Assessment

Assessment of Students in Indonesian Context

By: Sukardi

A.    Introduction

To us, it seems to be common that students are identical to studying,

learning, and assessment. When students have finished learning certain amount of learning materials in a certain amount of time planned, they have assessment in the form of either a test or other kind of assessment. Sometimes it is often heard the saying that the task of a student is studying and learning. Consequently they have to have assessment.

            Assessment is carried out to know and measure the result of the students’ learning. Having had learning for a certain amount of time, the students are assessed to know how much they have mastered the learning materials given by their teachers. This short writing tries to discuss about the assessment of students in Indonesian context which is done by the teacher, by the school/institution of education, and by the government.

B.     Discussion

The first one is the assessment done by the teacher. Teachers have two

kinds of assessment based on its purpose. They are formative-assessment and summative-assessment. Formative assessment is done to “help” or “develop” students. It is also needed by the teacher to draw a conclusion on the strength and weakness of the individuals of the students. Such kind of assessment is usually done after the students have finished learning one or two basic competence. It is more popular known as a daily test. Summative-assessment is used to make a “summarizing” judgment of what students have learned or done. It is done twice in the half and in the end of the academic year. The test item covers all the materials learned by the students during the semester they have. It is usually called the semester final examination, the result of the which, combined with the score of the daily test are put in a book of report. The grade on the book report in the end of the academic year is used to judge whether the students are classified to be able to go the following grade or they must be stay in the same grade in the next academic year.

            The second kind of assessment is the one done by the school/the education institution. It is the assessment done in the end of the last academic year of a certain level of education. It is called the school final examination. The result of such kind of assessment is so called the school examination grade which in turn is combined with the students’ grade on their national final examination used to judge whether are classified to be able to graduate from a certain level of education or not.

            The last one is the assessment done by the government. Based on the

government regulation, it is commonly known as the national examination. It is done once at least and twice at most in an academic year. However, so far the government holds the national examination once a year. The purpose of the national examination is to assess/measure the achievement of the graduation competence nationally on certain subjects of science and technology. In the broader sense, the results of the national examination is utilized as the following considerations: a) mapping the qualification degree of a program/an education institution; b) the basis for enrolling the higher degree level of education; c) judgment on the students whether they can graduate from the institution of education or not; d) assisting and giving fund to the education institutions of education in developing their qualities.

C.    Conclusion

Assessment is closely related to the students’ learning activities. In

Indonesian context, there are some types of assessment done by the teacher, the institution of education, and the government each of which has its own purpose and mechanism in conducting it. The common assessment done by the teachers are so called formative and summative assessment. While the institution of education conducts assessment usually called the school final examination. The last is the assessment done by the government that is called the national examination.

RUBRIC AND DESCRIPTOR FOR SPEAKING ASSESSSMENT

ASPECTS	SCORE
FLUENCY	1-5
ACCURACY	1-5
PRONUNCIATION	1-5
COMMUNICATIVENESS	1-5

Fluency:

4: The student is able to speak continuously without apparent hesitation/pause, the message

     is clear.

3: The student is able to speak with few hesitations, but the message is still clear enough.

2: The student is able to speak with some hesitations, the message is unclear.

1: The student is able to speak with a lot of hesitation, the message cannot be understood.

Accuracy:

4: The student is able to speak with correct grammar and produces few mistakes and diction.

3: The student is able to speak with some mistakes in grammar and produces some 

     inappropriate diction.

2: The student is able to speak with a lot of mistakes in grammar and produces a lot of

     inappropriate diction.

1: The student is able to speak with too many grammatical mistakes and inappropriate

     diction, the message cannot be understood.

Pronunciation:

4: The student is able to speak with correct pronunciation.

3: The student is able to speak with few mispronunciations, but the message is clear.      

2: The student is able to speak with some mispronunciations, the message is unclear.

1: The student is able to speak with a lot of mispronunciations, the message cannot be

     understood.

Communicativeness:

4: The student is able to speak clearly and understandably, the message is grasped.

3: The student is able to speak with few intelegible me message.

2: The student is able to speak

1: The student is able to speak

RUBRIC AND DESCRIPTOR FOR WRITING ASSESSMENT

ASPECTS	SCORE
ORGANIZATION/COHERENCE	1-4
CONTENT	1-4
DICTION	1-4
GRAMMAR	1-4
MECHANIC/PUNCTUATION	1-4

Coherence / Organization:

4: The student is able to develop a coherent and a well organized paragraph

3: The student is able to develop a fair coherent and fair organized paragraph

2: The student is able to develop a less coherent and less organized paragraph

1: The student is able to develop incoherent and poor organized paragraph

Content:

4: The student is able to develop a paragraph which is fully relevant to the topic

3: The student is able to develop a paragraph which is fairly relevant to the topic

2: The student is able to develop paragraph which is less relevant to the topic

1: The student is able to develop paragraph which is irrelevant to the topic

Diction:

4: The student is able to develop a paragraph with good diction/most of the words related to

 the topic

3: The student is able to develop a paragraph with fair diction/many words related to the

 topic

2: The student is able to develop a paragraph with poor diction/some words not

 related to the topic

1: The student is able to develop a paragraph with very bad diction/ many words not related

            to the topic

Grammar:

4: The student is able to develop a paragraph which is grammatically correct

3: The student is able to develop a paragraph with few mistakes in grammar

2: The student is able to develop a paragraph with many mistakes in grammar

1: The student is able to develop a paragraph with too many mistakes in grammar

Punctuation:

4: The student is able to write a paragraph with correct punctuation

3: The student is able to write a paragraph with a few mistakes on punctuation

2: The student is able to write a paragraph with many mistakes on punctuation

1: The student is able to write a paragraph with too many mistakes on punctuation

An Analysis of a Poem

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

by Robert Frost

An Analysis of a Poem

 “The Road Not Taken”

By Robert Frost

“The Road Not Taken” is one of Robert Frost’s popular poems.  Robert Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26, 1874. He moved to New England at the age of eleven and became interested in reading and writing poetry during his high school years in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He was enrolled at Dartmouth College in 1892, and later at Harvard, though he never earned a formal degree. “The Road Not Taken” is a good poem for us to analyze and understand the message for there are many things special. The following is a short and simple analysis on it.

I.                   The Meaning of Words

The words used in this poem seem to show connotation. It means that what is

meant by certain words is not the meaning of words as they used literally.

            Example:

            Here the writer used word “roads”. It is not the roads in ordinary meaning as the

            roads where we usually walk. However, it is the “mind” or the “decision to take”

“Traveler” is not just the traveler who walks on the road in ordinary sense. Yet, traveler refers to “every/all of us/human beings”.

The word “looked down” which literally means looked down the road in the real context, but it means that the writer “reconsidered” what to do before decided what to do so. In this case the writer thought and thought again the god and the bad effects and side of what was going to do.

There are still other words that suggest the different meaning as the ordinary one.

II.                Imagery

The writer used the words in this poem to show the situation in a certain place near the wood. Then the roads diverged. After that he stops for a while and think in a hesitation what to do. He is in doubt which road to take. In deep breath, he thinks deeply about the consideration of each decision to take. Here the writer uses the image of such situation to describe that we may face such dilemmatic situation which forces us to decide what to do with each consequence.

III.             The Poetic Comparison

Here the writer compares the diverged roads to the decision to take which may

cause certain results or consequences.

Then the writer also compares the wood to the world of life of ours. It is in the

 world of our life that we have to do something in a certain situation.

Where certain road we take, we will face certain inevitable condition or facts.

That is life that we may be at certain risks because of certain decision we have

taken.

IV.             The Symbol

The symbol used in this poem relates much to the imagery of it. The words used in this poem symbolize certain meaning. Like the word “road” may mean that it is the “idea in our mind” to express or show. The “wood” may be interpreted as the “situation or world” of ours in our daily life. In our real life, we may get stuck into a certain condition that forces us to do something that may be dilemmatic.

V.                The Mode or Tone

In general the “hesitation” or “doubt” is the mode or tone that the writer of this poem expresses. The poem implies the interpretation that everyone may get into a certain hesitation or doubt when he/she faces certain situation. Everyone has his/her own consideration when she/he has to make certain decision.

The writer shows his consistency in showing the hesitation in his poem. Starting from the first stanza up to the last one, still, the doubt mode dominates the message of this poem.

VI.      Setting of the Time and Space

This poem seems to bring the reader to such situation in which we are in a short distance to a wood in a late afternoon. Then we stand there for a fairly long time to think and rethinking of everything to do with each consequence.

VII.   Summary

This poem focuses on the theme of “hesitation/doubt”. The writer shows and asks the reader to imagine when we are in a certain dilemmatic situation. Then, in a short time we have to decide what to do or to take.

Here the writer argues that everyone may get such a difficult situation in which

he/she has to act/to do something. While, doing certain thing may cause another thing, too.

The writer symbolizes himself in short distance to a wood where the road to take

is diverged. Then he is in doubt which one to travel. Taking the most travelled one may not be as good as usual or as expected. Taking the other one which seems to be rarely travelled by, may be better than the first one. Such hesitating situation makes him get difficulty in deciding. However, finally he takes the rarely travelled by, in the hope that it is better than the other. He expects that it will be different from others.

In this poem the writer would like to show that in our daily life we are often faced by many dilemmatic situations that need us to be ourselves. Sometimes we see that many people do many things that sometimes against the law and religion as well as our feeling or heart. In such condition, sometimes we are forced to do so. If we do not do so, we will be out of there. However, when we accept to do so, it is not really what we want to do. So, sometimes we have to force ourselves to d differently from others in order that we are not against our deep heart feelings.

This idea is expressed thoroughly by the writer in this poem. Starting from the first stanza up to the last one, the writer is consistent to express this message by having good choice of words and symbolization.

VIII.       Rhyme

The poem “The Road not Taken” is classified as a “Rhymed Verse Forms” one.

The repetition of sound is orderly can be felt and heard. The rhyme formula is

“a, b, a, a, b”. The rhymes are as follows:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,         

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

            The rhyme good rhyme of this poem has made it catchy to our lips and ears. It

            makes a good point of this poem. It can be seen that the rhymes have ordered

            formulas. This may affect understanding of the poem readers. In turn, it may help

            the readers understand better on the message of the poem.

IX.             Kinds of Stanza

In terms of the kinds of stanza forms, the poem “The Road not Taken” is called

 “Quintet” (five lines)—it means that each stanza consists of five lines.

Example:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,          (1^st line)

And sorry I could not travel both                   (2^nd line)

And be one traveler, long I stood                   (3^rd line)

And looked down one as far as I could          (4^th line)     

To where it bent in the undergrowth;             (5^th line)

The same thing happens to the second, third, and fourth stanzas in which each of

 them consists of five lines.

X.                Criticism and Evaluation

In general, it is a very good poem. In term of the total integration of the material, this poem has had all in one. It means that the message going to express is completely represented by the words in the poem itself. In different words we can say that the poet has achieved the total integration of his materials.

In my view, this poem has made us realized what commonly happens in our daily life. Life is life. Life sometimes makes us live in different way from our selves/our feelings. Life sometimes makes us just like ordinary people, not dare to be consistent to the value of life.

All in all, I like this poem. The words choice and the rhyme make it catchy to our heart and ears. In addition, the message of this poem is truly touched felling. Furthermore, we may have ourselves understand the meaning of life because of the message of this poem.

Last but not least, the writer has a very good imagination in writing his poem. Je imagine something to represent the meaning/what he intends to express. However, it may results in different understanding and perceptions to the readers. Yet, it is quite reasonable in case that there is difference.