
 I like Charlie best because I like play football too. I like David
best because happy boy.
 I like Tom best because good bay.
 I like Tom best because she is hard work.
 I like Ann best because she likes read a book. She is a good girl.
 I like May best because she read a book. (describing the fact
only)
 I like Ann best because she on Monday, Tuesday and Friday
read a book. (trying to emphasize but failing to infer)
 I like David best because he is happy. I like Sue best because
she is clever. (not relevant)
 I like David best because he is starg (i.e.strong). (not relevant)
Q5: When do you watch TV?
 I watch TV at five o’clock in the afternoon.
 I watch TV at half past three in the afternoon.
 I watch TV on Sunday.
 I watch TV on Sunday afternoon.
 I watch TV everyday.
 She watch TV on Monday.
 Yes, I am.
 May.
nd
2
Term Exam
(June 04)
Open-ended questions
For Q5, nearly all students
attempt to give their own answer,
and most answers are sensible.
Only a few are irrelevant.
Comparing students’ performance in
these 6 tests and exams
Test1 Test2 Exam1 Test3 Test4 Exam2
Mean score
Full marks
% score
7.8
8.8
7.8
8.5
6.3
9.2
14.0 14.0 12.0 12.0 12.0 12.0
55.4% 62.9% 65.4% 70.6% 52.6% 76.8%
No. of open-ended Qs
Total no. of Qs
7
Ratio of open-ended Qs
1
2
1
1
3
2
7
6
6
6
6
14.3% 28.6% 16.7% 16.7% 50.0% 33.3%
What are students’
problems in
learning?
How can
students
learn better?
Mixing up the letter
sounds “b” & “d”
Not knowing that
“Mr and Mrs Wong”
are two persons
Misspelling the (irregular) plural form of “child”
Subject-verb agreement (esp. for irregular verbs
like go/goes, do/does & have/has)
Some students make mistakes in Q4 & Q5
probably because the subject and the verb
are not on the same line.
For Q4, several students even add “They”
to the beginning possibly because they
see “Ann and Sam” on the same line.
For Q3, some students misspell “patting”
as “pating”.
Not knowing the
irregular form of
“have”