Assessing “La Familia”: A 3 Mode Approach

I just wrapped up my “familia” unit where we discuss adjective matching and learn to describe people’s appearance and personality. As I move towards assessing proficiency (I have a LONG way to go yet!) I wanted to try something a little different for summative assessments. Here’s what I did (and materials!).

Assessment 1: Presentational Writing & Speaking

I still wanted to assess students’ grammar so I had them write short descriptions of their family (or “family” a made up family or friends as family). They worked on their descriptions in class starting with this outline to get their ideas together.

I read their first draft and highlighted errors such as verb conjugation or choice (tener vs ser), adjective matching, spelling, missing accents, and any missing information. I didn’t correct errors, simply circled or underlined to draw their attention to it and let them figure out what was wrong. I did help and tell them it was adjective matching or verb conjugation if they didn’t figure out what was wrong on their own. Again, I didn’t correct it for them, but pointed out the error and maybe talked them through the first adjective matching issue so they could figure out how to fix the rest on their own. 

Students made changes based on my feedback then had a partner proof read it.  They turned in their final draft of the writing and I graded it using the rubric in this file. Students also did a short presentation of their family to the class on one of two speaking days. 

Assessment 2: Interpersonal Speaking

I wanted to see what students could really do with the language in a speaking situation. One on one I had students describe people they’d never seen to me. I gave students a card with a picture of a person or group of people, the name(s), relationship, and some description in English. You can see the rubric by checking this file. I’m not 100% happy with this rubric and will tweak it before next year or my next assessment like this.

To prepare I had students record descriptions using Flipgrid. In the grid I posted a picture with description in English just like they’d see in our conversation. I then posted a video of me speaking, asking questions such as, “Who is this?”, “What is she/he like?”, “Are they part of your family?”, “What’s their personality like?”. This helped students get over their fear of speaking and they heard me asking the questions. I moderated the posts so other students didn’t see their videos, only I did. I gave students feedback after each video which went pretty quickly. I was able to give video responses to help them with pronunciation which was great. Some tips I figured out along the way:

1. The first time I let students listen to my questions, write them down, and prep their responses.
2. The second time I let students write down my questions and think about responses but not write.
3. The third and final practice I had students just listen to the questions then respond immediately without thinking or preparing (how often do we get to tell students not to prepare or think ahead?!)

I had to push students to work in that way because I didn’t want them stopping and thinking and trying to be perfect in our conversations. I praised the students who didn’t prepare and weren’t really rehearsed during the practice rounds and encouraged those who were simply reading their prepared responses to push themselves to do their best and trust their skills.

Assessment 3: Interpretive Reading

I reached out to Twitter for some help with this and the amazing Lisa Shepard (@mmeshep) shared her post about a family IPA with me. I loved the reading format and created a Spanish version. I made two practice versions (including a version modified for students who struggle with reading comprehension), a test version, and a retake version. I’ll be posting those soon once I get everything compiled and “pretty”. Keep an eye out for a tweet from me (@lisajmch) sharing those.

The basic format is a paragraph that includes family and descriptions. Students are then given a list of 15 “details” in English from the reading. The catch is that not all of them actually appear in the reading. Students check the items that do appear and then write the info in English to show they understood it. Again, here’s the link to the rubric/grading information for this portion.

Final Thoughts

• I loved using Flipgrid for formative practice and preparation. I’ll continue to use it more now that it’s free!
• I really liked this twist on interpretive reading. It was a bit of a challenge for me to write at first but with practice I know I’ll get better.
• I need to spend more time preparing students for the presentational speaking so they don’t read their notes too much. In the future I think I’ll build in some practice presentations in small groups.
• The one on one conversations/interpersonal speaking was my favorite part of this. I look forward to incorporating more of this type of assessment moving forward.