Task Based Instruction & Differentiated Assessment

for Vocabulary PracticeKatie Subra

subr0054@umn.edu

English Language Fellow, Minsk State Linguistic University

Schedule of Topics

I. Warm-up: Assessing our own vocabulary assessments

II. Overview of key trends and terms related to Task-Based & Differentiated Assessment in the U.S.

III. Two Ways of Viewing Differentiated Assessment: A. Discrete Point (micro) vs. Communicative (macro) B. Bloom's Taxonomy for Language Assessment Examples will be discussed.

IV. TWBAT: Teachers will be able to analyze their own vocabulary assessment techniques and check for differentiation.

Speed-Dating Warm-Up

• What is your favorite way to assess your students' vocabulary skills? What does that look like? Is it on paper, through speaking performances, or in the form of projects?

• Think back to your favorite type of assessment to take as a student. Is it similar or different from your favorite assessment as a teacher?

• When and how do you give your students feedback? What happens next (is there any washback in their performance)?

• When do you isolate one skill from other skills? When do you pair it with other skills? (Ex. Grammar/Vocab/Reading/Speaking/Writing practice)

Categorizing Assessment

How do your assessments change according to:

Skill focus (Overlap between vocabulary & RWSG)

Language level

Purpose (Feedback vs. Washback)

Micro/Macro

Bloom's Taxonomy & Higher order thinking skills

Acronym List for ESL in the U.S.

• The purpose of TBI is so that SWBAT (Students will be able to…) perform realistic tasks in their L2.

• TBI goes hand-in-hand with CBI and is taught to varying degrees in different ESL settings.

• Differentiated Assessment should be used to measure student's success on a micro and macro level. Micro --------------Macro traditional assessment TBI

L1 – 1st language; L2 – 2nd

language

TBI – Task Based Instruction

CBI – Content Based Instrution

IEP (college) – Intensive English

Program

ELLs – English Language Learners

(Students in K-12 programs who

come from homes where English is

not spoken)

IEP (for ELLs) – Individual

Education Plan

ESP – English for Specific Purposes

ABE – Adult Basic Education

(C) IS – (Chinese) Immersion

School

Assessment should reflect purpose

Example 1) In a Business English class, the assessments may range from point-driven tests to the ability to write a business email, but may not necessarily include ability to write a 5-paragraph essay.Example 2) An IEP may assess students through task-based projects that require the use of multiple skills (speaking, reading, writing, listening, vocabulary, grammar).

Assessing Listening & Vocabulary: Micro-Macro

LevelDiscrete-point (micro)Phonemic recognition Ex: The farm has many hogs/dogs.Paraphrase recognition Ex: Katie ran into her friend on the way to the store.

a) Katie was injured. b) Katie is running with her friend. c) Katie saw her friend while walking to the store.Response Evaluation Ex: How many days will you be on vacation?

a) Yes, I will be. b) About 6 days. c) I went on vacation yesterday.

Response EvaluationCloze/Gap-fill (sentence, phrase, summary) ; Dictation ; Statement Evaluation

Communicative (macro)Authentic Listening tasks such as evaluating meaning of lyrics heard or filling in a timetable based on a conversation. Communicative can also be more holistic such as responding during a conversation.

Vocabulary Example (micro with

differentiation)Even within a micro-level assessment, it is necessary to test for depth of comprehension. Example Topic: To VolunteerThe student is given a vocabulary test with the following questions:

1) Write two sentences using the words listed below:A. volunteer motivationB. volunteer benefit

2) Write three phrases that can fit into the blank:I can volunteer by… A.

B. C.

3) Write the correct word related to 'volunteer' to finish these phrases:

A. Mariah will go to the animal shelter after school .B. She will encourage the concept of

by inviting others to help her.C. She enjoys at the shelter

because she doesn't have a pet at home.*What can you do as a follow-up activity (moving into macro)?

Vocabulary Example (macro with

differentiation)A macro-level assessment of vocabulary will likely include a task-based project. It can range anywhere from requiring the student to talk about a real volunteer experience to interviewing different community volunteers.Task-based projects will also incorporate multiple skills, such as creating a Newsletter about different volunteer sites/opportunities.

Ex. 1) Compare/Contrast two volunteer sites.

How do we assign a grade? Points system, Rubric, Holistic Grading

Ex. 2) Give a presentation about the different aspects of volunteerism that were discussed during the 'Volunteerism' unit.

Rubric

Cumulative assessments should also include examples, clear instructions, templates if needed, and even guiding classroom materials. (See Capstone Project)

Bloom's Taxonomy - Basic

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom proposed a taxonomy of student learning objectives. The taxonomy is a range of skills attained by students. The assessment techniques used to measure student success along this range of objectives can be formative or summative in nature.

Formative= Decision Making/Creative Application

Summative= Information Retention

Differentiated Assessment: Vocabulary and Speaking Skills

Micro v. Macro

• Discrete Point

• Response Evaluation

• Communicative

Bloom's Taxonomy

• Knowledge:

• Comprehension:

• Application:

• Analysis:

• Synthesize:

• Evaluate:

Differentiated Assessment: Vocabulary and Writing Skills

Micro v. Macro

• Discrete Point

• Response Evaluation

• Communicative

Bloom's Taxonomy

• Knowledge:

• Comprehension:

• Application:

• Analysis:

• Synthesize:

• Evaluate:

Differentiated Assessment: Vocabulary and Reading Skills

Micro v. Macro

• Discrete Point

• Response Evaluation

• Communicative

Bloom's Taxonomy

• Knowledge:

• Comprehension:

• Application:

• Analysis:

• Synthesize:

• Evaluate:

Differentiated Assessment: Vocabulary and Grammar Skills

Micro v. Macro

• Discrete Point

• Response Evaluation

• Communicative

Bloom's Taxonomy

• Knowledge:

• Comprehension:

• Application:

• Analysis:

• Synthesize:

• Evaluate:

Grammar Example: Analysis Paper

micro or macro skills?An academic analysis of common English Language Learner grammatical errors:

Jay Leno is a comedian. He also love to collect cars. One of his cars needs not gas. It’s a Baker electric car. Baker invent an electric car in 1909. In the early 1900s, electric cars was popular in the United Sates. Then Henry Ford did produce inexpensive cars that used gas. People stopped buying electric cars. But nowadays people is trying to keep the air clean. So electric cars are become popular once again.

Here is how you would write about the first error:

The second sentence of the paragraph contains an error in subject verb agreement. The sentence reads, “He also love to collect cars”. Instead, the sentence should read, “He loves to collect cars” because he is third person and third person verbs require ‘s’ in the simple present tense (Schoenberg, p. 83).

Provide Step-by-Step Guidance

1. Step 1: Read student paper and identify the errors. Focus on the grammatical topics covered in class (i.e. Tense, PoS, SVA, Possessives, Modals, Gerunds, Questions, Affirmative/Negative Statements,… varies by level)

2. Step 2: Meet in class to share your errors and corrections with classmates. Analyze the types of errors that you found. Discuss corrections and grammar rules.

3. Step 3: Begin writing your analysis. Refer to the textbook page(s) that state the grammatical rules you are focusing on. Use bold font to highlight the error and the correction within the context of the sentence.

Grammar Analysis Paper Objectives

Grammar Analysis Paper for High Intermediate to Advanced ESL students

Objectives:

•Apply grammatical knowledge to an authentic situation—student writing•Raise awareness about L2 global errors (errors that interfere with comprehensibility) vs. local errors •Develop autonomous grammar learning strategies in students•Empower students to correct grammar mistakes in the writing of their peers (this will eventually empower them to correct their own errors which are similar to their peers) •Reinforce the conventions of academic writing: citing sources, quote integration, and parenthetical situation

Reflections on TBI & Assessment

Pros

• Multiple Skills are used simultaneously

• Authentic (input & output)

• Can be adapted to different levels

Cons

• Time (in and out of the classroom)

• Can be difficult to rate

• Requires teacher's elbow grease to create assessments, stages, and rubrics

References/Final Thoughts

Buck, G. (2001). "Approaches to assessing listening" in Assessing Listening

(pp. 61-93). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Read, J (2000). "The design of discrete vocabulary tests" in Assessing Vocabulary

(pp. 150-187). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Shohamy, E., & Inbar, O. (2006). "Assessment of advanced language proficiency:

Why performanced-based tasks?" (CPDD 0605). University Park, PA:

The Pennsylvania State University Center for Advanced Language Proficiency

Education and Research.

Also, check out: The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, University of Minnesota. http://www.carla.umn.edu/index.html

Questions?, Suggestions? More materials? Email me: subr0054@umn.edu