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• How do performance-based assessments offer insights into a student’s language proficiency?
Performance-based assessments provide students with meaningful situations. Within the meaningful situation, students have clearer purpose when they read/listen, exchange information. It also gives students space to be creative with the language they have learned. They can combine and recombine elements they have learned to express meaning and achieve a meaningful goal. During the using of language, students showcase what they can do, which reflects students language proficiency.What are your top three goals for this academic year?
1. I will observe other teachers classes at least once a week.
2. I will present at MCTLC conference in fall, and I will attend CSCTFL conference in spring.
3. I will finish all of my work at school, and not bring work home!1. What are the most significant lessons you have learned during Phase 2 training? How do you plan to apply them in your future teaching practice?
The most significant lesson I learned in phase 2 is that I could incorporate higher level thinking in language class. Even for novice level language learners, I don’t have to limit their thinking to novice level. I can use lots of authentic materials to intrigue students’ thinking, and develop their intercultural communication awareness and abilities.
2. What are your plans for continued professional growth and development? How will you stay updated on best practices, educational research, and advancements in your subject area?
I will keep reading books, attend professional development classes, workshops, and conferences.
3. How did you navigate challenges and setbacks during Phase 2 training? What strategies did you find effective in overcoming difficulties?
At the beginning of the phase 2 training, my summer break hasn’t started yet, so I waited till the summer break started to spend more time on phase 2 work. I gave myself grace, and didn’t overwhelm myself.
4. Finally, take a moment to acknowledge your growth and achievements during your training. What are you most proud of? How will you celebrate your accomplishments?
I was organized and I finished all of the work with good effort and good quality. I applied the new knowledge I learned in my micro lessons.I agree with you that assessment is also a tool to help teachers to reflect, and revise the lessons in order to help students improve more in the future. When teachers give students effective assessments, teachers are learning about what the students know and can do so teachers can plan future lessons accordingly.
I also agree that assessment is another way to motivate students. Specially in high school, students want to know why they’re doing something. It is great that when some student have the passion and intrinsic motivation to learn a language. When some of the students don’t have intrinsic motivation and they don’t know what they’re learning it. They need extrinsic motivations to keep them moving, like assessment and getting good grades. Maybe now they don’t understand they’re learning, but when they grow up and look back, they would thank what they did in the past.
I watched Assessing and Grading for Learning – Laura Terrill (30’29”)
1. What was the purpose of the assessment?
The purpose of the assessment is to accurately reflect students’ language ability. Teachers should grade on student performance rather than student behavior. The tasks of the assessment should as much reflect the real-world context. Student should be able to showcase what they can do during assessment.2. How can the assessment process be improved to enhance student learning and achievement?
Assessment should be designed to measure all three modes of communication: interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational.
Inappropriate grading practices include rating homework and first efforts, using averages exclusively, using zeros indiscriminately, combining attitude and effort with achievement, applying penalties to late work, giving extra credit or bonus marks, not giving special consideration to recent achievement, applying assessment penalties to academic dishonesty, distinguishing between excused and unexcused absences.
The good time to give feedback is when the errors can be fixed. Therefore, teachers should pay more attention to formative assessment and on going feedback. I think using a “running Can Do record” and students grade themselves with the rubrics are good ideas.3 things fascinating about the post: 1. You care a lot about if activities are relevant to students or not. 2. You intentionally give students chances to connect with each other. 3. Asking students to reflect on their own experience will help themselves to understand their own culture more.
2 ideas I can adapt: 1. Students can pick a date that is important to them, and tell a story about a news event happened on that day. 2. Students can make a timeline for the important moments happened in their life.
1 wonder or question: How would you group students so they feel safe and comfortable sharing their personal events to each other?
Thank you!3 things fascinating about: 1, good formate and organization. 2, your modifications are very thoughtful. 3. It’s cool to show students how to greet in other languages.
2 ideas I can adapt: 1. I can show students greetings with different Chinese dialects, so students can hear Chinese language is diverse. 2. I can lead students to have a discussion about “kiss on cheeks”. Why does that culture kiss on cheeks, why does Chinese culture not do it?
1 wonder or question: What would you ask students to say/do in the videos they make?
Thank you!
Zhe FengName of the activity: Let’s go together
Activity steps:
Step 1: each student fill out a travel plan to a country, each student need to plan where they want to live. What kind of place they want to stay, what kind of transportation they would like to use, different places to visit in the country, describe the culture in the country of choice.
Step 2: in a small group, each student will share their travel plan to each other
Step 3: come back to whole group together. The whole group will decide one country to go to, and details when they travel to the country.
Step 4: after having the travel plan down, the students will discuss and reflect on the process of working together, decide a travel plan student will reflect on how different culture backgrounds will lead to different choices, and how to make consensus.
Modifications: I really like this activity, I think I can apply this activity in my intermediate level classes. Students can choose from countries/areas that speak Chinese, and they plan a trip to go there. Each group have to discuss which country they would like to go to and talk about why. They will discuss what are some places the students would like to go to, where they want to stay, what they would like to eat, etc.. Students have to talk about those details and have interpersonal conversations, and make a consensus at the end.Hello, thank you for sharing the program in your school district! Our school district also let students take half year Spanish, half year Mandarin Chinese from K-2. Then they choose a language they want to focus on starting from 3rd grade. I wonder what is the purpose for giving such young children AAPPL assessments? In our school district, we only test 12th grade students their language proficiency level in order to get bilingual seal on their high school transcript, which would transfer into college credits and they can put their result on their resume.
Zhe FengOur school district use STAMP 4S test for students in senior year to see where their language proficiency is. Students will be tested on all four sills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students can also get certificate, gold seal, or platinum seal depending their test results. The test result will be put on students’ transcript, and if students go to Minnesota state colleges, they can apply college according to their test results.
In order the the seal, students can take different types language assessments.
For Somali, Hmong, Vietnamese, Amharic: AVANT STAMP WS (former WorldSpeak) ($22.90) for speaking and writing and
Minnesota Bilingual Seals Assessments through Extempore ($15.00) for reading and listening. Total Cost – $37.90
For Karen, Oromo, Dakota, Ojibwe: Minnesota Bilingual Seals Assessments through Extempore for all four modalities. Cost – $50.00
For Arabic, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish: students can take AVANT STAMP4S *Cost – AVANT STAMP 4S $17.5 – $25 per a student
For Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, students can take ACTFL AAPPL *Cost- $20 per a student.
Other qualifying assessments are: AP Language and Culture (Score 3- Proficiency Certificate, 4- Gold, 5- Platinum
) ; IB DP language A (non English) and Language B exams (SL Scores 3- Proficiency Certificate, 4-Gold Seal, 5,6,7-Platinum)As for the assessments mentioned in this module:
OPI: It only test speaking. It won’t meet my district goal for testing for bilingual seal, so I won’t recommend this assessment. Also, OPI is more suitable for adults.
WPT: It only test on writing. It also doesn’t meet my district goal for testing for bilingual seal, so I won’t recommend this assessment.
ILR Testing Online for K-12 schools is AAPPL. Both STAMP and AAPPL tests don’t require special training for administering the test. AAPPL test requires students to choose different forms of test according to their proficiency. I think it is limited compare with STAMP test. STAMP test is computer adaptive. AAPPL speaking section is more stressful, because the recording starts right away after the video. The recording won’t pause and students can’t re-record. STAMP test speaking section prompts are in English, and it allow students to listen to their recording. They can re-record if they need to. Therefore, even though bilingual seals take both STAMP and AAPPL test result, I will suggest the school district to order STAMP test instead of AAPPL.
NEWL: this assessment is endorsed by College board. It only provide Arabic, Korean, Portuguese, and Russian test. This test is not recognized by Minnesota department of education, so I won’t suggest it.
