In the last lesson we identified the knowledge and skills that your students should have before they start to study Topic B Personal and Social Life (in the home).
One of the ways to check your learners’ existing knowledge and skills is to give them an initial assessment. This will uncover areas where there are gaps in knowledge, understanding or confidence.
You can establish your learners’ level of knowledge before the course starts, or before you start teaching a particular topic, by looking at their previous levels of achievement in examinations. You can also set a formative assessment task at the beginning of their studies. This can be for the whole course or the topic that you are about to start teaching.
In this lesson, you are going to create your own initial assessment of knowledge and skills for one of the skills that you produced in lesson 3.2. Then you will work with your group to improve and refine your assessment.
Write your assessment for one of the skills
Look at the list that you produced in lesson 3.2 and choose one of the skills.
As you did in lesson 3.2, think about the level of understanding of this skill that a student should have before they start to study.
Create an initial assessment for the skill to check your learners’ level of understanding and ability at the start of their studies. You can use your own questions or take questions from past papers if you think that is appropriate.
Write a short explanation of:
how the assessment will help you understand your learners' level of understanding and confidence
what you will do with the information from the test
what you could do help your learners who do not have the required level of knowledge/ability.
(The above information is cited from the Introduction to the Cambridge IGCSE Mandarin Chinese (Foreign Language) (0547) Course)
My work
Adapted from the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Proficiency Scale, here is my chosen framework:
Reading Proficiency Levels:
Novice Low: Recognizes a few common characters or symbols directly related to family.
Novice Mid: Identifies familiar characters and words about family members.
Novice High: Understands simple phrases and sentences about personal and social life, especially with visual support.
This adapted assessment framework based on the ACTFL Proficiency Scale and the Dynamic Assessment for Reading Comprehension Potential will help me understand each student’s reading level in Chinese by breaking down their skills into clear steps.
Starting with recognizing basic family characters, we move toward understanding sentences with visual help. By using questions and guiding them to think about what they’re reading, I can see how confident and capable they are with different types of texts.
Here’s how each level can be adapted:
STEP 1. Pre-Assessment
1.1 Novice Low: Show basic family characters (e.g., 爸爸, 妈妈) and ask students to match or identify.
1.2 Novice Mid: Provide a short passage with familiar words about family, asking students to identify known terms.
1.3 Novice High: Offer simple sentences with visual cues and ask questions to assess phrase-level understanding.
STEP 2. Interaction-Ask questions to understand their thinking:
2.1 Low: “Who is this character?”
2.2 Mid: “Find the word for ‘sister’ here.”
2.3 High: “What do you think the family is talking about?” to help students use pictures and context for better understanding.
STEP 3. Teaching-Introduce targeted strategies:
3.1 Low: Recognize characters with images.
3.2 Mid: Identify keywords.
3.3 High: Summarize simple phrases.
STEP 4. Assisted Performance-Guide students as they practice with new texts using the strategies taught.
4.1 Low: Focus on reinforcing character recognition.
4.2 Mid: Guide them to find and read familiar words in a new text, helping them connect words.
4.3 High: Help them read simple sentences and check comprehension through summary questions.
STEP 5. Re-Assessment
Provide a similar passage and observe if comprehension has improved.
STEP 6. Analysis & Future Instruction-Tailor next steps based on observed progress:
6.1 Low: Reinforce character recognition.
6.2 Mid: Expand familiar vocabulary.
6.3 High: Introduce slightly more complex phrases.
How the Assessment Helps Me Understand My Learners
The assessment helps me see each student’s strengths and areas where they might need extra support. For example, if a student easily recognizes words like "妈妈" (mom) and "爸爸" (dad), I know they’re comfortable with basic vocabulary. If they can understand simple sentences with a picture, they’re ready for more complex text.
What I’ll Do with the Results
Based on their results, I’ll plan targeted lessons for each level. Students at the beginning level will get more practice with basic character recognition. Those with more experience will work on building vocabulary and understanding short sentences. Each group will get materials that match their reading level so they can keep making progress.
Supporting Learners Who Need Extra Help
For students who are struggling, I’ll use simpler texts, more pictures, and interactive activities to help them understand. I can also use matching games and repetition exercises to reinforce character recognition. Such as, Kahoot, Blooket..ect.. By adjusting the activities and giving regular feedback, I can help them gain confidence and gradually improve their reading skills.
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