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National Geographic Learning: In Focus

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Author: Elaine Boyd

Elaine has been working in language assessment for over 30 years working for a range of international exam boards. She has written several exam coursebooks for primary and secondary learners for leading international publishers. She has also developed courses in assessment literacy and formative assessment for teachers and teacher trainers. She conducts research into issues in classroom assessment and feedback and has a particular focus on primary learners. Elaine is a series consultant for Look , a seven-level primary series from National Geographic Learning.
student writing

How do we evaluate young learners’ writing?

2 June 2021 Elaine Boyd Young Learners One comment

A key factor in helping young learners progress in the writing skill is making sure they are involved in the evaluation of their writing. Here are the positives we can help them with: understanding standards recognizing what they have done well developing ability to judge their own work learning how

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Assessing Writing Blog Post

Using course book material to assess young learners’ writing skills

11 January 2021 Elaine Boyd Young Learners One comment

Young learners have a very different learning profile to adults and function at different levels cognitively, socially and emotionally. This suggests we should assess them by reflecting their specific ways of learning and learning needs. The writing skill can often be one of the most challenging skills for young learners,

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Assessing Young Learners Online

13 July 2020 Elaine Boyd Young Learners Leave a comment

How is assessing online different? The learners: Our learners are in a different situation; often at home with parents watching them and without the support of their peer group. We need to be mindful that they may feel uncomfortable or sensitive to their situation. The options: Certain ways of direct

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Assessing Speaking and Writing for Exam Success

20 March 2019 Elaine Boyd Young Learners One comment

These productive skills which require students to ‘perform’ can be the most challenging to assess because in many ways the assessment is always subjective. When we listen or read the students’ responses, we can wonder ‘What exactly is good pronunciation?’ or ‘What is a good answer to the task?’. This

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Four classroom assessment activities for young learners

7 December 2018 Elaine Boyd Young Learners 2 comments

Many teachers now have to monitor their learners’ progression – for themselves and for others, such as parents. But we don’t want to keep giving our young learners formal tests, so how can we check how well they are doing while also giving them good support to help them improve?

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exam

Preparing Young Learners for Exam Success: Part Two

15 November 2018 Elaine Boyd Young Learners 2 comments

In her last blog post, Elaine Boyd described three strategies for preparing young learners for exam success. Now, Elaine will share three additional strategies to help students feel relaxed and confident in formal exams. As mentioned in my previous post, in order to do their best in a formal exam,

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exam

Three Strategies for Preparing Young Learners for Exam Success

25 October 2018 Elaine Boyd Young Learners Leave a comment

Are you keen to help your young learners relax and feel comfortable with formal exams? Most of us are – but how do we go about this? We can’t keep practicing the test task with them – this is not good for their learning and doesn’t help them to really

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Bringing the World to the Classroom and the Classroom to Life