Tag Archives: spring test

Adjustment in Reading Tests in Spring Test

Posted on by
Reply

I forgot to modify something, when I uploaded a copy of the Spring Tests.

In the Reading Test, where it says “(B2+=15-16/18, B2=12-14/18)” I was far too ambitious! If you have 9/18, the typical 50% of pass marks, it would be enough to indicate a B2 level, or, depending on the kind of mistakes, even a B2+ level.

Publishing the Spring Test – Edited to add more!

Posted on by
12

Tuesday April 23

2019SpringSpeakingtest – title of the March retelling of one of my suggested stories

Thursday April 25

I have spares in class in paper, except for the Sociocultural Test, but I do have 30 copies of my first version of the Sociocultural Test, which included 4 more women! So you are welcome to take one next day! ❤

I designed the Sociocultural Test to test how much you learned about the women whose work or achievement we used as course materials, but also to show people who complain about we always doing feminism or things about women that WOMEN ARE PEOPLE, and therefore, do all kinds of things, as this Quiz shows. We’ve read and listened to women, a bit at least because it’s a universe, in fiction: poetry, novel, short story/talks, and non-fiction: essay/talks, social and natural sciences (philosophy, neuroscience), social movements (feminism, human rights, the environmental movement, fighting dictatorships…), and more to come. We could actually just use materials with the work and achievement of women (which we don’t do, we’re just INCLUDING WOMEN FOR A CHANGE) and still we would be able to talk about and learn about ALL KINDS of subjects.

I know we tend to feel bad about change, but when change involves us becoming more human and humane, I think it’s well worth making the effort. We need to build a less violent and unfair world, and this requires acknowledging people as people, whether they are men or women, according to the patriarchal sex-gender system, or men, women or people in their own terms. Human identities are a universe of diversity.

A Writing Task for April-May: Posting a message about the Spring Test

Posted on by
17

Dear all,

The Spring Test is over. IT’S HERE. I hope you enjoyed it. It took me quite some time to design. As you realized, it’s not an ordinary test, though it included some of the classics in textbooks (reading and listening comprehension exercises).

I’ll check it asap, but I’ll announce here when I’m ready to bring it to class. The earliest day would be next Thursday, but I’m not going to rush, because I’ll be evaluating and assessing things to decide who remains in Evaluación Continua, who joins Evaluación Continua (these people will need to be doing all the exercises or projects we understake in this last month together, particularly the Celebration of Learning Project) and who needs to go to June, for which parts and which reasons.

My assessment is not going to be “mathematical” but more informed than that, more comprehensive or in-depth than by counting correct answers. As I told you, it was not about getting a 50% of the marks, I’ll be paying attention to details but also to global performance. These exercises are more about us gathering information on your level, on your progress, on your having learned to learn, to pay attention to questions of procedures and methodology (a key issue in life, for exams and for becoming competetent lifelong learners), to understand that language learning is about communication and learning about ourselves and the world, not only about morphosyntax and vocabulary.

WRITING TASK DESCRIPTION. Write about the Spring Test. You can comment the exam, describe it, give your opinion or even create a story (creative writing). Deadline: one week? Word limit: 150 (like 3  minisagas!)-300 words. (Remember not to count each word till the end, and use the counting technique I explained for the During Writing.)

PROCEDURE

  • Brainstorm on approach, format and content, and reflect. Think about this exam experience, what it helped you learn, how you did (qué tal lo hiciste), what was easy, harder, too hard, what was interesting, confusing, surprising… Think about the exercises not only as a way of testing your level, but also as a tool to learn and practice.
  • Select and organize your ideas. Look for words or expressions you might need (but please, don’t copy other people’s texts. Speak your own mind, OK?)
  • Write out your outline, and then
  • Start writing in a piece of paper following the outline and timing yourself. You need to have at least three paragraphs: an intro, a body and an ending. The outline should reflect that in key words.
  • Proofread what you wrote. Don’t make a clean copy. Cross out things, use asterisks/stars if you need to add something. Correct your mistakes! Make your language range richer.
  • Then type it out on this blog.
  • You should bring to class the handwritten copy where I can see your outline and the one-time writing out of your ideas.
  • You can certainly ignore what I’m asking you to do and just type an improvised message here!! You might have different kinds of reasons for that. I can take it. You might even even cheat!* (I’m against that), but if you follow the procedure I’m indicating you will be learning and training for much more than just doing a writing task. So please, consider following my advice and guidelines. ❤

*On cheating. I was surprised to see a few people cheating. It’s embarassing for all and, well, this was no certificate test, as you know, so it was kind of pointless! You should know that in certificate tests I don’t disrupt the session by expelling anyone from the room because that breaks everybody’s concentration, but I do write it down and inform the English Department, which means the person fails the exam because cheating is not allowed by law. I’m totally into honesty, personally, on top of it all. And well, in this year the teacher’s opinion on people’s level is informed and relevant because we have Evaluación Continua. Plus, all the stuff I explained about agreeing on your situation in May.

I’ll make this post sticky, so you can find it on the top all the time. So remember there can be new posts below the sticky post.

About the upcoming test (spring test) & more on Evaluation

Posted on by
3

So — after our hol we’ll have our 2 weekly lessons devoted to doing some exercises I call “the spring test“, which will allow students understand where they are in terms of level.

Although I already posted about it, here is the recap: we’ll have a wonderful sociocultural quiz, a spot the mistake exercise (language awareness), a listening and a reading comprehension exercise, and a writing exercise which will be about answering some selected questions to assess, apart from your ability to explain things in writing, if you have learned the kind of methodology this course requires, to help you all become independent and resourceful lifelong learners (see C1 Resource Pack). On Sunday I’ll decide how to group them. The speaking test corresponding to this spring test was a retelling based on one of the stories I offered students.

People who are not in Evaluación Continua, or who have a fail mark in Term 2 in one or several of the skills, and pass these exercises with a good mark (have a C1.1 or C1.2 level) will be able to be in Evaluación Continua and present a Celebration of Learning Project in May. However, if they don’t follow the course in Term 3 (and/or don’t present the Celebration of Learning Project) they will have to take the June/September tests. In the spring test, being below a C1.1 will mean going to the regular level test in June/September, too.

For people in Evaluación Continua (with the four skills passed) the spring test will be part of their Third Term work. If it turns out that any of these people do not have a C1.1 level we’ll have a counselling session in May to decided what is best for each of them.

After I check these exercises in the last week in April, I’ll present my thoughts on who needs to go to the June and September tests, and I’ll bring three important handouts:

  1. The task description for the May Celebration of Learning Projects. (But I already explained a bit in class, so if you have started to plan what you wish to do, don’t fret, of course. I’m flexible as you know, and you actually know what I expect and how to improve and show your progress.)
  2. The template to guide people whose English is not at the B2+ level, but who wish to pass to the C1.2 course. They will have a special Oral in June, called the E.C. Oral for C1.1’s, where they will present a credible Learning Plan for the Summer, based on this template or guideline. In September, after coming to their Oral resit, they would get their pass mark.

I hope you enjoy your everyday time using English! Big hug! ❤

What will the Spring Test be like?

Posted on by
Reply
  • A listening exercise
  • A reading exercise
  • A writing exercise
  • A sociocultural quiz
  • A language awareness exercise

all of those based on what we have been working on during the course.

About the speaking exercise. For people in Evaluación Continua, it will include one of your March orals (a 3-4 minute monologue, not the ones that are about reading aloud, OK? because that doesn’t give info on how you communicate orally). [For people who are not in Evaluación Continua, or following this course in class, for obvious reasons they won’t be taking a speaking test, so that’ll be in June.]

[For people coming to the June exam, that one can’t include the sociocultural part because those people haven’t followed the course and probably would not pass a sociocultural test based on what our course includes, unfortunately. We still need a few more decades to be culturally aware of the things we have traditionally excluded from acknowledgement. But — I still have to make this decision — it might include a language awareness exercise]