Partners Yuna Seong and Abby Mack present at Columbia University’s American Language Program’s Winter Conference

Abby Mack and Yuna Seong during the Q & A

The theme of Columbia University’s popular ALP Winter conference this year was “Assessment for Learning.” Definitions, approaches, and assessment methodologies were discussed (and debated!), but one point seemed universally agreed upon: assessment is hard.

Partners Abby Mack and Yuna Seong presented “Assessing Discussion Leading Projects.” Such projects are common in advanced ESL classes, but Yuna and Abby focused on how teachers often struggle with defining robust discussions and assessing students’ success as discussion leaders. Their presentation walked participants through a discussion-leading rubric that goes beyond student participation to engage meaningfully with the discussion leader’s pragmatics (language use), speaking skills, and intercultural communication. A vital aspect of the rubric is that it paves the way for instruction, clearly defining the task in advance for students. This makes the assessment part of the design and the elements of success transparent for learners. Well-attended and well-received, they hope the insights shared with future, new, and experienced educators will lead to more consistent, valid, fair, useful, and just assessment practices. 

Not only did our partners present, but Yuna Seong’s research was cited in the plenary speaker’s (Maria McCormack’s) presentation.