Results from the World Language Assessment Corroboration

Reminder: 
We target the next level of proficiency to encourage linguistic growth. 

(From ACTFL 2017: Bringing Proficiency to the classroom)

We want to encourage our learners to produce the language and grow as communicators in the languages we teach. Effective assessments facilitate this growth and promote student interest in improving.

Generally:

The most effective feedback is personalized, immediate, informative, and non-threatening. Our biggest target for beginning learners? Errors that prevent understandability.

These are some of the assessment strategies brainstormed at the October 9th session.

Listening assessments:

 In a proficiency rich environment student participation and listening with the intent to understand is the most important factor in language development and perhaps the most challenging to assess.

Here are some of the strategies suggested by teachers:

Measuring student engagement by observing:

• Eye contact
• Body language
• Thumbs up/down
• Students performing with eyes closed
• Actions: students physically ‘showing’ understanding (TPR)
• Dictations (measures listening and writing)
• Short response answers on white boards

Reading assessments:

Reading is a vital part of the acquisition process, and is essential to acquiring vocabulary and grammatical concepts.

Activities to measure reading comprehension:

Students:

• Listen attentively during read alouds
• Physically act out the reading
• Draw the story or important details in the story
• Re-order details from the story
• Create a dual entry journal for the reading
• Sustain reading for a period of time appropriate for their level
• Respond to questions about the reading (especially “What do you think” questions)

Writing assessments:

Writing shows us what the students are actually able to produce at their level.

Grading should be adapted to the proficiency level of the student. If we are trying to measure the ability of the student to communicate, we should give credit for understandability, the quantity of ideas or details the student is able to produce more than absolute grammatical or orthographic perfection.

Activities to assess writing:

• Timed writings- “what can you write about the story/article/video etc.”
• Asking the student to respond to questions on whiteboards
• Fill in the blanks: open ended sentences
• Asking “why” or “what do you think about” questions (level appropriate)
• Dictations

Speaking assessments:

Speaking a language is generally the last acquired skill and the trickiest to measure effectively  without raising the affective filter. Because of this students often need the most encouragement and praise for producing comprehensible output.

At lower levels we want to know what a sympathetic native speaker would understand. How many details, facts, opinions etc. can they express?

Activities to assess speaking:

(ideally pair/share or small group with teacher listening in and students helping to count)

• What Do You Think About _____
• What Can You Say About _____
• How Many Things/Details Can You Say About _______
• What Do You Know About ______
• Tell All You Can About _____
• Respond To Teacher Cues: Ex. “Tell your partner about your plans for the weekend”