This week in my 8th grade classroom, students will be demonstrating their knowledge through a series of summative assessments including the three modes of communication.
This led me to think about the other components in my classroom that I use to assess their language abilities. Why not have everything I use to grade students fall under these three umbrellas- interpretive, interpersonal & presentational? Instead of having generic categories, to classify the assessments.
Bearing in mind the world language standards & levels of ACTFL and the correlation to task -measurement of skill, let us consider the area of homework. Based on the three modes, generally speaking, homework assignments fall under two of the three umbrellas- presentational and/or interpretive. I can suggest an assignment to be done at home, which requires interpersonal communication between two students (through speaking or even writing-thanks to social media), so there may be a way to add interpersonal when considering homework tasks.
This has me consider the following, based on current categories of use in my classroom.
Homework– Presentational / Interpretive (10%)
Projects– Presentational / Interpersonal (20%)
Quizzes– Presentational / Interpretive / Interpersonal (30%)
Tests– Presentational / Interpretive / Interpersonal (40%)
So instead of having separate weight categories for Homework, Projects, Quizzes and Tests- why not have everything evenly divided as: Interpretive, Interpersonal & Presentational – with an equal weight category of 33%?
Would this be something realistic for WL teachers or do generic categories in our assessment strategies & grading criteria work just as well? I’m curious to learn how other feel about this idea and whether or not something to this degree has already been implemented into their particular curriculum.
@srtanrodriguez
I would not want to give 33% for any homework, due the the excessive “helping each other” that goes on, and the temptation to use oline translators.
@Mary – Thanks for your feedback. I think you have misinterpreted the specification of homework. I’m saying that all tasks, depending on if its homework, projects, quizzes or tests, fall within the three categories of interpretive, interpersonal, presentational. You would no longer have the category of “homework”, or consider “homework” to be 33%- instead it would fall under one of three modes of communication, as part of an assessment category. It would change the way teachers think & discuss their assessment techniques in how they grade & assess student performance.
I’ve actually tossed around the idea of breaking my categories into Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing which is kind of along the same idea. Not sure how my administration would feel about it…but I kind of like the idea of rethinking the grade set-up.
I like the emphasis on the modes; as a teacher the system you suggested might help me to keep the main thing the main thing when assigning graded work. I might include a small percentage on the non-language but necessary aspects of the classroom (also known as 21st Century Skills): student goals, timeliness of work, seeking help when needed. Thanks for your thoughts.
No creia leer uun post asi en este sitio pero he quedado gratamente sorprendido esta vez
Yes, I teach year 1 middle school and currently have mine set up by:
Interpretive Listening (Marking Period 1-4)
Interpretive Reading (Marking Period 1-4)
Presentational Writing/Speaking (Marking Period 2-4)
Interpersonal Writing/Speaking (Marking Period 2-4)