Teacher Discussion Forums

[cheese cake]

hello! i am a new EFL teacher who needs some help! i am to prepare some test papers on literature readings, can anyone give some advice on how literature can be assessed??

[joshua2004]

If the students level of English is low, I would use simple comprehension questions such as: what was the name of the boat and where is it located? How many characters were in the story and where do they live? Questions that don't require critical thinking is better. If the students are very high in their English, it would be best to provide higher order questions since simple comprehension questions would be too easy and it wouldn't be a good assessment.
I think it is good to have two or more parts to the questions and make the students have to respond with complete sentences. Do a practice assessment with them so they understand the expectation and when you give the real assessment they will do a much better job.

[cheese cake]

thanks a lot!!

my students are some new college students at the intermediate level, and the test is set to take around 1 hour's time. what i am thinking about is to adopt some test formats like multi-choice, True or Faulse , and opening questions. currently what troubles me most is how to select the testing points from the work, as it is such a long story. should i focus on one or two themes of the work, and ask the questions on them? or should i ask general questions all through the book? thanks!

cheers

[MsLit]

I teach British and Amercan Literature to high school students. My students are not native speakers although they are immersed in English like native speakers. For juniors we do the following texts: Brave New World, Lord of The Flies, Macbeth, The Quiet American, Great Gatsby, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I would like to refresh this list. Can any of you think of the books you enjoyed reading in high school and send the title?
Thanks in advance,
MsLit

[markwelch]

[stevemcgarrett]

When assessing literature, you're walking into quicksand. But suffice it to say that the first question any teacher should ask himself is: "What do I wish to ascertain about student knowledge from this test?" Or, more importantly, "What is worth knowing about what students have learned from their reading?"

Horse before the proverbial cart.

[mvr_moorthy]

MsLit wrote"

[Senorita Daniels]

For themes for the questions, I would stick to themes that were discussed in class. Then lower level students could have a chance at making a good point in the essays or short answer questions.

[mesomorph]