ASSESSMENT ///
DEEP & AUTHENTIC LEARNING
Authentic learning means providing students the opportunities to test their skills in real interactions or use them for a meaningful purpose.
Sixth grade students practice their listening and food ordering skills at a Mexican torta restaurant in Denver.
Making a video tour to introduce your school to your buddies in Buenos Aires means you'd better practice your lines!
Dramatically presenting a poem from memory requires accurate pronunciation and an understanding of the meaning of the words.
How to show you really know the words your Spanish cooking vocabulary? Your own cooking show!
THOUGHTFUL ASSESSMENT DESIGN
The best assessments ask students to demonstrate their new skills in the ways they will be most likely to need them in their real lives.
A student explains several short stories from his childhood in an assessment designed for determining students understanding of the two different simple past tenses.
In this assessment a student uses vocabulary and grammar learned in a novel to translate a never before seen story into Spanish (Click to play).
One of the best ways students can both demonstrate, as well as seal in, their learning is by teaching someone else. In this assessment, a student explains a recently learned grammar topic to a potential audience. (Click to play)
In this assessment students used practiced grammar and vocabulary to describe friends and family members.
In some oral assessments, students needed to practice with a set list of sentence elements but be ready to produce any one of the 250 possible sentence combinations.
TECHNOLOGY EMPLOYED WITH PURPOSE
Technology should not be utilized simply for the sake of using devices, but rather implemented in ways that increase what is possible for students to show and learn in an assignment.
In 5th grade, students use technology instead of poster board to share their research on a Spanish speaking country of their choice. The goal of the project is to inform their online audience about their country as well as entice their readers to consider a visit to the country. Students love the creativity and personalization possibilities of the project as well as the fact that it is a real website that can bring visitors in. (Click to browse)
In 8th grade, students use website design tools to create a digital portfolio of their work in Spanish class. The site can serve as a platform for reflection or a vehicle to show off all of their effort throughout the year.
In addition to having to hone their iMovie skills through their work on the music video projects, 8th graders conduct an interview with a native Spanish speaker and then must learn to add subtitles to make both a transcripted Spanish version as well as translate what their interviewee said into English to create an English version.
In my own use of technology, I make an effort to provide students with a variety of different resources (written aids, songs, audio recordings, videos) to support them in completing their homework.