Gr. 4 – 6 English FAL
(First Additional Language) Assessments
What teachers and parents need to know how assessment for Gr. 4 - 6 English FAL should be and mistakes teachers and parents make while not realising what their child should do.​
Assessment is a continuous planned process of :
- identifying
- gathering and
- interpreting
information about the performance of learners, using various forms of assessment.
Assessments for each learner has to be week by week during each term. All assessments can not take place at once. For example, each task/assessment should be weekly or partly done. Teachers should inform parents or learners how they performed on the tasks/assessments as clear as possible – in the form of scales 1 – 7 with totals included.
Kind of Assessments
CAPS Informal Assessment
Informal assessment is daily monitoring of learners’ progress (classwork or actives). Regular monitoring will enable a teacher to establish the type of attention a learner will need as you proceed.
CAPS Self Assessment
Formal assessment tasks are marked and formally recorded by the teacher for progression purposes. All Formal Assessment tasks are subject to moderation for quality assurance and to ensure that appropriate standards are maintained.
CAPS Formal Assessment
Formal assessment tasks are marked and formally recorded by the teacher for progression purposes. All Formal Assessment tasks are subject to moderation for quality assurance and to ensure that appropriate standards are maintained.
CAPS Moderation of task or assessments
Moderation is typically done by HOD (Head of the department) in most cases. HOD's have to make sure specific percentages % are met during each term. For instance: 60% of questions should be low (all learners should be able to do it) 20% of questions should be standard quality (for learners who are in the middle) 20% of questions should be higher quality (for students who need to think about the questions in a logical sense)
In other words, teachers should cater to all learners in a class or grade for English FAL.
A formal assessment provides teachers with a systematic way of evaluating how well learners are progressing in a grade and English FAL (First Additional language).
The formal Program of Assessment for Grades 4-6 comprises of a minimum of seven (7) tasks which make up 75% of the promotion mark and one end-of-the-year examination for the final 25%. What does this mean in short for SBA:
- Seven tasks from term 1 – 4, It will count 75% of the total marks at the end of the year and
- One exam at the end of the year. The exam will be 25% of your child’s mark.
Grade 4 – 6 hours or min for teaching each task or activity for English FAL:
- Listening and speaking (1 hour a week)
- Reading and Viewing (2.5 hours a week)
- Writing and Presenting (1 hour a week)
- Language structure and Conventions (30 min per week)
Gr. 4 – 6 English FAL teaching hours in total comes down to 5 hours a week.
Program for assessment for Grade 4 - 6 English FAL
A program for assessment must be drawn up by the school, indicating the dates on which tasks will take place. Schools are not limited to several marks allocated to language skill as long as the weighting for each language skill should be observed. Each task, according to the percentage allocated in the assessment program.
Here is the assessment table for English FAL for each grade and term. Please remember the % level is not the total marks. The percentage is what it will count towards the 100% for each term.
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Final examination will consist of the following:
- Reading comprehension, including vocabulary work
- Writing of a short creative text, including appropriate and correct usage of the format, grammar, punctuation and spelling
- Writing of a short transactional (information/media/social) writing, including proper and correct usage of the composition, grammar, punctuation and spelling
- Language Structures and Conventions to show knowledge and understanding of grammar, punctuation and spelling
- Listening and Speaking skills will not be assessed as part of the examination.