This has been a great day of discussion.
Many touched upon the issue of assessment and how it affects students' 
perceptions of their performance. Julie raised a question about 
instructional practices leading to students' success. I believe 
assessment may be one of the key areas of pedagogy to consider, and here 
are some thoughts on it.
A significant portion of the teacher’s time is devoted to the evaluation 
of students’ performance. Ideally, such assessment of products or 
behavior should provide students with the necessary information that 
would allow them to adjust their learning strategies, get rid of 
existing misconceptions, correct mistakes, increase (or sustain) 
motivation, and, ultimately, move them closer to the desired goals. That 
is, it should facilitate student successes not just provide teachers 
with information about what is learned. However, research has shown that 
very often the impact of assessment on students’ performance and 
motivation has the opposite — adverse — effect. Possible reasons for 
such a quandary are hidden in specific attributes of evaluative 
practices, with the quality and type of feedback being among the most 
important ones. Our understanding of differential effects of assessment 
in general and feedback in particular on students’ learning is crucial 
to ensure optimal outcomes of education.

I recently conducted a literature review on the effect of feedback on 
leaning and motivation. What most studies show is that the key role of 
teachers in every classroom from kindergarten to the most advanced 
educational setting is to provide information about the gap between 
students current performance and the desired performance (as identified 
by teacher, student, and/or curriculum). Some of the main findings are: 
1) The more frequent the feedback, the more effective it is. 2) 
Informative feedback comprised of explanations of mistakes and 
suggestions for corrective measures, is much more effective than a 
simple statement of correct or incorrect. 3) Feedback should focus on 
the task not the learner, or attention to the self depletes cognitive 
resources and compromises learning. For instance, criticism should be 
about the task, not the learner. In this case, the students' self-esteem 
will be able to weather the corrective nature of the feedback and they 
won't be discouraged. 4) Grades and numerical scores , even if presented 
along with comments, were found to reduce motivation and short circuit 
the learning process (when you get the score of a game, you don't want 
to watch it).
To provide good feedback is really time consuming.
So what are your thoughts about the best assessment practice in the 
adult literacy classroom?
Looking forward to your comments.
Ana.