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Measuring Student Progress:

Did They Reach the Target?

Paul Sandrock American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

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Outline:

• Reviewing the three modes of communication

• Balancing assessment

• Identifying the proficiency target

• Developing and assessing interpersonal

communication

• Designing how and how well

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1. The active negotiation of meaning among

individuals.

2. Participants observe and monitor one another to

see how their intentions and meanings are being

communicated.

3. Adjustments and clarifications can be made

accordingly.

4. Participants need to initiate, maintain, and sustain

the conversation

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Interpersonal Communication

Students engage in conversation, provide and

obtain information, express feelings and

emotions, and exchange opinions.

1. The interpretation of meaning, including cultural.

2. The source is something heard, read, or viewed.

3. No opportunity to interact with the speaker, writer,

or producer.

4. The task is to try to understand the gist and as many

layers of details as possible

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Interpretive Communication

Students understand and interpret written and

spoken language on a variety of topics.

1. The creation of oral and written messages.

2. The message is something spoken, written, or

visually represented.

3. No opportunity to interact with the listener, reader,

or viewer.

4. The task is to facilitate interpretation and

understanding by the intended audience

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Presentational Communication

Students present information, concepts, and

ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on

a variety of topics.

Three Modes of Communication

Interpersonal Interpretive Presentational

Negotiation of

meaning

Listening and

Speaking

Reading and

Writing

Interpretation

Listening

Reading

Viewing

Creation

Speaking

Writing

Visually

Representing

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Sample Assessments for Each Mode

Interpersonal Interpretive Presentational

Identify what’s in common

Talk about an illustration

Tell main idea or purpose

Identify key ideas actually

in story

Role play

Write letter of introduction

to host family

Meet at a café and talk

about what you did

List key ideas, show

where found

Give supporting details

Use context clues to

predict word meanings

Retell a story

Present a public service

announcement

Come to agreement on

topic with various points

of view

Identify inferences as

logical or illogical

Give short speech

Stage authentic drama

Convince your partner to

adopt your stand

Explain author’s

perspective

Write an essay comparing

and contrasting different

cultural perspectives 8

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Balanced Assessment

Learning Checks • Did students learn what was taught?

Formative Assessment • Can students apply or manipulate what they have

learned?

Summative Assessment

What have students acquired?

Designated point in time (end of unit, year)

Gauge if students reached a benchmark

Why do we assess our students?

Learning Checks Formative

Assessment

Summative

Assessment

• Decide if I need to

reteach something

• Check: did students

“get it?”

• Check how students

are doing: can I move

on?

• Help me plan

instruction

• Can students use

what was taught?

• Monitor students’

progress and adjust

instruction accordingly

• Assessment for

learning

• Did we reach our

goals?

• Show students their

improvement

• Assessment of

learning (so students

know where they are

and what they need

next)

• Inform teacher of the

next “level”

• Motivate students 10

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Formative Assessment

Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment

Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam http://www.setda.org/toolkit/nlitoolkit2006/

data/Data_InsideBlackBox.pdf Transformative Assessment James Popham Formative Assessment & Standards-Based Grading Robert Marzano

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Interpersonal Assessments:

• What are you currently using/administering?

• Describe in no more than 2 sentences

Think – Pair - Share

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How do you use a variety of

Interpersonal Assessments?

Learning

Checks

Formative

Assessments

Summative

Assessment

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ASSESSING PERFORMANCE

TOWARD PROFICIENCY

Functions

Accuracy

Content &

Contexts

Text Type

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Proficiency Levels Inform

Performance Expectations

Superior

Advanced

Intermediate

ACTFL Proficiency Scale

Novice

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From Structured to Creative Practice

1. Put the following in the past.

a. John opens the window.

b. I walk to school.

c. She calls her father.

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From Structured to Creative Practice

2. Here is Susan’s calendar; say what she did yesterday.

8:00 get up

8:30 leave the house

9:00 call John

9:30 type report

3. What did Susan do yesterday? Match the events with the

most logical times and say what she did.

8:00 type report

8:30 meet John for lunch

9:00 leave the house

9:30 call John

12:00 get up

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From Structured to Creative Practice

4. Susan is a typical freshman at your school. Imagine and relate what she did yesterday.

5. What activities do you like to do when

a. you are bored?

b. you are in a good mood?

c. you are tired but have to stay awake?

d. you are with your friends?

6. What do you like to do in your free time?

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TEACHING AND TESTING FOR

VARIOUS DEGREES OF CONTROL

Proficiency does not mean perfection, nor does it imply limitation of instruction to one level at a time.

Instruction and assessment at each level

should target certain functions for full control, others for partial control, and others simply for conceptual control.

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INSTRUCTIONAL IMPLICATIONS

Focus on what students can DO with the language: observable performance vs. assumed knowledge

Traditional approach Proficiency-oriented approach

(use, recycle, expand)

+

+

(block upon block)

© Copyright 2011 by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Any reproduction, distribution or sharing of these materials in part or in whole is prohibited by ACTFL.

Concept of Control: Examples

Novice Intermediate Pre-Advanced

Full greetings,

leave-takings;

listing

Asking

questions

(interview)

Use basic

connecting

words (because,

therefore, when)

Partial Asking

questions;

expressing

feelings and

emotions

Adjective

agreement

Narration,

elaboration

(past time)

Conceptual Adjective

agreement

Past time

(narration)

“What if …”

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Question Strategies

to move to the next level

To Move Toward Intermediate Level:

1. Polite Requests (I’d like to know more about your

school; Tell me about why you like tennis)

2. Open-ended Requests (Tell me about the tennis team

in your school; tell me about other sports or activities in

your school or community?

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Question Strategies

to move to the next level To Move Consistently into Intermediate Level:

1. Series of questions to develop (exhaust) the topic (I

understand you are taking seven courses. Tell me

about your favorite. What kinds of things do you do in

that class? What makes that teacher a favorite? or

How many courses are you taking? Which do you like

best? Describe your favorite teacher)

2. Move to related topics (What other sport might you

think about playing? Why? Besides your courses, what

else do you like about school?)

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Question Strategies

to move to the next level

To Move Toward Advanced Level:

1. Extended Descriptions (Tell me about what you used

to do as a child)

2. Follow-Up Questions (It sounds like you were very

active as a child. How has your life changed?)

3. Ask for Comparisons (Can you compare high school to

college?)

4. Develop the topic to complete the story (You said you

went to France. What were your first impressions?

What is something unusual that happened?)

5. Ask for clarification, illustrations/examples, elaboration

(Tell me more … )

What’s the “engagement” and “motivation”

to be in the conversation?

Activating interest (a direction for the conversation) 1. Come to agreement

2. Find out how much you have in common

3. Identify the biggest difference between you

Creating a context (a reason for the conversation) 1. Decide if you can be partners

2. Make a decision about who, what, where, when, how

3. Explore two sides of a debate question 25

What’s the “accountability”

to stay in the conversation?

Designing a “deliverable” (an urgency about the conversation)

1. Complete a graphic organizer

• Venn diagram

• T - Chart

2. Tell what you learned from your partner

3. Be ready to share your findings

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Existing Classroom

Activity

Practicing Interpersonal

Skills

Share your travel itinerary with

a partner

Come to agreement with your

friends about how to balance

the “must see’s” (museums,

monuments) with the “must

do’s” (music, events,

adventures) on your visit to ___

Expectations for Student Performance Using existing tasks or activities

– making them more interpersonal:

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Existing Classroom Activity Practicing Interpersonal Skills

Find out which classes you have in

common

Find out who has the busiest day this

week

Describe your … to your partner Find out how compatible you and your

partner are in the area of …

Provide a summary of a story or article Work with your partner to retell story or

summarize an article

Present a work of art to the class Go on a gallery walk (art on classroom

walls) with a partner to decide on a

work of art for your city’s museum to

purchase

Give five reasons for taking a trip to … Find out if you and your conversation

partner have enough in common

(compatible enough) to sit together on

your flight to …

Using existing tasks or activities

– making them more interpersonal:

Strategies to develop Students’

Independence

1. Random pairs (spontaneous) 2. Prior preparation on topic (stay in

context) 3. Practice initiating and sustaining

conversation 4. Consciously remove teacher support 5. Practice the elements of the rubric

(understanding what counts)

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What does this look like in practice?

Daily Routines

Margaret Dyer

San Francisco

Japanese, Grade 5

www.learner.org

Creating Common Expectations

In your “level” group: Decide what students need to be successful on your performance assessments – what counts?

Target the level

Brainstorm characteristics that count

Cluster into categories (groupings)

Then create the quality descriptions (horizontal) •

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The Keys to Assessing

Language Performance

New ACTFL publication

Available at:

www.actfl.org

Click “Publications”

Under Development: ACTFL Assessment of

Performance toward Proficiency in Languages

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Thank You

psandrock@actfl.org

Measuring Student Progress:

Did They Reach the Target?