Assessing Family Unit
5We have spent a few days talking about family members, telling names and ages, and what each family likes to do. In order to see what they can do I try to give them a scenerio to show off their skills. This was the quiz in my Spanish 1 classes today.
Here are a few of the quizzes that were turned in.
Students need the opportunity to create, using what they know. What helps me get them to do this is a scenerio that motivates them! Hardly any of my students have every been out of the country, and quite a few have never been outside of Kentucky. The idea of them being able to use Spanish on an international trip seems really far-fetched to them. Running into someone in their town could actually give them a chance to use what they are learning.
What helped them most was… THE PHRASES OF THE WEEK! They got to use phrases like “no te preocupes”, “no lo se”, “buena suerte”, and “lo siento” in context. This is much more rewarding than a fill in the blank or multiple choice quiz. This is using the language! (not perfectly I know – I’ll give a little feedback to clean up some common mistakes on Monday)
Megan
rachel573
Kara
Hi Kara and Megan,
I have been looking at the rubrics used by Jefferson County for a while, and I am thinking of implementing one into a presentational speaking assignment for level 1. I would like to ask, how do you like the rubrics, and how do they convert to a score? I have to give grades and am not sure how this one converts. thank you.
Yay!! Here’s my condensed answer:
I assign a grade to each proficiency level based on expectations. For level 1 second semester/part, the expectation is novice high.
Intermediate low = A
Novice High = B
Novice mid = C
Novice low = D
If they are between levels, I give a +/-.
Another teacher I know assigns a point value for each box, adds up their score then divides by the total for a percentage.
I suggested that you make it work however you’d like. It is really hard to translate proficiency into a perfect grade. I have some students (in unique situations) that have different expectations, so I base the grade on where they should be to take some unneeded pressure off.
You are not the first to ask! I plan on doing a detailed post about this soon. For a quick answer, whatever is “meets expectations” gets a B. I make them “exceed” to get the A. Here’s a link to our grading scale. I grade purely on their language ability. https://c9zpyg.blu.livefilestore.com/y1p8sOQf97xjxs_uWZBe98hD8z8yzkyp9cVTa6Tok3v_ju7Cp3dswaFMrw2xO4qTLD3xxlZjhLZqEtq8oDrAqYidQ/PerformanceGradingGuidelines.pdf?download&psid=1
Can you expand on what you mean by “language ability”?
Their proficiency level. ACTFL has a great description on their website. I use these levels to give their grades (which means no more tedious grading!). http://www.actfl.org/files/public/ACTFLProficiencyGuidelines2012_FINAL.pdf