Dear colleague,

The following  Ideas and Suggestions may help you organize

your Marking Records. Now you may have to add additional

pages in your Companion Grade Record for recording grades

which are converted from your use of Assessment Tools of

students' Performance.

====================================

A. First: Organize your Recording of Marks using evaluation

 techniques which are suitable for assessing students'

achievement in the four language skills (Listening, Speaking,

Reading, and Writing) with specific allocation of percentages

 for each Grade according  to the Ministry of Education

instructions as set in the Promotion Regulations.  Suggested

specific techniques for each skill can be found on

 (New Evaluation Tools (3^rd Page) on the Web site for English

 Language Teachers: http://www.education-abdallah.htmlplanet.com

 The following is only a sample.

	Skills	Listening	Speaking	Reading	Writing	Mark
	Percentage From 5-10	20%	30%	20%	30%	Out of 20
N	Name

B. Second: Use additional pages in your Companion Grade Record  

to record marks which are taken from converted descriptive/ verbal

 assessments by using  New Evaluation Tools such as:

"Strategies

Assessment may be conducted in a number of ways:

1. Performance-based: performance, exhibition,

demonstration, presentation

2. Pencil and paper: essay, quiz/test/exam/, select response

3. Observation

4. Communication: conference, interview, questions and

answers

5. Reflection: response journal, portfolio, self-assessment

Tools

Assessment Information may be recorded in a variety of ways:

6. Checklist,

7. Rating scale,

8. Rubric,

9. Learning log,

10. Anecdotal record"

Sample Tools:

Rubric for Reading Comprehension

Criteria	PERFORMANCE  LEVEL
	LEVEL A	LEVEL B	LEVEL C	LEVEL D
Identifies main points	Identifies all main points	Identifies most main points	Identifies some main points	Identifies none of the main points
Extracts specific information	Extracts all items	Extracts most items	Extracts some items	Extracts none of the items
Expresses opinion	Original	Common	Not Clear	Not mentioned
Tells the theme/gist	Precise and accurate	Precise but not accurate	Relevant	Wrong

Writing Rubric

Categories	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Reasoning	The student uses:
- Complexity of ideas - Number and relevance of supporting fact and details.	- well developed, interesting ideas. - Supporting detail that clarify and enhance the topic.	-Developed connected ideas.   - Sufficient supporting details	- Simple connected ideas. - Some supporting details, but not enough.	- Few simple ideas not connected. - Very few supporting details.
Convention	The student:
- Grammar.	- Correctly uses all of the conventions.	- Correctly uses most of the conventions.	- Correctly uses some of the conventions.	- Correctly uses very few of the conventions
- Spelling.	- Spells most words accurately.	- Uses phonetic spelling only for more difficult words.	- Uses phonetic and conventional spelling for familiar words.	- Shows some evidence of spelling strategies.
- Punctuation.	- Makes almost no errors.	- Makes few errors.	- Makes some errors	- Makes many errors.

C. Third: The teacher should follow the usual procedure of

recording marks beside the names of students after checking

students' performance using the Tables of Checklists,

Descriptive/Verbal Rating Rubrics, Numerical Rating Rubrics,

Criteria Grids (Tables), Anecdotal Records, Learning Logs…etc.

S/he has to attach a copy of the used  Assessment Tool  to his

Companion Marking Record.

D.  Fourth: The various types of tools can be used to assess:

      1. the usual pencil and paper tests

      2. the ongoing Observation and Performance-based

evaluations,especially those of Speaking and Listening skills.

Use more than one Assessment Tool from those to assess any

given skill before converting the assessment to marks.

The teacher should study  the Assessment Guides and resource

 materials on Assessment which were distributed to schools

through the administrative channels. The teachers are advised

to use the officially prescribed forms and records included in

the documents.

Use more than one Assessment Tool from those to assess any

given skill before converting the assessment to marks.

Sample quoted rubrics  can be found on

New Evaluation Tools (1^st Page and 2^nd Page) on the Web site

 for English Language Teachers:

 http://www.education-abdallah.htmlplanet.com

E. Fifth: The teaching materials in the course books are

designed for teaching. Although they can be, if necessary,

used for evaluation, testing principles of using unseen or

unpracticed materials for evaluation must be upheld.

The reason is that you ought to be testing various levels

of cognitive skills such as (knowledge, comprehension,

application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation, Crtical Thinking,

Problem Solving, Inquiry) and not only memory.

F. Sixth: The teacher should always discuss the criteria and

specifications of a given task with the students and arrive

at an  "agreed-upon" Rubric because one of the main ideas

of assessment is to use feedback for improvement.

G. Seventh: You are trusted and given appreciation and

confidence. Therefore, your assessment should be fair,

reliable, objective, valid and  transparent. Please

seek advice and knowledge from others. Read

the official instructions carefully and follow them.

 Reference: The samples above were taken from:

 Examples of Tools for Observation and

Performance-based Assessment. Ministry of Education,

2005, Amman, Jordan.