Assessment for learning as a means to promote students´ writing proficiency

• Autor(a) principal: Cravo, Paula Joana Katchi
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/153505
• topic: Avaliação para a aprendizagem; Proficiência escrita; Ferramentas de avaliação formativa; Feedback do professor; Autoavaliação; Tarefas escritas; Terceiro ciclo do ensino básico e nível secundário; Assessment for learning (AfL); Writing proficiency; Formative assessment tools; Teacher feedback; Self-assessment; Written tasks; Third cycle and secondary level; Domínio/Área Científica::Humanidades::Línguas e Literaturas; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Ciências da Educação

The present study conducted as part of the practicum during my master’s degree studies in teaching English at third cycle of basic school and at secondary level aimed to help enhance students’ writing through formative assessment tools and practices. These entailed the use of rubrics, success criteria checklists, students’ self-assessment using rubrics and teacher feedback through error correction codes, comments, and the writing of a second draft by students. The study was conducted during a 6 month period, in the second and third term of the school year, and involved two groups of students: 30 ninth-graders and 21 eleventh-graders. As research methodology, small scale classroom-based action research was used, which entailed a qualitative and quantitative approach to data collection. The data collection tools consisted of a teaching journal, questionnaires, the teacher assessment and the students’ assessment of the written tasks proposed through the use of rubrics. The written tasks carried out by the ninth-grade students were a book review and a blog comment, and those developed by the 11-grade students were an opinion essay and a letter of application. Results showed that students felt motivated to use the formative assessment tools implemented in class. They revealed ability in self-assessing their work through the use of rubrics and an ability to correct their mistakes. Moreover, the students’ responses indicated that they felt competent in writing texts such as those proposed and they acknowledged that their writing, in general had improved. Collaborative co-construction of the writing rubrics specific for the tasks, which could lead to students’ greater understanding of the rubrics remains, an area for further research. Results of the study may encourage English teachers to implement assessment for learning as discussed in the present study at the third cycle and at the secondary level, as a means to promote students’ writing proficiency.