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Dear Alberto, please acto on the feedback given. Also write your paragraph on a word document.

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Based on your prompt (question) create your topic sentence (Pedagogy students should have...).
Your first reason is excelent because it is written as a whole idea. Do the same for reasons 2 and 3, please.

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Andrew always arrives in class eager. He has read all your materials, plus even more due to personal interest. His hand is always up, and he can explain complex ideas in detail.

But when you put an exam paper in front of him, he freezes. He hardly writes anything. Ordering the backlog of information that he has painstakingly studied seems overwhelming and his grade is usually well below his spoken ability.

Then, you have Anika. She excels in exam technique. She has cracked the mechanics of the paper, so tends to coast through learning the content, safe in the knowledge that she will probably get by with PEE paragraphs and paraphrasing a book review that you are pretty sure she never read. But she has become demotivated in your subject because she doesn't believe understanding is as important as her capacity to structure repetitive essays.

We have all met students like Andrew and Anika. The current system of exams benefits neither of them. And although this year, exams have been cancelled altogether, we will soon be back to the same old set-up.

But what other options are there?

In the US, there is a growing movement in favour of oral exams, with some schools choosing to integrate a verbal component into assessment of the social sciences. For students like Andrew and Anika, this approach would make much more sense.

Oral exams: what are the advantages?

While I am not suggesting entirely getting rid of essay-based exams, or switching to a system where a huge percentage of a student's grade for a subject can rest on a single oral exam, I do feel that a balance of verbal and written assessment could be highly beneficial to the UK system for the following reasons:

Subject knowledge matters

Sitting one-on-one for a recorded conversation with a teacher leaves little room for manoeuvre. A student either knows their stuff or they don't. The level of detail that they choose to apply is a good indicator of their understanding and knowledge. Oral exams allow students the opportunity to really demonstrate their personal interest in the subject matter by throwing in detail from their wider reading or documentaries they may have seen. They can also show off their capacity to debate and form arguments.

Talk can be a leveller for students with SEND

Written exams can put some students with SEND at a disadvantage. Those with dyspraxia, dyslexia or physical disabilities may struggle more with the style of our assessments and have to rely on learning support to take their exams. The introduction of verbal tests could help to make things more equal for these students. Verbal exams assess students' capacity to assess and apply information, without also testing their handwriting or their ability to write fast.

Less teaching to the test

Is teaching exam technique why you became a teacher? Do you skip to class with all your passion for your subject in the knowledge that today is your chance to share a new exam structure that will be applicable to your students for the grand total of their GCSE before it loses all application in real life? No, me neither. While exam technique and structure are an important part of our job, and teaching students to correctly form documents and essays is a necessity, the extent of focus that we must place on this topic is surely excessive.

Real-life application

However, teaching the verbal communication skills needed for an oral assessment will arguably have far more wide-reaching use beyond the classroom.

There are few jobs that do not require some kind of verbal communication skills. Whether it is in the job interview to get a role in the first place or when negotiating business deals, speaking with patients or motivating teams - knowing how to choose your words well is worth its weight in gold. So, let's prepare students for the real world with the skills that they need to enter it.
Elizabeth Kitto is a Prevent education officer in East London

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Andrew always arrives in class eager. He has read all your materials, plus even more due to personal interest. His hand is always up, and he can explain complex ideas in detail. But when you put an exam paper in front of him, he freezes. He hardly writes anything.

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Oral assessment is a common practice across education and comes in many forms. Here is basic guidance on how to approach it.

1 August 2019

In oral assessment, students speak to provide evidence of their learning. Internationally, oral examinations are commonplace.

We use a wide variety of oral assessment techniques at UCL.

Students can be asked to:

present posters

use presentation software such as Power Point or Prezi

perform in a debate

present a case

answer questions from teachers or their peers.

Students’ knowledge and skills are explored through dialogue with examiners.

Teachers at UCL recommend oral examinations, because they provide students with the scope to demonstrate their detailed understanding of course knowledge.

Educational benefits for your students

Good assessment practice gives students the opportunity to demonstrate learning in different ways.

Some students find it difficult to write so they do better in oral assessments. Others may find it challenging to present their ideas to a group of people.

Oral assessment takes account of diversity and enables students to develop verbal communication skills that will be valuable in their future careers.

Marking criteria and guides can be carefully developed so that assessment processes can be quick, simple and transparent.

How to organise oral assessment

Oral assessment can take many forms.

Audio and/or video recordings can be uploaded to Moodle if live assessment is not practicable.

Tasks can range from individual or group talks and presentations to dialogic oral examinations.

Oral assessment works well as a basis for feedback to students and/or to generate marks towards final results.

1. Consider the learning you're aiming to assess

How can you best offer students the opportunity to demonstrate that learning?

The planning process needs to start early because students must know about and practise the assessment tasks you design.

2. Inform the students of the criteria

Discuss the assessment criteria with students, ensuring that you include (but don’t overemphasise) presentation or speaking skills.

Identify activities which encourage the application or analysis of knowledge. You could choose from the options below or devise a task with a practical element adapted to learning in your discipline.

3. Decide what kind of oral assessment to use

Options for oral assessment can include:

Assessment task

Presentation

Talk

Debate

Role-play

Interview

Dialogue

Question and answer session.

Individual or group

If group, how will you distribute the tasks and the marks?

Combination with other modes of assessment

Oral presentation of a project report or dissertation.

Oral presentation of posters, diagrams, or museum objects.

Commentary on a practical exercise.

Questions to follow up written tests, examinations, or essays.

Decide on the weighting of the different assessment tasks and clarify how the assessment criteria will be applied to each.

Peer or staff assessment or a combination: groups of students can assess other groups or individuals.

4. Brief your students

When you’ve decided which options to use, provide students with detailed information.

Integrate opportunities to develop the skills needed for oral assessment progressively as students learn.

If you can involve students in formulating assessment criteria, they will be motivated and engaged and they will gain insight into what is required, especially if examples are used.

5. Planning, planning planning!

Plan the oral assessment event meticulously.

Stick rigidly to planned timing. Ensure that students practise presentations with time limitations in mind. Allow time between presentations or interviews and keep presentations brief.

6. Decide how you will evaluate

Decide how you will evaluate presentations or students’ responses.

It is useful to create an assessment sheet with a grid or table using the relevant assessment criteria.

Focus on core learning outcomes, avoiding detail.

Two assessors must be present to:

evaluate against a range of specific core criteria

focus on forming a holistic judgment.

Leave time to make a final decision on marks perhaps after every four presentations. Refer to audio recordings later for borderline cases.

7. Use peers to assess presentations

Students will learn from presentations especially if you can use ‘audio/video recall’ for feedback.

Let speakers talk through aspects of the presentation, pointing out areas they might develop. Then discuss your evaluation with them. This can also be done in peer groups.

If you have large groups of students, they can support each other, each providing feedback to several peers. They can use the same assessment sheets as teachers. Marks can also be awarded for feedback.

8. Use peer review

A great advantage of oral assessment is that learning can be shared and peer reviewed, in line with academic practice.

There are many variants on the theme so why not let your students benefit from this underused form of assessment?

This guide has been produced by the UCL Arena Centre for Research-based Education. You are welcome to use this guide if you are from another educational facility, but you must credit the UCL Arena Centre.

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Oral assessment is a common practice across education and comes in many forms. Here is basic guidance on how to approach it.