One common question that I was asked in my sessions at iFLT '14 was, "I thought that our goal is to provide students with comprehensible input...so why do so many of these activities contain output?" Great question! Is output bad? No comprehension based teacher thinks that output is bad. Output is a good thing and one of the end … Continue reading Output
About two months ago, I wrote a post explaining how second language teachers can use the Common Core Anchor Standards for Reading to give depth to their reading assessments and challenge students to think critically in the target language. Read it here. Understandably, some readers were left wondering what an assessment composed of CCSS Aligned questions … Continue reading CCSS Aligned L2 Reading Comprehension Questions
Note: Much of my knowledge about comprehension checks has come from Betsy Paskvan, a Japanese teacher here in Anchorage, AK. Betsy has presented many times on checking for comprehension at state and national language conferences (she'll be at NTPRS this summer), and she often travels to other school districts to offer them professional development on comprehension checks … Continue reading Comprehension Checks
Scott Benedict is the king of assessment, so if you have never before pondered accurate assessment, standards-based assessment, etc., you should probably hop on over to his site, Teach for June, and spend the next few weeks there before you come back and finish reading this post. If you have already reached the conclusion that it … Continue reading REALLY assess reading comprehension
A good teacher is always looking for ways to vary his or her assessments. Administering varied assessment types allows for differences in student strengths and weaknesses and provides novelty. Novelty is important because it makes the assessment feel less like an exam and more like an activity, which reduces anxiety and lowers the affective filter, … Continue reading What did I say?
My maternity sub is unavailable on one day during finals week, so I needed to develop a new final exam for Spanish II that did not involve the use of the computer. (Last year, I gave my students this exam based on the video La leyenda del espantapájaros.) Wanting to do as little work as … Continue reading Spanish II Final Exam, Take 2
Julia developed an awesome extension for running dictations (click here to read how to do a basic running dictation)! Instead of having students record the events on a single piece of paper, she had the secretary write each event on a separate square of paper. After the secretary recorded it, he or she passed the paper … Continue reading Running Dictation Extension
I continue to experience the same problem with each reading assessment that I assign, and I am wondering if anyone else experiences it as well and/or has input and suggestions. When I administer a reading assessment, I make absolutely certain that it is comprehensible to my students. If there are any words that my students … Continue reading Reading Comprehension Conundrum
This week is conference week in Anchorage. At the middle school level, we do Student Led Conferences, in which students prepare a portfolio that includes work samples and self-reflections and present it to their parents. Teachers check in during the conference to see if parents have any questions, but the student is responsible for explaining … Continue reading Conference Time!
This is my third year using Standards Based Assessment, and I’m hooked. WHY I LOVE STANDARDS BASED ASSESSMENT Reason #1: My students have a clear, measurable goal for my class, instead of a GPA goal. Throughout my entire school career, my goal was to earn a 100. An A. A 4.0. Or higher, if I … Continue reading 5 reasons I love Standards Based Grading
