Tests can be a Positive Experience

Reading tests can actually help improve our lesson plans and give us insights to our students

I have a student who has been sitting in my seventh grade EFL language class for two months now. He has the reading knowledge of a third grader. According to his intake reading tests, he is technically supposed to be in a remedial reading class but because his performance was wavering between the remedial reading recovery class and the B or middle level class I teach, the homeroom teacher believed he would thrive if the language level learning was one step above his current abilities.

In the beginning, he was very dependent on me, and he told me he was afraid to study English because he didn’t know anything. He also openly told me that he was afraid of tests.

Then one day, after I made him my helper and monitor, I saw how eager he was waiting for the next assignment. I gave him a list of the current words from their story and asked him to read them aloud. He asked me, "will I get a grade for this?" and I asked him why. He said that he knew the words and their translations and he wanted a grade. This gave me an immediate idea... why not have individual reading quizzes?

On the day of the reading test, he told me that he was very scared of tests but he had practiced for this one. He was all excited and was waiting for me to start.

I learned all sorts of things through that five minute session and sometimes that ambition coupled with the anxiety sometimes can produce good results. He read the words well - he even tried to imitate my accent.

From this experience, I saw which vowels needed reteaching, sound blends and the magic 'e'. I decided that I would give more attention to phonics into my reading program. I saw that an oral assessment can sometimes be just as good in making progress if not better than a traditional reading exam.

From this success story, I decided to continue with the mini oral assessments.