How I assess with exit quizzes

This blog post will be broken up into the following sections for quick reference:

1. My go-to classroom jobs 
2. How I might set up a story 
3. How I assess with the exit slips

Part 1: My go-to classroom jobs

I’ve learned to use classroom jobs over the years to enhance engagement from students, add a bit of buy-in for others and help class run more smoothly so I can… well… teach more effectively. I longer listes of things poorly and shorter lists of things well. I haven’t invented the idea of classroom jobs. They’ve been around for quite some time, and here are some of my essential ones each day:

Scribe: I generally have a classroom notebook for each class where a scribe will write down in Spanish what we have discussed.

Quiz writer: Depending on the class, there might be one student who is a faster processor who enjoys having control over the questions for the quiz. They will write them based on constraints outlined below for me so when I get to the end of class, I don’t have to think as hard.

Some ways to tweak this job are:

1. to draw straws or have random picker pick a student. 
2. Have them write on little slips of paper that you can scramble 
3. Have them write 10 and you choose the best 8 
4. Obviously there would be times I would have to change their questions if they weren’t well worded or if they weren’t good questions 
5. I would normally tell them to write most of the questions about the words on the board that we were practicing (if we were telling a story) 
6. Some might do comprehension quizzes in English. I’d rather do it in Spanish since it’s not really a “gotcha” type of thing. I have translations in English on the board. And if I have been going slow enough and repetitive enough, they’ll be fine and many won’t even look at that point. 
7. You could have a few kids each write a question to spread out the participation 
8. If I don’t get to the quiz at the end of class I might start with it as the warm up (but now multiple choice) and with the structures still up on the board.

Quiz alphabetizer: I also would have in some classes a student whose job would be to alphabetize the quizzes. This was great. Especially for grading and entering in grade book. Saved me so much time! And extra bonus if I had students check their own quizzes with a collection of colored pens I had before turning them in.

Quiz passer: Other job if the class was ok with it, was for a student to pass them back out once they were graded. It’s all about saving me time and getting them involved!

If you’re interested in using classroom jobs, I recently helped TPRS Books design some new handouts. Here is one on classroom jobs for FREE. Also be thinking about what are things that would make class run more smoothly if you didn’t have to deal with it and a student could handle it for you.

Self-assessment - Students grading own tests

So at my school this week, we are doing enrollment conferences during two evenings and my department decided we will also assess this week.

Low-and-behold, I don't have a lot of free time to grade the "Snapshots" (tests) for my students.

We have them organized in 3-4 areas: listening, reading, writing, & speaking (sometimes we don't assess).

For my classes today, in addition to a sharing a romantic song, and having normal conversation, I thought students could actually grade their own work.

Since I've already been having them grade their own quizzes (exit slips), the idea is already in their heads that this is nothing new.

What I am trying today though (and tomorrow since I'm on a block), is students will clear their desks (including writing utensils).  I will pass back their snapshots, and a helper will pass out pens.  They must only take a blue pen if they didn't write in blue ink and a green pen otherwise.

Then we slowly go over the sections and make sure.  Since we use a 4.0 scale for Standards Based Grading, we talk about a 4.0, 3.0, 2.0, 1.0 and 0.0 looks like.  And we go over. I tell them to circle things that maybe aren't right.  At the end, I have them score a section before we move on and allow them to ask questions.  For example, a student first block didn't write any of his translations from the listening section into past tense.  So I asked the class.  They decided it would be a 3.75 because it was really close to being perfect, but not quite there.  Great discussion.

Then we discussed the Reading the same way.

For the writing section, we decided how they could be successful on the writing section and they came up with a basic guide.  After we came up with that, I offered them 5:00 to add to their writing or edit it to push themselves to try for better if they saw they could improve.

At the end, they wrote a 1 on the bottom of their paper on what they can start doing so their next snapshot can be higher (if possible).

I thought it opened up class for good conversation in first block and look forward to the rest of the blocks.  While more English was needed than I would like, I really hope it will help my kids see how they can be more successful each time.

I think I will continue to do this as best as I can.

But I told my wife my plan last night and she thought I was crazy.

For me, it's just like giving the students jobs in class, let's give them more responsibility little by little since it is their learning.  Why should I be the one wearing so many hats?

Please let me know if you've done something similar or any ideas you might have.

Computerized testing

I find myself in a place of tension as an educator.

Performance-based Activities

I've been thinking a lot lately about activities involving performance in the target language in order to test my students skills. Doing this I could still have a rubric for grading and I could be looking for individual things. Or I could have my students perform a task or solve a problem in the target language.

This approach is appealing to me based on backwards-by-design. I could design a unit and then have my summative assessment as some sort of task that students must perform so that I can lead them by the hand all the way up to that point.

And yet, I also feel as though I should give students that might prefer the formal version a test. So I find myself in this limbo between two types of assessment.

What does this mean for me? Well, one thing I would like to do potentially with this is to give students an option by the time of the test. Either they can take a written test or perform a task in the target language and both would be covering the same points, but would offer the students with a choice. I like this idea in that I could be tapping for multiple intelligences.

But at the same time, perhaps I could give students both and they would even each other out. Or alternate depending on the units. Some students will prefer the 'test' over an 'activity' because it's safer while others might like the risk of trying out the language for a purpose other than an 'A'.

Testing

Then there is testing. I change my philosophy each year on how I should be teaching my students and therefore, how I assess them. This is my fourth year of teaching and I have never used the same test. Every year I write it again. This year I am proud to say that I try to include different types of activities that are more focused on meaning and less interested in spelling because do I really care if the students can spell the word right? Or do I care more if they can use it to express themselves. How often will I have my students write on a piece of paper instead of speaking? I would think speaking makes more sense.

So testing should reflect their understanding without forcing them to worry about every single letter. Instead I can offer Cierto/Falso questions and even multiple choice and matching (something that I shunned before).

This year I have also decided that I would rather test my students over the computer in order to save paper and the hassle of subjectivity in grading. In addition, I can ask the students to improve on their first performance and to take notes on anything they missed. It doesn't mean anything extra for me if they are to retry the test.

The pictures to the sides are some examples of tests that I've been making through: quia.com.

It's pretty basic to use and takes a little longer to make the tests for my students, but I see the perks as being higher.

Something I've wondered though is that because my school is small, I have to have to students go to the library to take the tests and that is changing the environment and taking them out of their 'Spanish' comfort zone. So scores might be slightly lower on the test due to inability to recall information as a result of the environment.

But thus far my Spanish 2 students have preferred the computerized tests and tomorrow I will test out my Spanish 1 students and we will see if they also prefer the format.