Summative Assessment

Assessment is crucial part of any second language program; the teacher and the
students need to have up to date information about the students abilities, progress
and overall development in the language. Summative assessment plays a critical
role in this information gathering process. By conducting a variety of forms of
summative assessment (also known as assessment of learning), the teacher will
have a good grasp of where their students are in the learning process. In the
following section we will look at why this type of assessment is important, provide
some possible summative assessment strategies, and give examples of what
summative marking tools look like.

Why is summative assessment important?

The Assessment component of B-SLIM requires both assessment for learning
(formative) and assessment of learning (summative). While it is crucial that
students work, abilities and progress be tracked and assessed throughout the
entire learning process, it is also imperative that teachers have proof of what the
students have learned during that process. It is the summative assessment that is
used to determine grades and future directions for students. This type of
assessment is the culmination of a unit/section/chapter of study and comes during
the Proving It stage of B-SLIM. Summative assessment tells both the teacher and
the student what areas are clear to the student, and which will require more work.
For summative assessment to be effective and useful, the results of a summative
assessment need to be compared with some sort of a standard; this could be within
the class, city-wide, province/state-wide, national standards, etc.

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What types of summative assessment are

there?
Summative assessment, or assessment of learning, can take many forms. Here are
some possible types of summative assessment that can be used in the language
classroom:

Performance Task: students are asked to

complete a task that will test a specific set of skills
and/or abilities and determine what the students
knows and are capable of doing. A rubric,
checklist, or other form of scoring guide should
accompany this type of assessment.

Written Product: students are asked to write an

original selection. There are many written
forms that teachers can use to get students to
write. In addition, students may be asked to write
about a previous activity such as a field trip or
guest speaker. Students may also be asked to
create a piece of persuasive writing or a reflection
about their learning experience. A rubric, checklist,
or other form of scoring guide should accompany
this type of assessment.

Oral Product: students are asked to prepare an

oral piece of work; this can take the shape of any
of the oral forms outlined in the Proving It stage of
B-SLIM. A rubric, checklist, or other form of scoring
guide should accompany this type of assessment.

Test: the students are asked to write a test at the

end of a section, chapter, unit, theme, etc. to
demonstrate what they know.

Standardized Test: students are asked to write a

test that is standardized in terms of content of the
test and conditions under which the test is written.
In Canada, there are provincial standardized tests
administered at many grade levels, such as Grade
3, 6, 9, 12.