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In today's Topic of the Week article, Kathy Shelton talks about how beginning-of-the-year pre-assessments related to Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) can guide instruction throughout the year, helping teachers to scaffold instructional tasks for different groups of students.

Classroom-ready examples of Integrated Performance Assessments (IPAs) are available on the Ohio Foreign Language Association website at http://oflaslo.weebly.com/moving-your-state-from-performance-to-proficiency-the-ohio-model.html. Under the "IPA Resources and Samples" section, you can download a French IPA dealing with travel or a Spanish IPA dealing with food and hunger; both documents include an IPA that can be used as a unit-final assessment and a different version that can be used as a more comprehensive pre- or post-assessment, such as you might use to track students' performance and proficiency regarding SLOs.

The example cited in today's Topic of the Week article deals with the interpretive mode; specifically reading. ACTFL's Appendix D template as referenced in the article allows students at different levels of proficiency to all be challenged. The IPAs on the OFLA site use this same template for the reading portions; you will also see this template in use in the "Interpretive Task Samples" section of the page, such as this interpretive task dealing with free time in Spanish.

More instruction and assessment resources are available on this Ohio Department of Education website. These resources are designed and arranged so that teachers can choose strategies appropriate to the task, language level, and age of their students.