Transcript MaFLA - Schd.ws

RAISE THE DISCOURSE LEVEL OF
YOUR STUDENTS
PROFICIENCY AND PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS
PROFICIENCY VS PERFORMANCE
• What is the difference?
• Why do we or should we care?
• Do we need to differentiate when
assessing our students?
• Do we need to have both types of
assessments?
PROFICIENCY
• Proficiency: being able to function/communicate/understand
in another language or culture. Things that one can make/do
on behalf of oneself in another language.
• Why is proficiency important?: it is the only reason to study a
languageit enables crosscultural understanding and communication.
• How do you get proficient?: give them skills to communicate what
they want to communicate and put them in situations to use it
• How do you know you’re proficient?: Being able to function in a
language community by understanding and being understood in a
variety of contexts and situations without thinking about it. When you
are no longer restricted by your language ability.
PERFORMANCE
• Performance:not rehearsed but guided and connected
to the curriculum. What you can do with the language in
the context of what you know or what you’ve learned in
the classroom. Students can display through reading,
writing, speaking, listening that they can use the target
language as a communication tool. Demonstrated
ability in the language.
• Purpose of assessment: to see if kids have understood and if we
can move on. For students to see/acknowledge what they’ve
learned/what they know. Empowers learnersshows them what
they know/can do and motivates them to do more.
SAMPLE PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENTS
• Students have an un-rehearsed conversation with
one another in the target language with no prompt,
theme, or guidelines (speaking)
• Students respond to a real email from an exchange
student in the target language and then respond
(writing)
• Students listen to a new, random song on the radio
and interpret meaning (listening)
• Students read a children’s book in the target
language (reading)
*none of these assessments are guided or necessarily
connected to the curriculum
SAMPLE PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS
• Have a conversation in the target language with a
partner based on a given situation (speaking)
• Read a short text about a bakery in Vienna after
studying food and cooking vocabulary in German
(reading)
• Write a letter to a pen pal in the target language in
which you tell of a specific experience you had
based on vocabulary studied in class (writing)
• Listen to a news report in the target language about
the refugee situation in Europe after studying
immigration laws/policy and vocabulary (listening)
*all of these assessments are based on material taught
YOUR TURN!
• With a partner (preferably same language
group), come up with 2 performance and 2
proficiency assessments (speaking, reading,
writing or listening) for two different levels
• Beginner
• Intermediate
• Advanced
WHY SPEAKING?
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Tends to be lots of focus on writing
Speaking is what students want to be able to do
Speaking helps them with their writing
Speaking helps them feel more confident
Speaking is the most useful tool for travel
Success in speaking motivates them in other areas
• Tangible results when they participate in exchanges
SPONTAN SPRECHEN:
SPONTANEOUS DISCOURSE
• What is “Spontan Sprechen”?
• Why is “Spontan” so great?
• In what levels can you use “Spontan”?
• How do students react to/deal with “Spontan”?
• How does “Spontan” affect other language skills?
• How often should you do “Spontan”?
SPONTAN SPRECHEN: LEVEL 1
• Exercise 1: You are a new student in the German school in
Radolfzell. You arrive early to your first German class so that
you can meet your teacher. You want to introduce yourself
and ask her a few questions. Both students must ask and
answer questions, use various forms of the verb sein, various
singular and plural nouns and at least one compound noun.
One partner is the American exchange student (der
Austauschschüler/die Austauschschülerin), and one is the
German teacher (der Deutschlehrer/die Deutschlehrerin).
(Performance)
• Exercise 2: The German Exchange students are coming to our
class on Friday. Each German 1 student must have a 1.5
minutes conversation with a German Exchange student. Be
sure to ask and answer as many questions as possible and
maintain conversation as long as you can. (Proficiency)
SPONTAN SPRECHEN: LEVEL 2
• Exercise 1: Your mother just announced that she got a new
job in New York City and your family will be moving at the end
of the school year. Express your opinion to your family and ask
them what they think. Then compare the advantages and
disadvantages of living in NYC as opposed to Wellesley. Be
sure to use as much grammar (comparative, superlative,
adjective endings, comparative as adjective) and vocabulary
(especially new verbs!) as possible. (Performance)
• Exercise 2: You and your partner are old friends, but you
haven’t seen each other in years. You randomly meet in the
city. Have a 2-minute conversation in which you show me as
much as you can do in German. (Proficiency)
SPONTAN SPRECHEN: LEVEL 3
• Exercise 1: You hear a student in your class talking poorly
about another Turkish-German student. You decide to
confront this student and ask why s/he is saying these
things and tell him/her what you think. Be sure to use a
variety of verbs and the grammar structures we have
learned (passive, passive with modal verbs, subjunctive
II). (Performance)
• Exercise 2: Mr Zeyben is a Turkish-German immigrant,
who moved to the US in 2001. Have a conversation with
him for 2 minutes. Be sure to use varied and correct
German language functions (and the FORMAL!!).
(Proficiency)
SPONTAN SPRECHEN: LEVEL 4
• Exercise 1: You and your partner will play the roles of Hans or
Sophie Scholl and a parent. You have just been sentenced to
death for resisting Hitler. You have been given 2 minutes to
speak to your parents one last time before you are beheaded.
Answer their questions about the situation and explain to them
why you did what you did. Make sure to tell them how you
feel and what is most important to you. Be sure to use the
language functions we have learned (subjunctive II, passive,
relative clauses). (Performance)
• Exercise 2: Anna Sophie is a German high school student that
also just finished studying the Nazi resistance movement. Have
a 2-minutes conversation with her about this topic.
(Proficiency)
SPONTAN SPRECHEN: LEVEL 5
• Exercise 1: The adopted mother of Andri in the story Andorra
by Max Frisch is having a conversation with the polics after the
death of Andri, suicide of her husband and mental
breakdown of her daughter. She tries to reason with the police
about what happened and why the soldier should be arrested
and hanged. Be sure to use as many language functions as
possible in your discussion. (Performance)
• Exercise 2: We will have a discussion as a class about the
current refugee crisis in Europe. Consider the following things:
What is Germany doing to aide the refugees? How do the
Germans feel about this? What should other countries be
doing? What possible solutions are there? What long-term
effects will there be as a result of this situation? (Performance)
• Exercise 3: After Andri is accused of killing the Senora, Barblin
has a conversation with her father. Play the roles of Barblin
and her father. Speak for 2 minutes. (Proficiency)
HOW TO VARY SPONTAN
SPRECHEN
• Adding grammar
• Write Grammar structures on the board
• Use cards with grammar structures written on them
• Pulling cards out of a hat that they have to use
• Adding vocabulary
• Use vocabulary lists
• Use 10-15 cards with vocab words written on them
• Use “sentence starters” on cards
• In groups of 4
• 2 speak while 2 analyze
• Keep track of # of verbs, verb forms other than “I” and “you”,
and grammar structures
• Make it a competition
HOW TO VARY SPONTAN
CONT’D…
• Practice before performance
• Practice in groups of 2 before going in front of the class
• Practice with a partner then record with a different partner
(or same!)
• Analyze after performance
• Analyze 1-2 groups together as a class to set the standard
and make sure everyone is on the same page
• Bring in the real deal!
• Find native speakers to speak with your kids (exchange
students!)
• Find retirees in your community that would be willing to be
interviewed by your students
• Use wespeke 
HOW TO ASSESS SPONTAN
• In front of the class
• According to 5 things:
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Variety of vocabulary
Variety of verb forms
Correctness of language functions/grammar structures
Naturalness of conversation
Fluidity of conversation
• Allow first 1-2 groups to go again at the end
• Ask students to give a grade and justify it
SPONTAN RUBRIC
MaFLA Presentation
Grade the groups using the following:
Vocabulary: A
Verbforms: A
Grammar: A
B
B
B
C
C
C
D
D
D
F
F
F
• Which grammar structures did they use?
Fluidity:
A
naturalness: A
B
B
C
C
D
D
F
F
LET’S PRACTICE!
• Sample for the class—graded! YIKES 
• Find a group of teachers that teach the same target
language as you
• Within your group, pick a performance and a
proficiency exercise from the ones you wrote earlier
• Take the 10 blank cards and write 5 grammar structures
on 5 different cards and 5 “sentence starters” on the
other 5 cards
• Decide who will speak and who will analyze
• One analyzer will record how many different verbs were
used and how many different verb forms
• The other analyzer will keep track of who uses what
grammar structures and “sentence starters” and
distribute them as they are used
• Time yourselves: 2 minutes per round and then switch
LET’S ANALYZE
• How did you do?
• Was it hard?
• What grade did you get? WHY?
• How do you think your students will react?
• What advice would you give your kids?
• How do you think they’ll benefit from this?
QUESTIONS???