Explaining Proficiency Levels to Students
14August 8, 2012 by Kara
This interactive activity by Sylvain F. (a former JCPS French teacher) will clearly explain proficiency levels to your students. I generally use this during the first week of school and it really sets the tone for the goals of the class. It is all about what you CAN do in the language!
Before class, print the cards. In level 1, you do not have to use the Intermediate Mid or High cards.
In class introduce the daily goal to students. I chose this goal because they have to understand the levels before they can set their own.
Create 4 groups of students or more if you use all the cards. Give each group one piece of large paper and one card with a proficiency sub-level (Novice Low, Novice Mid, Novice High, & Intermediate Low). If you have a large class, you may want to create two groups for each task. Show them the “assessment.” You can change “fair” to anything you want: circus, taco, your school, a current pop band, a yummy candy bar, etc.
Students follow the instructions on the card and write it on the paper. Each group presents to the class, and then puts it on the wall. After the groups present, you can explain how the proficiency levels correspond to the text types they heard from each group. We talk about what I expect them to be able to do by the end of the semester. This sample picture is from Kim W.’s classroom.
After the explanation, you can have the students describe what proficiency means in their own words or set their own words. I will keep these up for awhile as a reference. Hopefully students will have a clear understanding (and maybe some relief!) of the class expectations.
I put the PowerPoint on TPT so you can modify it for your classes or for parents for conference night. It is a FREE download!
How will you explain the proficiency levels to your students?
Megan
rachel573
Kara
I love this idea! Thanks so much! I’ll definitely be doing this for the current school year in my Spanish I classes.
I can’t tell you how much I love this! Thank you! You guys are awesome!
This is great. It will lower their apprehension as well. Thanks for a great idea.
Thank you for the great ideas. I am always trying to renew and refresh and your blog’s format is clear and easy to search and follow. BTW, I was lead here because of your post to FLTEACH.
Great!! Thanks ladies!! This fits in great with @musicuentos Proficiency & Tacos …will be using for sure!!
Thank you so much for the great ideas! I couldn’t find your free download- what is it called? Oh… and where should I send the pics of my bulletin board?
Gracias : )
Welcome! Here’s a direct link to w PowerPoint. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Powerpoint-and-Activities-to-explain-a-Proficiency-based-Classroom
Send the photos to creativelanguageclass.gmail.com
We are loving all the great ideas! Can’t wait to share ‘em.
This is a great exercise and really makes the levels concrete. I’m going to share it with our @HCPSLanguages teachers during staff development!
Yay for sharing!
I love all of the rubrics that your district uses for assessments. I have seen them online- can I have your permission to adapt them for my classroom use? I have also looked at others as well as the actfl guidelines for guidance – but yours just hits the mark in everything I am looking for.
You can do whatever you would like with them. I don’t have an editable version though. If you want to give JCPS /ACTFL credit, you can put a small “adapted from…” like we did at the bottom.
Do you have what students should be able to do in levels 2, 3 or 4? Thanks
We don’t have powerpoints to explain it, but I show them the rubric, point out their new goal, and the corresponding student profiles from the site: https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=28f7c805d5a3213d&sc=documents&wa=wsignin1.0&sa=343767067&id=28F7C805D5A3213D%21154
[...] This interactive activity by Sylvain F. (a former JCPS French teacher) will clearly explain proficiency levels to your students. I … [...]