Developmental assessments/Portfolio building assignments

An East London Pathfinder Project

At Hackney Community College we have been using assignments as developmental assessments and portfolio building skills on full time ESOL courses for some years. As the ESOL Curriculum was introduced, the need to update our assignments and map the content to the specifications was a top priority. We also had to train all our ESOL staff in writing, using and marking assignments as a key tool to measure performance and progression. As an initial project we wrote assignments across the levels contextualised as 'Welcome to Britain' which was an immediately accessible topic for learners and staff. There was also an optional IT component and with Entry 3/level 1 and level 2 there was a link to ILPs. We piloted these assignments in November 02 and have now finalised the tasks so that the assignments are part of our Induction pack.

We have written a range of assignments covering:

Transport (E1)
Markets (E1)
Free time (E1)
Directions (E2)
Looking for Work (E2)
Describing people (E2)
A trip to the National Gallery (E2, E3)
Housing (L1)
These assessment materials can be downloaded here

Welcome to Britain (E1, E2, E3, L1, L2)

Progression assessment at E2, E3, L1 and L2

Details of the verification cylcle and feedback from tutor training sessions is available here.


Pippa Stone (ESOL SL) Hackney Community College
Email: pstone@comm-coll-hackney.ac.uk