The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) mentioned in its official document “Learning and Teaching” that the three levels of assessment practice include formative assessment (assessment for learning), summative assessment (assessment of learning), and assessment as a learning method (assessment as learning). Spelling Bee, as an important English subject activity of IB-PYP, is itself a summative assessment of students' English vocabulary and sentence learning this semester. It also motivates students to find suitable methods for learning English words and phrases.
This Thursday, under the lead of CBIS English language center, Spelling Bee was held as scheduled in the performance hall. The children not only viewed it as an opportunity for semester-end review, but also as a stage to showcase their English abilities.
During the activity preparation stage, English teachers from each grade compiled the key vocabulary of this semester into the Spelling Bee vocabulary review book. Each child set learning goals for the preparation stage based on the vocabulary review book. They read and memorize core words and phrases during morning reading sessions and English classes, and used free time for dictation and error correction.
In the preparation stage, the teacher provided sufficient learning support for the children, and the children, as the owner of their learning, actively exerted their agency as learners under the driving force of the Spelling Bee competition, set learning goals, and mutually monitored the realization of learning goals.
On the day of the event, every child had the opportunity to perform on stage. The G1-G2 children actively participated in "look an say" and confidently demonstrated their word identification ability on stage.
As the difficulty level gradually increased, children from G3-G4 demonstrated amazing ability in word pronunciation and spelling through "listen and spell".
The most challenging activity of Spelling Bee this time was held in G5-G6, where the higher graders were required to "look at the theme, think of a word, and spell it out". Their vocabulary spelling and classification skills were highly praised by the audiences and judges.
At the end of the event, the judges Ms.Diamond and Ms.Sami announced the winners of two major awards - the winning house and each grade’s best finalist. The winners received awards from the English teachers on stage and shared their pride as learners with the audiences. And contestants who did not receive certificates also took advantage of this activity to actively reflect on their learning process, using the assessment as a learning approach, continuously optimizing the learning process, and making specific preparations for the English semester-end standardized test.
