WRITTEN REPORT ON CLASSROOM OBSERVATION

BY: MUHAMMAD ADHA FAKHRURAZY BIN ABDULLAH

In this task one assignment for TSL 3112 Language Assessment, Fayadh, Shafiq
and need to make an observation about the test type employed and its relation with the
basic principle of language assessment such as practicality, authenticity, reliability,
validity and wash back effect. This task requires us to observe a teaching and learning
session conducted by my teacher guidance Mdm. Idayu Binti Abdul Alias Bakar. For this
session, she is teaching and making assessment for standard 6 students. The learning
standard chose by the teacher is 3.4 read aloud expressively and fluently pronouncing
words correctly and observing correct stress and sentence rhythm, 3.8 read and
understand simple factual texts for main ideas, supporting details, sequence, and cause
and effect relationship and 4.8 write to express oneself creatively such as when
composing simple poems and stories, creating greeting cards and posters. The duration
for this lesson is from 12.15 am until 1.15 pm. There are 25 students in the class and
their levels of proficiency are intermediate and low.
Based on the assessment done in the lesson, first principle that I chose to
comment on the assessment is authenticity. According to Bachman and Palmer (1996)
in Language Assessment, authenticity is defined as the degree of correspondence of
the characteristic of a given language test task to the features of a target language
task. Based on the observation made, the strength that I find is that this assessment
has authenticity aspect because the language used by the teacher is familiar to the
students and it is suitable for their level of understanding. For example, the teacher
uses suitable language when giving instruction to the students. Besides that, this lesson
can be considered as authentic because the assessment done in meaningful, relevant
and according to the interesting topic. The topic that the teacher teach is` A Day To
Remember . It is an interesting topic because it involve with the students feeling when
they end their school year in year 6. The task also becomes a real world task because
they need to use their creativity and own effort to make the farewell card for the lesson.
The second principle that I chose to comment on this assessment is practicality.
According to ( Mousavi, 2009 in Language Assessment ), practicality can be defined
as the logistical, down to earth, administrative issues involved in making, giving and
scoring an assessment instrument. According to the definition, the assessment session
done by the teacher is practical. This is because teacher can assess the student in the
lesson. Teacher can assess the student in the practice and production stage.
Furthermore, teacher also can see the task is being completed by the students. Besides
that, the instruction that given by the teacher is clear and loud. It makes the students
able to hear and understand the lesson very well. The teacher also explains step by
step the instruction to the students and makes the assessment practical because
students will understand it and follow the teacher guide. It makes the teaching and
learning session achieves the learning outcome.
The third principle that I chose to comment on this assessment is validity.
According to Gronlund (1998) in Language Assessment, validity can be defined as the
extent to which inferences made from assessment results are appropriate, meaningful
and useful in terms of the purpose of the assessment. According to the definition, the
assessment that has been done by the teacher is valid. It is because the teacher
assessed the student what it proposes to assesses. For example, in the production
stage, the students are able to make the farewell card thus make the assessment is
valid.
The fourth principle that I chose to comment is reliability. According to Language
Assessment, reliable can be defined as consistent and dependable. According to the
definition, reliability means giving clear direction on evaluation and scoring. For
example, Sentence strips question are simple activity and it can be used to assess the
students. From the observation, the task is to test whether the students can recall what
they have learnt in the presentation stage. So, it is simple for the teacher to assess and
evaluate students because it just between either right or wrong answer.

The strength that I find in this assessment is that the materials used in the
teaching and learning session is authentic materials. Authentic materials is defined as
the material that has its originality and genuine. For this lesson, the teacher use
authentic materials like reciting the poem from the text book. In this poem recitation,
teacher divides the pupils into groups. Teacher asks each group to recite the poem until
the poem ended. It shows that the teacher use a reliable resources and not from
unknown resources. By using authentic materials, teacher can teach the students with
good knowledge. The using of song for the set induction is also one of the strength that
I notice. This is because it attracts the students to learn. After reciting the poem to the
students, teacher then asks question to the students orally and also by giving them a
sentences strips. The teacher also allows the student that need to answer the question
to discuss with their group. The other strengths that I notice is that the teacher shows an
example of the farewell card to the students while the students doing the card. It makes
the students can gains ideas on how to make a good farewell card.
The weaknesses that I found when observing my mentor is that the level of
question that she use to asks her students is quite difficult. For example, the sentence
strips activity, whereby she asks the students to read the sentences and answer the
question orally and some of the students are not able to answer it because the question
is difficult for them. Thus, it makes the assessment to ask the question is not very
practicality. The second weakness that I found is that the explanation of the poem is not
explained in details. This is because the teacher only asks the students to read only
without giving them a deep explanation to the students. Besides that, I also observe that
the teacher having problems to finish the activity in the production stage in time
allocated. This is because the students have to make many things to produce a good
farewell card.
The improvements and recommendation that I need to suggest is that in the
practice stage when the teacher should make the question very simple so that the
pupils are able to answer the question. Teacher also must give the students an ample of
time so that they have enough time to discuss with their group. With this, the
assessment that the teacher use is very practicality. To make the students able to
understand the poem very well, teacher can put pictures that can describe the poem.
The pictures also must be in a good size for the students to see it and also very clear
and did not have an ambiguity meaning when looking the pictures. As for the time
management, the teacher need to make give the instruction one by one and they must
complete the instruction in time allocated. Teacher must ask the students to cut, draw n
write in time allocated. Teacher must always push the students to able to finish in time
allocated. Apart from that, teacher must divide the groups wisely because we want to
avoid the existence of sleeping partner.
In conclusion, as a teacher in order to plan a suitable assessment task, we need
to consider the basic principles of language assessment. Furthermore, the assessment
that we use must be effective and involves the whole pupils in the classroom.