Teacher assessment

Teacher assessment with Asset Languages offers a more informal type of assessment to external assessment. This type of assessment gives you the flexibility to control assessment and use it in the classroom, when your learners are ready.

Visit the external assessment page if you are interested in a more formal assessment option.

How does teacher assessment work?

  • The skills of language learners are measured against the Languages Ladder but are tested by the teacher using a teacher assessment pack (TAP).
  • TAPs are available for 25 different languages and at different stages of the Languages Ladder.
  • The tasks test the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing separately.
  • The tasks are graded against three smaller grades within each of the main stages of the Languages Ladder, giving teachers and learners a chance to recognise progress in very small steps.
  • The contents of TAPS can be photocopied for multiple use.
  • You can adapt some of the tasks to fit in with your own programme of study, following guidelines given in the pack.

What teacher assessment packs (TAP) are available

You can find out which TAPs are available for each language and stage in the TAP Availability SheetNew (PDF, 174 KB).

TAPs can be ordered from the OCR Publications Catalogue (PDF, 539 KB). As soon as you receive your TAP, you can get started.

Samples of our teacher assessment material are given below:

Useful documents

A key feature of teacher assessment is that teachers are allowed to adapt some of the tasks to suit their schemes of work. Templates for adaptable tasks at Breakthrough and Preliminary listening and reading are now available. An electronic version of the class progress sheet template is also available.

Rewarding your students for success in teacher assessment - Becoming an accredited teacher

If you are using Asset's teacher assessment packs and want to reward your students with OCR grade awards for successfully completing the tasks, one teacher per centre needs to be accredited for the relevant stage. To do this, one teacher needs to complete Asset's accredited teacher training material.

You become accredited for a stage - Breakthrough, Preliminary, Intermediate or Advanced - not for a language. Once you are accredited, for example for Breakthrough, you can oversee the awarding of Asset's grade awards to celebrate the success of learners at Breakthrough in any language offered by your school or college.

How do I get hold of accredited teacher training material?

The accredited teacher training material is contained in the TAP you buy. It can also be bought separately at a small cost via the OCR Publications Catalogue.

What does the training involve?

The self access training material is on a DVD. It can be done individually or as part of departmental training and takes 3 to 4 hours to work through in total. The training covers the marking of writing tasks and also of external speaking tests. After you have submitted your completed training material to OCR, an assessor checks that the training has been completed satisfactorily. All applicants receive feedback and, if successful, an accredited teacher number.

Grade Awards

Once you or your centre has an accredited teacher, you can purchase grade awards via the OCR Publications Catalogue. These can be used to reward successful learners for their achievement in TAP tasks. Please note, grade awards are not the same as the certificates sent out to candidates for their success in our externally-assessed tests.