There is considerable planning required to develop an effective programme for school-based assessment in both Part A (the Reading and Viewing Programme) and Part B (the Elective Programme) of the curriculum before any teaching can begin. This includes deciding on:

• the overall goals of the programme;
• the choice of electives;
• the selection of texts and resources;
• the teaching and learning activities needed;
• the selection and / or design of the assessment tasks;
• the role of the students in the assessment process; and
• the feedback processes to be implemented.

Before they can make these decisions, teachers need to know the strengths and weaknesses of their students. Teachers can look at the assessment criteria and reflect on what descriptors best match their students' current oral language level. They may even want to do some informal diagnostic assessment. Ideally there should be some discussion with the teacher(s) who had taught the students in the previous year. As schools build up their SBA assessment records, they will accumulate a valuable resource of students' achievements.

The long-term goals of the SBA component are to improve oral language proficiency and promote extensive reading. Short-term goals may include:

• Language enhancement goals
  e.g. improving stress and intonation, extending vocabulary range, developing more accurate pronunciation, building note-taking skills

• Learning how to learn goals
  e.g. developing self-assessment skills, helping students set achievable language learning goals, demonstrating how to record progress, encouraging independent reading choices

• Social / affective goals
  e.g. demonstrating cooperative learning, developing student confidence and self-esteem

• Cognitive / general knowledge goals
  e.g. extending knowledge of the world, deepening understanding of particular topics, developing student insights in human emotions

Look back at the assessment criteria. Note how some of these short-term goals (but not all) are reflected in the descriptors. Thus, teachers are expected not to simply 'teach to the test'. This would lead to the loss of many valuable opportunities to use the SBA component to develop other important aspects of the English language and broader school curriculum.

To view Prof Chris Davison talking about planning teaching and learning.

To view Ms Anne Chan and Ms Lita Chau talking about the benefits of introducing electives as a vehicle for developing oral language and to improve whole-school planning for the SBA.

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