Assessment+and+Student+Development

Departmental Assessment Philosophy
Assessment should evaluate a student's ability to comprehend and produce language in preparation for using the language in the real world. In addition students may be assessed on cultural and geographic understanding.


 * We hope to use assessments essentially to make the student, teacher, and others aware of progress, improvement, and areas of difficulty, as well as, to generate, nurture, and increase a student's motivation.**

Assessments represent the progress a student has made in building the skills taught in lessons. The construct of the assessment is similar to the way the lesson was taught in form and rigor.

IDEAS
I'd like us to figure out if there are some other things that might help a student prove to his or herself that they are indeed progressing towards mastery of this language. Here are some ideas, to start off the discussion.

It would be nice to have a longitudinal collection of the student's work available on-line, from the time they are ninth graders to the time they graduate. It should be language product, but doesn't necessarily have to be essays or traditional written work. It should demonstrate more connection to the real world as they go forward in their education.
 * Language portfolios**

Video Product

Collaborative projects

How about using skype to establish a friendship with a native speaker of Spanish or Chinese who lives in a Spanish or Chinese speaking country? Perhaps doing a joint project together? -Richard

- What is the purpose of assessment and grades? Assessments:
 * Why do we give assessments and grades?**
 * --give students the ability to accomplish specific tasks in the language **
 * --gives students the ability to understand where their weaknesses are so they can address them **
 * --evaluate and demonstrate progress **

Grades
 * --quantified representation of assessment result (with no real world meaning) **
 * --we like the idea of starting at the grade of 0 and moving up to a grade of 100 by accomplishing things **

- What do we believe about the role of feedback in assessment and grading?
 * --Students like it, so do we **
 * --it's a pain in the butt: it takes too long and students don't really look at it except at the moment they get it back--long term benefits are suspect **

- Should we have a common rubric for grading? **We don't know. Maybe having a rubric bank for types of assessments (conversation, project, writing)** o Should we grade multiple aspects of assignments? § Process – the quality of what students do (scaffolding and skill building) § Product – the quality of what students produce § Content – the accuracy of the information
 * How do we assign grades?**
 * For large projects (videos, presentations) but maybe not for everything**
 * Rubrics are great for projects, written assignments or oral assessments but may be overkill for daily work.**

- How should effort factor into a grading rubric?
 * Depends on student and project. Can be used to stimulate weaker students and show how they worked hard, and to show better students that they really didn't use full effort to create their work **
 * Effort to do what? Sometimes students put in a lot of effort but don't adhere to the objectives of the assignment and therefore do not gain the skills we are teaching. They may produce a pretty or funny project but not have learned anything new. Kim **

- What should we grade? **Performance, proficiency, progress, participation** - Do we grade for completion or for accuracy? **Depends on the project. Accuracy counts on specific types of assignments (essays, comprehension) Perfect practice makes perfect. I believe in grading for accuracy-Kim** - What do we assign that does not need a grade? **a wide variety of activities and cooperative projects**
 * What do we grade?**

- averages are very high or very low **on assessed item, we use that to evaluate the assessment; on classwide averages, we haven't experienced it. If assessment grades are low for many students sometimes re-teaching is necessary.** - student work is incomplete, late, or incorrect **This answer is varied. Some of us don't accept it, some of us make it progressively more painful if a student turns in work late. Some of us are very torn about the usefulness of deadlines for language learning. What does it mean to know object pronouns on Tuesday, February 4th? Is it necessary?**
 * What do we believe/do if:**


 * What does our department’s assessment philosophy mean for lesson and assessment design? That the objectives match for both our daily teaching as well as for our assessment.**