Assessing in Granollers

Exciting day today as I was shadowing an assessment in a centre in Granollers (45 min train ride outside of Bcn) as part of my training up to be an assessor for the Cambridge CELTA courses I run.  I got approved to be trained up a good few years ago, but because of staffing changes too complicated to go into, I've been in the Cambridge moratorium for the last few years waiting for re-approval to be trained up.  

So, Nigel my co-assessor and I met on the train this morning and headed off to Granollers.  I'd done all my preparatory work which is designed to make sure you know the course syllabus, assessment criteria and regulations that approved centres need to adhere to, as well as discussing case studies with Nigel the week before at our pre-assessment meeting. Most of the answers you should know anyway as a tutor, but I was still nervous.  Of course I know what assessors do, being on the receiving side of 'the assessor's visit' one day a month on each course and having to  get the house and course in ship-shape for the visit.  As part of the visit you have to meet the candidates as a group and explain your role and ask them how they're finding the course.  You aren't allowed to ask leading questions, but just take note of the feedback. You should be friendly and professional and try not to make them any more nervous than they already are with having you there!  The candidates are then told they can come and talk to you 1-1 should they wish: no-one did today.  Then you have to go through a certain number of their portfolios to ensure that all is in order and that the portfolio represents the provisional grade suggested by the course tutors. This includes reading and agreeing on feedback and grades on the written assignments and grades of teaching practice lessons, ensuring that the feedback is clear and developmental and that the centre's timetable contains all it should in terms of input, teaching practice hours and the required number of hours of observing of experienced teachers teach etc.  All of this needs to be typed up in the assessor's report and, of course, there are lots of boxes to tick!  The challenge is getting it all done in the time allotted and we had been given a generous time allotment of 3 hours to do this on the timetable, but it was still tight and the time just disappeared!  I still had one portfolio to do by the time lunchtime came around and had no choice but to do it quickly during the teaching practice in the afternoon, while watching the lessons.  Each centre has different templates for lesson planning, language analysis and feedback and the assignments vary from centre to centre (while all covering the criteria), but this means getting your head around the templates and assignments before actually being able to read them properly.  Suddenly the morning was over and  we went out for a quick lunch with the course tutors and an informal discussion on the course.  

In the afternoon you observe the teaching teaching that day (3 teachers each teaching 40' lessons in this case), write up feedback notes on the lesson, grade it, and mark the lesson plan while watching the teaching.  My co-tutor's gave me two important pieces of advice (and I'm really going to try and take them to heart) was to get as much typed into the assessor's report form during the assessment day, rather than take lots of notes and then have to complete the assessor's report after the visit, and it's impossible to go through everything with a fine tooth comb.  I can see how valuable this advice is as it could drag on and on and, of course, this means doing more hours of work for the same fee.   After teaching practice, you have a quick chat with the tutor who also observed the lessons and discuss the grades you'd give those lessons and agree on the main points to be brought up in the feedback session.  You don't need to agree the grades, but this needs to go on the assessor's report.  Then, and I was getting tired by this stage, you sit in on the oral feedback session on the lessons.  As an assessor you aren't allowed to contribute or give views on any of the lessons, even if a candidate asks you.  All you can do is thank them at the end of the session and wish them luck.  Nigel also said this was a good time to tidy up the report.  The day finishes with a meeting with all the tutors and the assessor and provisional grades are agreed for each candidate, with very specific action points for candidates working towards a higher grade.  Then the assessor gives feedback to the tutors on the course and the centre and gives any 'suggestions' which are there to take or leave and any 'recommendations' (for anything which doesn't comply with Cambridge regulations and assessment criteria etc).  Tutors and centres are usually happy to get suggestions, but don't want recommendations! 

I'm back blipping this (so it's now Friday), and I'm going to spend an hour tidying up the assessor's report and then put it to one side till the end of the course (end of next week) when the last parts get done and it gets sent off to Cambridge and then once the grades are approved, certificates are issued, and the assessor's report is sent to the centre.   My report this time is for training purposes and gets sent to Nigel, who then writes a report on my work and potential as an assessor and sends it to Cambridge.  I then either get approved or might have to do a bit more training.  Fingers crossed!