You need to complete an assessment for all new students as part of their trial process. You will see they are new students if you check out their profile and look at the "Chracteristics and milestones". You will be paid per assessment. You should spend about 10 minutes on each one. Do not do these during class time.
Assessments are for the student, not us directly. They should be addressed to the student (i.e. write in the second person, not the third). It's for the student to read after their first lesson with us. It's like their compass for where they should go from here on out. Any information about how to teach the student should go in the "Needs" section of their profile.
Assessments are to figure out where a student's strengths and weaknesses lie. They should answer the question, "I don't know how to improve", or "What should I do when I study English?" You should read a student's latest assessment if you have not taught them before. Refer back to their goals and study plans.
Also be aware that when students view their assessment, they can see a list of recommended sites, services and apps to help them learn and study between lessons. These are visible on the right of this page. All suggestions here are welcome!
Doing an assessment
An assessment should not be done during lesson time. Do it after the class. It should not take more than a few minutes. Don't overwhelm people. Keep it on point and give practical advice. Make sure that the student has a clear SMART goal — do not accept something wishy-washy like "I want to watch movies without subtitles". You'll of course need to clarify this with the student in class. Also make sure you have recent test scores when applicable. If you do not get this information in the lesson, then ping the student on Skype or through the contact form afterwards and ask for it.
Corporate clients
You also need to do progress report at the end of term for corporate clients for whom you have been the main teacher. If you know that you are doing the last class for a student in their term, and that you have been their main teacher, please go ahead and do it. Otherwise, we will let you know who we need progress reports for and when they should be done. We would like you to make them as constructive and useful as possible. (So no copy and paste!)
If possible, also get GBC test results (a pdf) from the student and upload them to the student's profile. You can ask for this in class and tell them to send it by email or over Skype.
Grades
You'll need to grade the student on a variety of things. Make sure you are familiar with the grading system as outlined on the next page of this guide. It's pretty strict. If you have a student's GBC score already, then you should use that as an indication of the kinds of grades you should be giving. Our grades should be broadly consistent with their test scores. For example, if you know that a student has a GBC score of 2.3, then your grades can be a mix of 2's and 3's, with the odd 1 for fluency or pronunciation etc. Students can get 5's for confidence, interaction, effort and communication if you think they warrant it, but if they are getting 5's (native level proficiency) for anything else, they shouldn't be learning English!
When to assess
Assessments should be done in a free trial. Progress reports need to be done at the end of a corporate term (we'll let you know) and if a student changes books.
Ongoing progress reports for independent students
From time to time, say once a year, it is recommended that you conduct a progress report for your independent students. You should check if they want one first. It'll give you both a chance to assess where you are at and where you are going. Please also encourage students to periodically test their English so that they can measure their scores and progress. This will help motivate them, but it will also help them realise the progress that they are making with us. It is best to recommend a test like TOEFL, IELTS, CASEC etc. that covers all four main language skills.
Be specific
Your advice should not be vague. It should be specific to one or two areas of their English, and to the student. "Be careful of making mistakes", "Speak faster" or "Use more natural English" are not a very helpful comments. For instance, the nature of mistakes generally is that you don't know that you are making them, right?
You should be more concrete and motivational. Give them a recipe. Perhaps you could say (for the mistakes case):
"Listen carefully to yourself as you speak, and always make an effort to correct yourself if you notice yourself saying something wrong. A lot of writing practice will help you be more conscious of sentence structure and aware of how many mistakes you are actually making, because we cannot correct everything in a class. There would be too much interruption. We can check writing for you in class, or you can try out a writing service like Lang-8 (free) or Poligo (paid). Get into the habit of writing once or twice a week, and over time you'll make fewer mistakes. You will find that the improvement filters into your speaking, too. So set a short-term goal, like "Write a short essay once a week" or "Write my diary two times a week" for the next 6 months. You'll really notice the difference!"
Zero in on one or two things to improve each assessment you do to keep people focused on some short-term targets.