Student Assessment

Student Assessment

*This page is evidence of ACTFL Standard 5: Assessment of Languages and Cultures. I chose to include various different links to the many ways I have assessed my students in the high school. I try to vary between the ways my students use the abilities they have learned throughout each chapter, and incorporate the many different strengths and abilities they possess. Their results allow me get to know them better, and help me decide whether to move on, or continue working out problem areas with the class as a whole, or perhaps just with one student in particular.

The link you see below is an email giving feedback to the mother of one of my students, providing opportunity for discussion, portraying my commitment to reporting assessment results, and working on student improvement. Towards the bottom, you will find two ways I chose to assess some of the students' progress throughout the units we covered. One is a written assessment, a newspaper article, which covered all major aspects of the chapter. The other project: Mi Niñez (My Childhood) is an oral/written assessment for the following chapter. You can see the rubric at the bottom, where students gain points not only for the oral and written part, but for presentation and creativity. I have included a quiz, an exam, a project where the students create their own menus, and a simple assessment on their mood, which can also let me know how I can teach on any given day. This shows that I am aware of the various and continuous ways a student's progress can be assessed, so further instruction can be modified accordingly.

Click on an activity to see how I assessed my students throughout the term:

El Miami Herald (Intermediate)

*Reflective Statement: I think as time goes on I will come up with more and more ways to assess my students' abilities, find different ways of reflecting on them, and modify my instruction. I do however feel that I am very thorough in my teaching, paying great attention to questions and answers in class, the results of tests, and where improvement is needed. What seems to work extremely well for my students, and perhaps at times, for my own peace of mind, is when a quiz or a test is taken, the students are given back the graded quiz or exam and are to find the correct answers for every item marked wrong. When applicable, they must also tell me why they got it wrong, and what is the reason or explanation for the correct answer. This gets the students putting some extra time into their work, correcting their mistakes, and it also gives them a sense of accomplishment. I do not do this with every test. I did it more often in the university classes I taught, than I do in the high school. I have learned that students may not put in as much effort into studying for exams, if they think they can just take the quiz home after they get their grade, fix their mistakes, and get a few extra points. I tell them it is a "random act of kindness", in the sense of it happening at random and less often, so they do not always depend on that second chance.