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Abstract： Although formative assessment has been studied for a long time， few people have conducted the research on the implementation of formative assessment in British and American Literature course. The paper focuses on the idea and practice of formative assessment in British and American Literature course in Grade 2009 English majors in Guangxi University of Science and Technology.
Key Words： formative assessment； British and American Literature Course； initiative
摘 要：虽然形成性评估的研究很早就开始了，但是很少人关注在《英美文学》课上形成性评估的应用。本文旨在探讨形成性评估应用于广西科技大学英语专业2009级《英美文学》课的理念及实际操作。
关键词：形成性评估，《英美文学》，主动性
基金项目：广西科技大学教改项目：《英美文学》教学形成性评价研究
1. Introduction
English literature course has been indispensible in the curriculum of English majors. But in recent years， there are many factors contributing to putting this course in an embarrassing declining status， such as reduced course period， little interest of students. In most of universities， English literature is considered as artifact and students are instructed to analyze literary text， with particular attention devoted to texts that exemplify excellent literary works. Teacher-centered class sessions focus on discovering common meaning in texts and developing literacy competency and at the end of a semester， summative assessment is conducted， taking the form of final exams or term paper. As a result， students lack motivation as well as interest in British and American literature. It is the same case in Guangxi University of Science and Technology. Undoubtedly， how to change this current situation and raise the quality of teaching has been put in the priority of teachers’ concern. The author tried to introduce formative assessment into British and American Literature course in order to arouse students’ interest and help them take ownership of their learning.
2. Formative Assessment Definition
Under the umbrella term of assessment， formative assessment refers to the appraisals of students’ performance as distinguished from formative evaluation， which refers to judgment of program effectiveness （OECD， 2005， p.25）. Formative assessment aims to provide ongoing feedback of student learning to teachers so as to improve their teaching as well as help students adjust their learning methods. In fact formative assessment involves making judgments about the quality of student responses （performances； student work） and using those judgments immediately midstream in instruction to guide and improve students’ understanding and skills （Sadler， 1989）. 3. Practice
At the very beginning of British and American Literature course， the author gave each student of Grade 2009 English majors a copy of the curriculum and progress chart of this course and the reading list in order to vision the track students were going to take all along this course.
As we know， learning takes place in students’ head where， however， it is invisible to others. That’s to say， learning must be assessed through performance. The forms of assessment can be various.
1） Group Discussion， Group Presentation or Mini-Lectures
In order to help students take the initiative in learning， instead of listening to lectures， half of time in class， students got involved in group discussion， group presentation or mini-lectures. Generally speaking， in the first half of the class， the teacher would make a brief introduction to a unit， and then raised some thoughtful and reflective questions concerning the focal and difficult points. Each four-person group should discuss about those questions and then come up with answers， which undoubtedly requires students to spend some time previewing the textbook， though the teacher would not grade them in this part. At the end of each chapter， sometimes， each group was assigned a topic to do the presentation or each student was supposed to deliver a mini-lecture on certain topic， in which the teacher would grade them individually. Through group discussion， group presentation or mini-lectures， students were able to see easily what they knew and what they didn’t know so that they could improve their learning methods in order to get on the right track or in the right direction and at the same time take ownership of their learning. As far as the teacher is concerned， she could realize how to adjust teaching to meet students’ needs. When teacher-centered class was transformed into student-centered one， students’ initiative came into being along with self-confidence.
2） Portfolio
If group discussion， group presentation or mini-lectures can contribute to cultivating students’ initiative and self-confidence， portfolio can speed it up. Portfolio originally refers to a sample of an artist’s work or a case used to display artwork， photographs. But nowadays， in the field of education， portfolio means collection of student work， and it is used formatively if students and teachers annotate the entries and observe growth over time and practice. Every four weeks， students should write a reading report on what they read according to the reading list. Then the teacher would give them well-defined rubrics to help them assess the reading reports of themselves as well as their classmates， because students need to learn how to think like an assessor by asking： What’s the evidence that my work meets the specific criteria of success？ For this to happen， their reading reports would go through self-assessment and peer-assessment and finally be handed in to the teacher. After commenting students’ reading report， the teacher would give them back to the students. That means students had to modify and polish their reading reports again according to the teacher’s advice and then put the final drafts into their portfolios. At the end of the course， students should have group discussion and share their reading reports with group members and finally select one as their showcase piece to hand in to the teacher to score. In this case， portfolio can not only spark students’ interest in reflections of the literary works and writing， but also inspire students to work on the comments of their peers and the teacher to improve their writing. As to the teacher， portfolio did help her track students’ progress， offer immediate assistance to them and even make some adjustment in her lesson plan to address specific needs of students. 3） Feedback
Group work and portfolio play very important roles in formative assessment. But for formative assessment to be effective， it needs to occur in a culture that cultivates a learning orientation； that is， a belief that ability is not fixed， but rather can be increased by efforts （Shepard， 2005）. In order to cultivate this belief in student’s minds， the formative assessment process should concentrate on students’ effort， evidence of thinking strategies and the outstanding features of quality work products.
It is safe to say that feedback is an essential and important element in formative assessment， and is usually defined in terms of information about how successfully something has been or is being done. There are nearly no intellectual or social skills acquired satisfactory simply through being told about them. Most require practice in a supportive environment incorporating feedback loops which， in this case， provide teachers and students with information about changes in gaps in individual students’ academic development and teachers’ instructions.
5. Conclusion
Formative assessment is one of those topics which have been discussed about for a long time， and it has a long history， a significant body of research， and no small measure of professional commentary. Although formative assessment gets involved in teaching and learning in a wide variety of subjects， few people study the implementation of formative assessment in British and American Literature course which has been neglected for a certain period of time. The paper exemplifies how formative assessment was conducted in British and American Literature course in Grade 2009 English majors in Guangxi University of Science and Technology. Formative assessment turned out to be， to some extent， effective in fostering students’ initiative， helping students take ownership of their learning and encouraging students to learn to high level. However， due to limited research time and the author’s poor competency， the effectiveness of formative assessment in English Literature course still needs further study.
References
Butler， R. （1988） Enhancing and undermining intrinsic motivation： the effects of task-involving and ego-involving evaluation on interest and involvement， British Journal of Educational Psychology， 58， 1–14.
Chanock， K. （2000） Comments on essays： do students understand what tutors write？ Teaching in Higher Education， 5（1）， 95–105.
Office of Economic Cooperation and Development. （2005） Formative assessment improving learning in secondary classrooms. Paris：OECD.
Ramaprasad， A. （1983）. On the definition of feedback. Behavioral Science， 28 （1）： 4-13.
Sadler， D.R. （1989）. Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems.
Instructional Science， 18 （2）： 119-144.
Shepard， L. （2005， October）. Formative assessment： caveat emptor. ETS Invitational Conference， The Future of Assessment： Shaping Teaching and Learning， New York.
Key Words： formative assessment； British and American Literature Course； initiative
摘 要：虽然形成性评估的研究很早就开始了，但是很少人关注在《英美文学》课上形成性评估的应用。本文旨在探讨形成性评估应用于广西科技大学英语专业2009级《英美文学》课的理念及实际操作。
关键词：形成性评估，《英美文学》，主动性
基金项目：广西科技大学教改项目：《英美文学》教学形成性评价研究
1. Introduction
English literature course has been indispensible in the curriculum of English majors. But in recent years， there are many factors contributing to putting this course in an embarrassing declining status， such as reduced course period， little interest of students. In most of universities， English literature is considered as artifact and students are instructed to analyze literary text， with particular attention devoted to texts that exemplify excellent literary works. Teacher-centered class sessions focus on discovering common meaning in texts and developing literacy competency and at the end of a semester， summative assessment is conducted， taking the form of final exams or term paper. As a result， students lack motivation as well as interest in British and American literature. It is the same case in Guangxi University of Science and Technology. Undoubtedly， how to change this current situation and raise the quality of teaching has been put in the priority of teachers’ concern. The author tried to introduce formative assessment into British and American Literature course in order to arouse students’ interest and help them take ownership of their learning.
2. Formative Assessment Definition
Under the umbrella term of assessment， formative assessment refers to the appraisals of students’ performance as distinguished from formative evaluation， which refers to judgment of program effectiveness （OECD， 2005， p.25）. Formative assessment aims to provide ongoing feedback of student learning to teachers so as to improve their teaching as well as help students adjust their learning methods. In fact formative assessment involves making judgments about the quality of student responses （performances； student work） and using those judgments immediately midstream in instruction to guide and improve students’ understanding and skills （Sadler， 1989）. 3. Practice
At the very beginning of British and American Literature course， the author gave each student of Grade 2009 English majors a copy of the curriculum and progress chart of this course and the reading list in order to vision the track students were going to take all along this course.
As we know， learning takes place in students’ head where， however， it is invisible to others. That’s to say， learning must be assessed through performance. The forms of assessment can be various.
1） Group Discussion， Group Presentation or Mini-Lectures
In order to help students take the initiative in learning， instead of listening to lectures， half of time in class， students got involved in group discussion， group presentation or mini-lectures. Generally speaking， in the first half of the class， the teacher would make a brief introduction to a unit， and then raised some thoughtful and reflective questions concerning the focal and difficult points. Each four-person group should discuss about those questions and then come up with answers， which undoubtedly requires students to spend some time previewing the textbook， though the teacher would not grade them in this part. At the end of each chapter， sometimes， each group was assigned a topic to do the presentation or each student was supposed to deliver a mini-lecture on certain topic， in which the teacher would grade them individually. Through group discussion， group presentation or mini-lectures， students were able to see easily what they knew and what they didn’t know so that they could improve their learning methods in order to get on the right track or in the right direction and at the same time take ownership of their learning. As far as the teacher is concerned， she could realize how to adjust teaching to meet students’ needs. When teacher-centered class was transformed into student-centered one， students’ initiative came into being along with self-confidence.
2） Portfolio
If group discussion， group presentation or mini-lectures can contribute to cultivating students’ initiative and self-confidence， portfolio can speed it up. Portfolio originally refers to a sample of an artist’s work or a case used to display artwork， photographs. But nowadays， in the field of education， portfolio means collection of student work， and it is used formatively if students and teachers annotate the entries and observe growth over time and practice. Every four weeks， students should write a reading report on what they read according to the reading list. Then the teacher would give them well-defined rubrics to help them assess the reading reports of themselves as well as their classmates， because students need to learn how to think like an assessor by asking： What’s the evidence that my work meets the specific criteria of success？ For this to happen， their reading reports would go through self-assessment and peer-assessment and finally be handed in to the teacher. After commenting students’ reading report， the teacher would give them back to the students. That means students had to modify and polish their reading reports again according to the teacher’s advice and then put the final drafts into their portfolios. At the end of the course， students should have group discussion and share their reading reports with group members and finally select one as their showcase piece to hand in to the teacher to score. In this case， portfolio can not only spark students’ interest in reflections of the literary works and writing， but also inspire students to work on the comments of their peers and the teacher to improve their writing. As to the teacher， portfolio did help her track students’ progress， offer immediate assistance to them and even make some adjustment in her lesson plan to address specific needs of students. 3） Feedback
Group work and portfolio play very important roles in formative assessment. But for formative assessment to be effective， it needs to occur in a culture that cultivates a learning orientation； that is， a belief that ability is not fixed， but rather can be increased by efforts （Shepard， 2005）. In order to cultivate this belief in student’s minds， the formative assessment process should concentrate on students’ effort， evidence of thinking strategies and the outstanding features of quality work products.
It is safe to say that feedback is an essential and important element in formative assessment， and is usually defined in terms of information about how successfully something has been or is being done. There are nearly no intellectual or social skills acquired satisfactory simply through being told about them. Most require practice in a supportive environment incorporating feedback loops which， in this case， provide teachers and students with information about changes in gaps in individual students’ academic development and teachers’ instructions.
5. Conclusion
Formative assessment is one of those topics which have been discussed about for a long time， and it has a long history， a significant body of research， and no small measure of professional commentary. Although formative assessment gets involved in teaching and learning in a wide variety of subjects， few people study the implementation of formative assessment in British and American Literature course which has been neglected for a certain period of time. The paper exemplifies how formative assessment was conducted in British and American Literature course in Grade 2009 English majors in Guangxi University of Science and Technology. Formative assessment turned out to be， to some extent， effective in fostering students’ initiative， helping students take ownership of their learning and encouraging students to learn to high level. However， due to limited research time and the author’s poor competency， the effectiveness of formative assessment in English Literature course still needs further study.
References
Butler， R. （1988） Enhancing and undermining intrinsic motivation： the effects of task-involving and ego-involving evaluation on interest and involvement， British Journal of Educational Psychology， 58， 1–14.
Chanock， K. （2000） Comments on essays： do students understand what tutors write？ Teaching in Higher Education， 5（1）， 95–105.
Office of Economic Cooperation and Development. （2005） Formative assessment improving learning in secondary classrooms. Paris：OECD.
Ramaprasad， A. （1983）. On the definition of feedback. Behavioral Science， 28 （1）： 4-13.
Sadler， D.R. （1989）. Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems.
Instructional Science， 18 （2）： 119-144.
Shepard， L. （2005， October）. Formative assessment： caveat emptor. ETS Invitational Conference， The Future of Assessment： Shaping Teaching and Learning， New York.