What You See: Ongoing Assessment in the ESL/Literacy Classroom— Janet Isserlis, Literacy Links, Volume 2, May 1992   

“It [ongoing assessment] has to do with responding to learners' questions every day and with actively noting the kinds of questions learners ask, the ways in which learners respond to print and oral communications, the kinds of mistakes they make, the ways in which they go about correcting their own mistakes, and the ways in which their classmates might correct them. This kind of ongoing observation and assessment is inseparable from good teaching practice. Active observation and attentive listening enable practitioners to go beyond the more evident aspects of learners' progress -- e.g., increases in length of journal entries, improvements in spelling -- and become more closely aware of the processes through which learners acquire language and literacy. These observations about learners' daily interaction with print and language have accrued over time. I document what transpires in each class shortly after the class period, noting who asks whom for help, what materials someone might have brought from home, what someone was interested in reading and/or writing during that class period, who volunteered to go to the blackboard to write, who asked for more homework, etc. I make notes of miscues or questions directly on my copy of a particular reading passage, or in a notebook I keep on hand.

Ongoing assessment is exactly what it claims to be -- a process of observation, reflection, and feedback aimed at assisting learners and facilitators. Through systematic documentation of classroom activity and subsequent reflection about learner progress, as well as explicit talk with learners, I try to continually adjust and individualize the facilitating work I do in the classroom so that learners can find better and more appropriate means of learning. Periodic pencil/paper surveys are part of this process, as are explicit questions asked now and again of particular learners: "Do you like working together with other people? Did you like writing about the photographs? What would you like to work on today? Why do you think this is easy and that is difficult?"

Finally, ongoing assessment is a part of the learning process. The forms that assessment reports may take -- in-house files, funders' reports, reports written for, by, or with learners -- will depend on the reasons for which they are written. For myself, as a practitioner, the most important piece is the process itself -- the ongoing learning, rethinking, reflection needed for facilitating learning for others and for myself.”

Important Issues in Teaching Adult Learners: Assessment—Anne L. Ensle, ESOL Project, Texas A & M University, Literacy Links, Volume 3, No. 1, September 1998

“Assessment for adult learners can be a learning tool. Assessment should be continuous and on-going. It should be a positive and not a negative experience for adult learners. It can take many forms. An instructor/learner journal or diary can include comments regarding progress. An observation or conference duly noted and dated can be a very important form of on-going assessment. A portfolio can be maintained by a learner in which he or she can readily see progress over a period of time. Peer review and assessment of work in portfolios can also be a positive form of assessment.

A sharing of information is a positive form of assessment. Lower level or facts tests are often a detriment to an adult learner. Adult short-term memory loss is a fact-of-life that is often overlooked in adult education. The workplace requires a product or production of effort necessary to create a desired effect. Why can't this same requirement be utilized as a form of assessment in adult education?

Adults may better reflect their acquisition of knowledge through forms of actual production such as projects, reports, presentations, question responses, group panels, role playing, and interviewing. Successful assessment may be a key, important in creating a sense of accomplishment that will positively impact continuation of motivation to learn for the adult learner. Success will ensure that adult learners will come back for more.

The classroom of the adult learner should be reflective of the exigencies of the home and the workplace. It should also be a response to the needs of the learners. The traditional teacher sitting behind the desk and learners in front of the desk waiting passively to be filled with prescribed knowledge places almost total responsibility for learning on the instructor. The adult learner will respond more positively to an interactive or collaborative atmosphere that will reflect his or her real life needs. A personal involvement of the learner will foster the development of necessary literacy skills as well as other important workplace skills such as intrapersonal skills of self-assessment that will better lead to a sense of accomplishment and assumption of responsibility for future learning.”