unit 5

A Progress Achievement Test for 1st Level

Introduction
In this course we had to create a test for the 1st level of the UABC Language School Program. This test was destined to cover the skills and the knowledge that students had acquired during the course. This was a project where 3 teachers have contributed with decisions, designs, and revisions. And also the 3 teachers have contributed in the elaboration of the different parts of the test.
In this written we are going to describe first, the objectives of the program. Then, the specification of the test will be stated. Following this, we will present the test items with their answer. Also, we will discuss the scoring, and the revision from two moderators will be presented as a narration. Then, we will describe the process of the development of the test. And finally, we will include a section to analyse two individual items.

Objectives and analysis for testing purposes
This is a course where the skills are integrated, and it is focus on grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing as tools to develop the four skills. This is a low level course where different objectives for each skill have to be covered by the students.
For grammar, students have to be able to identify and use the verb tenses, auxiliaries and prepositions in written and oral form. For vocabulary, students have to be able to recognize and understand the use of nouns, verbs, prepositions and adjectives related to different topic such as food, trips, times of day, and vacations in written and oral form. For reading, students have to comprehend a text in order to infer the main ideas, and they have to look for specific information. For writing, students have to be able to write short paragraphs following a pattern of structure (title, introduction, body, and conclusion) using the correct form of grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
It was difficult to decide what to assess. First we had to make a list of what had been seen in the course in order to be able to choose the items that were include in the test. Then, we made a revision of text to see what items were already evaluated in order to avoid testing the same exercise again. In the next part of this written will be present the objectives and the specifications of the items.

Test Specifications
Grammar
Objective: To identify questions in the present and past tense with do/does and did, using the infinitive and the gerund.
Format: Find and correct the mistakes and write the correct form of the verb
Task: Find and correct the mistakes
Write the correct form of the verb
Time: 15 minutes
(2 exercises)

Vocabulary:
Objective: To use common nouns appropriately in written form.
Format: Fill in the blanks
Task: Use the appropriate nouns in the given text
Time: 10 minutes
(1 exercise)

Reading
Objective: To understand and look for specific information from common text of around 106 words.
Format: A narrative
Task: Multiple choice
Time: 15 minutes
(1 exercise)

Writing
Objective: To write a descriptive paragraph including the 4 main elements (title, introduction, body and conclusion).
Format: Prompts for a paragraph
Task: Write a descriptive paragraph
Time: 20 minutes
(1 exercise)

Description of Test Items
To test grammar, we decide to use two different exercises that cover the most relevant grammar structures from the unit. Students would have to know how to make basic questions in English, in present, past and future tenses. This section would be 40 points, giving 4 points for correct answer. They all have one possible answer.
To test vocabulary, we chose a fill in the blanks exercise where students have to select a noun given in a table. Students would prove the adequate use of nouns and understanding of time notion. . This section would be 20 points, giving 2 points for correct answer. They all have one possible answer.
To test reading, we decide to use a comprehension activity, a short and simple reading followed by five questions. This section would be 20 points, giving 4 points for correct answer.
To test writing, we opted for asking students to write a letter to their friends containing at least a small paragraph about a well know place in Mexico, a picture is provided so students that don’t really know the place can imagine and create a story.
This type of text was chosen for being representative of the type of texts students were exposed and were asked to write.

Answer Key and scoring
Answer key and scores
I. Grammar (40 points)
A) Find and correct the mistakes in these questions
1) Work 2) Study 3) Meet 4) Does 5) None
B) Complete each question with the correct form of the verb in parenthesis
1) To walk 2) To learn 3) Doing 4) To live 5) Sleeping

Score: 4 points each item with a total of 40 points

II. Vocabulary (20 points)
Complete the text “What I Regularly Eat” with the words from the chart below. Each word is used only once.
1) Breakfast 2) Eggs 3) Juice 4) Salad 5) Sandwich 6) Lunch 7) Dinner 8) Soup
9) Beans 10) Drumsticks

Score: 2 points each item with a total of 20 points

III. Reading (20 points)
Instructions: Read the text “Going on a picnic”. Circle the option that best responds the questions.
1) Answer a 2) Answer d 3) Answer b 4) Answer d 5) Answer c

Score: 4 points each item with a total of 20 points

IV. Instructions: Imagine that you went to the Teotihuacan ruins in Mexico, write a short letter (1 paragraph) to your best friend describing your experience. (The paragraph should contain: title, introduction, body and conclusion)

Rubrics for writing
Grammar Vocabulary Punctuation Paragraph Organization
Always uses correct grammatical patterns (5 pts.) Always shows appropriate use of vocabulary. (5 pts.) Shows full control of punctuation (5 pts.) Contains 4 of the 4 elements of the paragraph (Title, introduction, body and conclusion) (5 pts.)
Most of the time uses correct grammatical patterns (3-4 pts.) Frequently shows appropriate use of vocabulary. (3-4 pts.) Shows strong control of punctuation (3-4 pts.) Contains 3 of the 4 elements of the paragraph (Title, introduction, body and conclusion) (3-4)
Sometimes uses correct grammatical patterns. (1-2 pts.) Sometimes shows appropriate use of vocabulary. (1-2 pts.) Shows weak control of punctuation (1-2) Contains 1 or 2 of the 4 elements of the paragraph (Title, introduction, body and conclusion) (1-2)
Seldom uses correct grammatical patterns (0 pts.)
Seldom shows appropriate use of vocabulary. (0 pts.) Shows no control of punctuation (0 pts.) Contains none of the 4 elements of the paragraph (Title, introduction, body and conclusion) (0 pts.)
Score: Grammar: from 0 to 5/ Vocabulary: from 0-5/ Punctuation: from 0-5/ Paragraph Organization: from 0-5
Scoring from 0 to 20

Comments by moderators
This test was moderated by Marlene. She helped us to improve the test in the vocabulary section, we were using nouns and adjectives, but she told us to only use nouns so students don’t get confused, she took a look on the unit plan, and she agreed that our test covers the units, she also helped us to improve the last activity, by adding a parenthesis in the instructions, that way making the instructions more clear and also delimitating the exercise, because of the time limit.

Developing the Test: Describing the Process
To develop the test we had to make several steps in order to select the appropriate activities. First, we went back to our contents and objectives of the course we are designing. We decided to limit them more because there were too many and the students are graded since the beginning of the course. For our test, it was hard because we wanted to evaluate our students in everything but after discussing the pros and cons about it, we decided to have only four sections for the test, which are grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing. We decided not to include listening and speaking because in a test is very difficult to evaluate them in certain time, but those two skills are being evaluated in all activities since they started the course. Then, we discussed what kind of test we should use, but our decision was to use a progress achievement test because we want to see how our students are progressing in completing the course objectives.
Next, we worked on the specifications of the items. To assess reading, we decided to use a short text with some comprehension questions, so students will have to read it carefully and answer the questions in order to prove their understanding. For grammar, we included activities where students have to find the mistakes in the verbs and correct them, also fill in the blanks to complete with the correct form of the verb. To assess vocabulary, we also chose a fill in the blanks activity where students could prove that they use the appropriate nouns in the text given. For writing, a prompt to develop the task were given in order to set a context and to provide our students with some information about the requirements of the task and the scoring. To score this skill some rubrics were developed and make it more reliable when scoring.
After that, we made decisions regarding different things such as time and scores for each area covered in the test and the layout of the test. This test was given 60 minutes, and each section was divided as follows: grammar was giving 15 minutes, vocabulary with 10 minutes, reading 15 minutes and writing 20 minutes. The total exam will be 100 points which will be divided as follows: grammar with 40 points, and vocabulary, reading and writing with 20 points. As we already said before, we preferred not to include the speaking and listening activities in our test because we wouldn’t have enough time to finish the whole test, also because some students do their tests so fast that they want to finish with all the assignments, but the other students that hasn’t finish will have to skip that part in order to start the listening activity or the speaking one. These two skills are evaluated trough the progress of the activities done in class.

The evaluation of the test
This test is certainly almost the same as the activities seen on class, so students didn’t have to worry about different things that weren’t practiced on class. We decided to include just grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing because since it is a first level, students have to be able to understand the grammatical patterns of the language, they have to learn to read in order to learn more new vocabulary and also writing, to express their thoughts and ideas by writing them in a correct and organize way. We are not saying that listening and speaking are not as important as the ones mentioned but in this case, those skills are primarily practiced during class, not for the test, even though each unit has several dialogues to practice.

Items Analysis
We also had some difficulties to find the reading text. We had to look for texts for lower level with the possibilities to be exploited. We have to be very careful when choosing the text in order to have a successful exercise. We had to be sure there was only one correct answer possible. In item 5 we have an example.
Item 5 in the reading section is a multiple choice item with one correct answer and three distracters. It has been found in Literature that a good multiple choice item must have only one possible answer.
In was difficult too to design the writing item because we needed to create a situation where students feel self confidents and allow them to write a short paragraph of a letter. After seeing different options of written items we found out that the best for assess students was a letter. Other problem that we had was the rubrics because we had to consider that students are low level so we were not sure what areas would be include in the rubric. We had to go back and see the objectives of the course, so we could find what would be include in the rubric.

























Universidad Autónoma de Baja California
Level #1
Progress Achievement Test


Name ________________________________________ Group__________ Date__/__/__


I- Grammar (40 points)
A) Instructions: Find and correct the mistakes in these questions. (Some questions may be correct)

1) How many hours a week does your teacher works?
2) When did you first studies English?
3) When did you met your best friend?
4) Why do it always rain on the weekend?
5) Did you have breakfast this morning?

B) Instructions: Complete each question with the correct form of the verb in parenthesis.

1) How old were you when you learned __________? (walk)
2) What do you want __________ in your English class? (learn)
3) What do you feel like __________ this weekend? (do)
4) Would you mind _________ on a boat? (live)
5) How much time do you usually spend _________? (sleep)

II- Vocabulary. (20 points)
Instructions: Complete the following text with the words from the chart below. Each word is used only once.

breakfast beans juice salad dinner
drumsticks lunch eggs sandwich soup

What I regularly eat.
I like to wake up early in the morning around 7:00am and have a complete __________ with pancakes, bacon, scrambled __________ and orange _________.
Then I go to work and around noon (12:00pm) I have my lunch break so I go to the cafeteria and get tuna __________ with salted crackers or a roast beef __________ with chips and a soda for __________.
Finally I get home around 6:00pm and meet my family for __________; we usually have chicken noodle __________, baked __________ and chicken __________.





III- Reading (20 points)
Instructions: Read the text “Going on a Picnic”. Circle the option that best responds the questions.
“Going on a Picnic”
Raquel and Claudia worked real hard all summer to prepare for the end of summer picnic. Raquel grew tomatoes and green peppers in her garden. Claudia lives on a farm and since the spring has been growing corn, lettuce, and grapes.
A week before the picnic both girls harvested and packed their produce. They decided that all of their hard work deserved a reward. They charged others for their produce. Savannah charged one dollar for one tomato or green pepper. Claudia charged one dollar for a head of lettuce, fifty cents for an ear of corn, and five cents for a grape.

1. Raquel grew ________ for the end of summer picnic.
a. tomatoes b. corn c. lettuce d. apples

2. Claudia grew ________ for the end of summer picnic.
a. tomatoes b. corn c. lettuce d. both b & c

3. Where does Claudia live?
a. Mattydale b. on a farm c. in the circus d. on a boat

4. If you were to go to the picnic and purchase 3 tomatoes and 3 ears of corn from the girls, how much would it cost?
a. $1.50 b. $3.50 c. $4.00 d. $4.50

5. If you were to go to the picnic and purchase 1 tomato, 1 pepper, 2 ears of corn, and 4 grapes from the girls, how much would it cost?
a. $2.20 b. $2.50 c. $3.20 d. $3.50

IV. Writing (20 points)
Instructions: Imagine that you went to the Teotihuacan ruins in Mexico. Write a short letter (1 paragraph) to your best friend describing your experience. (The paragraph should contain: title, introduction, body and conclusion)

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ANSWER KEY

I. Grammar (40 points)
A) Instructions: Find and correct the mistakes in these questions (Some questions may be correct):
1) Work
2) Study
3) Meet
4) Does
5) None

B) Instructions: Complete each question with the correct form of the verb in parenthesis:
1) To walk
2) To learn
3) Doing
4) To live
5) Sleeping

II. Vocabulary (20 points)
Instructions: Complete the text “What I Regularly Eat” with the words from the chart below. Each word is used only once.
1) Breakfast
2) Eggs
3) Juice
4) Salad
5) Sandwich
6) Lunch
7) Dinner
8) Soup
9) Beans
10) Drumsticks

III. Reading (20 points)
Instructions: Read the text “Going on a picnic”. Circle the option that best responds the questions.
1) Answer a
2) Answer d
3) Answer b
4) Answer d
5) Answer c






IV. Writing (20 points)
Instructions: Imagine that you went to the Teotihuacan ruins in Mexico, write a short letter (1 paragraph) to your best friend describing your experience. (The paragraph should contain: title, introduction, body and conclusion)

Writing Rating Sheet
20 Points

Grammar Vocabulary Punctuation Paragraph Organization
Always uses correct grammatical patterns (5 pts.) Always shows appropriate use of vocabulary. (5 pts.) Shows full control of punctuation (5 pts.) Contains 4 of the 4 elements of the paragraph (Title, introduction, body and conclusion) (5 pts.)
Most of the time uses correct grammatical patterns (3-4 pts.) Frequently shows appropriate use of vocabulary. (3-4 pts.) Shows strong control of punctuation (3-4 pts.) Contains 3 of the 4 elements of the paragraph (Title, introduction, body and conclusion) (3-4)
Sometimes uses correct grammatical patterns. (1-2 pts.) Sometimes shows appropriate use of vocabulary. (1-2 pts.) Shows weak control of punctuation (1-2) Contains 1 or 2 of the 4 elements of the paragraph (Title, introduction, body and conclusion) (1-2)
Seldom uses correct grammatical patterns (0 pts.)
Seldom shows appropriate use of vocabulary. (0 pts.) Shows no control of punctuation (0 pts.) Contains none of the 4 elements of the paragraph (Title, introduction, body and conclusion) (0 pts.)