August 15, 2017 Evergreen School District Michele Laing Stemler

August 15, 2017 Evergreen School District Michele Laing Stemler

Managing Successful Oral Assessment

in the World Language Classroom

11:25-12:15

Focus: We want to assess students’ oral proficiency, but how can we do that within the time frame of class? Strategies that help us assess the way we teach. And, by the way, what are the other students doing while the teacher is assessing each student?

FOCUS
Assumptions & quick survey
Testing configurations:
Individual
Pairs
Small groups /
Fitting it in (“I don’t have time to test 30+ kids individually.”)
ORGANIZE WELL. Have your visuals & cues at hand, point system well thought out (shared beforehand w. students).
STICK TO A TIME LIMIT. Fair but allows many to be tested. (For me, 3-5 m for novice, 5-10 m for interm. If some students require more think time, have them come in after class—more relaxing for you, too! Penalty for missing deadline.
AVOID LOSING TESTING TIME to arguments over who goes in what order. My system is sign up on the board day of & erase name when done. Any system will help.
ONLY EVALUATE DURING TESTING-no teaching, coaching..
IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK TO STUDENT
Grading scale (ABC, Retest) Only one chance during class time. For me, unlimited outside of class.
PROCESS OF PREP.LIKELY MOST VALUABLE (no fake, measuring competencies, student coaching, modeling) / 100% or nothing: telephone number, spelling complete name
Partners: ?, answer, reverse
Criteria can & do change over time: números
Descripciones (flashcards, test sheet)
Ir a + lugares: beginning open ended extensions
La familia-cumulative assessment

INSIDE-OUTSIDE CIRCLE
(2-3x modeling st. sharing) / Sharing questions/concerns/observations
After circle, show examples of group sellos or iniciales: me gusta, presentación, un lugar especial
Examine authenticity of el centro comercial

PACING / 3-4 days as part of the class (You will be brain dead if you try marathon oral testing & your sts. may decide to miss class if they have already tested, if they think nothing else is going on in class.)
Avoid Monday. Sts. are obviously not warmed up & you will have to put a lot of energy into convincing them to try. Result: more class time wasted.
Day 1 may be warm up for the test & sm. groups preparing for the test.
After day 1 have high success, concrete, correct answer type of work such as crosswords, drawing. NOT a time to ask them to write creative skits because that requires tchr. help.
Any st. who “owes time” due to absenteeism should test outside of class time.
RAISING THE BAR-AVOIDING PURE MEMORIZATION AT INTERM. + LEVEL / Expresiones de frecuencia (2 out of 6 lottery)

Narración de un cuento con dibujos
Weighing benefits & challenges / +we are testing the same way we teach (how would you test a swimmer—on paper?)
Challenge is to train ourselves to listen for comprehensible speech, not give away grades because you know the effort that was made
Testing each others’ students a few times-getting administrative support

PARTICIPANT FEEDBACK