We always rely on written tests to assess our students. written tests cover little amount of the learning material, so we should search for more ideas to show us that we are moving on, and whether our students have understood our explanation or they need more practice. I think the following ideas are useful to assess to what extent the students have learnt and what their weaknesses are:
- Ask open-ended questions starting with why and how.
- Ask for a summary of the lesson at the end.
- Use short tests/quizzes regularly and test one thing every time.
- Encourage role-play activities especially for conversations.
- Ask for comments from students on teaching procedures.
- Use mind map tools to encourage students to talk.
- Ask students to prepare something and talk about it.
- Encourage exchanging books among students to mark.
- Use rubrics and ask students to assess themselves.
- Exploit games and puzzles to assess language usage.
What else can you add? Write what you already do to assess your students daily.