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Content Type: 2
Title: Assessement to Inform Learning
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We wrapped up our September series on literacy and cross-curricular connections with Stephanie Knight's excellent recommendations last week. Our October theme is assessment to inform learning. This week we'll hear CASLS director Julie Sykes' reasons that we should consider all assessment to be formative assessment. In coming weeks we'll explore how large-scale assessment can inform program articulation, the role of Integrated Performance Assessments in monitoring progress towards Student Learning Objectives and the importance of thinking about SLO's throughout the year, the interplay between individual motivating factors and assessment, and more. We hope that you find our October series useful.
Source: CASLS
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Content Type: 4
Title: Summative or Formative Assessment
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This activity was created as a summative assessment for introductory Spanish courses at the University of New Mexico. However, it is proficiency-based and could easily be used as an in-class, formative assignment. The critical consideration for educators implementing a similar task in their classrooms is to use the data from the activity to drive further instruction, no matter if the assessment is used in a formative or summative context.
Learning objectives: Learners will be able to:
- Introduce themselves, great others, and say goodbye
- Identify and describe people
- Locate classroom objects
- Express dates and tell time
- Comment on the weather
- Exchange information about classes
- Identify locations at the university
- Talk about academic daily life and occurrences
- Ask and answer questions
Mode(s): Interpersonal Communication, Presentational Writing
Materials: “Experiencia” Overview, Student Answer Sheets 1-8, Answer Key (included with English translations so that this activity may be easily adapted to other languages)
Procedure:
- Using the “Experiencia” Overview, discuss what language functions the learners should have mastered in your class and break down the relevant grammar and vocabulary connected to those functions.
- Next, explain the “Experiencia” to learners with the “Experiencia” Overview. This particular “Experiencia” involves conversing with classmates in order to successfully fill in a class schedule.
- After that, explain the evaluation procedure for the “Experiencia”. This explanation can also be found on the “Experiencia” Overview.
- Then, learners will engage in the “Experiencia” and will be evaluated by you or by a team of educators. The Answer Key will help you in this evaluation. Reflect upon the data from these evaluations before planning the next class period and make sure to address the strengths and weaknesses of learners in subsequent class periods.
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
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Content Type: 2
Title: October's InterCom Theme is Assessment
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We hope that you enjoyed our September InterCom series on literacy and cross-curricular connections. Our October theme is assessment as a tool for learning. We start off this week with a critique of the binary view of assessment being either formative or summative. In coming weeks we wil explore the use of large-scale assessment for program articulation, Student Learning Objectives as tools for adapting instruction throughout the year, the relationship between individual motivating factors and assessment and more. We hope that you continue to enjoy your InterCom subscription.
Source: CASLS
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Content Type: 2
Title: Job Opening: Assistant Professor of Spanish Linguistics
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The Department of Romance Languages at the University of Oregon invites applications for a tenure track position of Assistant Professor of Spanish Linguistics, with specialization in contact linguistics, discourse analysis, or pragmatics. The full job announcement can be found on the UO website: http://jobs.uoregon.edu/unclassified.php?id=5662 . This is a new position, and we hope to attract a diverse pool of applicants. Please share the announcement widely. Open until filled; materials due Nov. 14 for full consideration.
Source: CASLS
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Content Type: 3
Title: Ensuring Summative Assessments Are Also Formative
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By Julie Sykes, CASLS Director
Concurrent with national trends in education, second language classrooms have faced an increasing emphasis on high stakes, large scale assessments. While there are certain benefits to this approach, an unintended consequence reported by many teachers has been a decreased emphasis on opportunities for formative assessment throughout the learning process.
Formative Assessment is typically understood as a low-stakes task, with minimal point value, that is designed to monitor student progress and determine strengths and weaknesses. Summative Assessment, in contrast, is defined as high stakes measure designed to evaluate student learning at a specific period of time, often measured against a set of standards or benchmark (for further detail see, for example, Garrison and Eringhaus, 2013). However, despite this common distinction, the reality is all assessment, regardless of whether it is delivered in high stakes or low stakes contexts, should be addressed as part of the learning process.
Using reflection and analysis, every time a student is evaluated, affords the learner a unique opportunity to reflect on their own skills and adapt his or her learning process. As teachers engage in assessment practices, a number of techniques can be used make assessments useful for ongoing learning.
- Whenever possible, meaningful reflection and analysis of high stakes assessments can be highly valuable. Whether it is a national-level test or a chapter exam, an opportunity to reflect on the results of the assessment can be extremely useful for the learning process. This can include, for example, having learners make a list of the five things they did best and five things they would like to improve as a result of the evaluation. They can then try the task again, with help, to further improve their abilities.
- Formative evaluation can also be given more prominence in the classroom by adding points, or other “value” to the process. Teaching learners how to self-reflect, set goals, and evaluate their own language skills can be built in to everyday classroom practices and included as part of an evaluation rubric. By valuing the process and the product, students are taught to be reflective learners, while simultaneously improving their language skills.
- Give feedback as soon, and as often, as possible. Very often, chapter exams are given and then returned two weeks after the test was taken, making reflection more difficult. Furthermore, as part of this process, any opportunity to allow students to keep the assessment adds value to the reflection process. Allowing learners to keep exams may not always be possible, but should be considered in cases where it might be.
- Use the same tasks as both high stakes and low stakes tasks. In other words, allow learners the opportunity to engage in meaningful assessment tasks in a variety of contexts. This can be, for example, a communicative task embedded at the end of a class session to an experiential exam given at the end of a chapter or course. As learners engage in meaningful evaluation, instructors can ensure the assessment process and outcomes are valuable and impact learning.
References
Garrison, C. and Eringhaus, M. (2013). Formative and Summative Assessments in the Classroom. Association for Middle Level Education. Available at: https://www.amle.org/portals/0/pdf/articles/Formative_Assessment_Article_Aug2013.pdf
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Content Type: 4
Title: Self-Reflection for after a Unit Assessment
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This activity was developed to guide learners through self-reflection and goal-setting after engaging in a proficiency-based summative assessment at the end of a unit of study.
Learning Objective: Learners will be able to:
- Identify strengths as revealed through a recent assessment.
- Identify weaknesses as revealed through a recent assessment.
- Set goals for themselves for upcoming assessments.
Mode(s): Presentational Speaking, Presentational Writing, Interpretive Reading, Interpretive Listening, Interpersonal Communication
Materials: Instructor-evaluated assessment, Self-Reflection Handout
Procedure:
- Review general feedback regarding global trends (strengths and weaknesses or general misunderstandings) that you noticed in the work produced by your learners on their most recent assessment.
- Discuss the importance of setting goals with your learners.
- Allow learners to review their assessments using the Self-Reflection Handout. The learners may find it beneficial to work in teams as they complete the handout.
- Review the learners’ answers to the Self-Reflection Handout to provide feedback. Have the learners save the handouts in a secure location so that they may continue to modify and reference their goals as learning progresses.
Notes:
These reflection activities may take place in the L1 or the L2 depending on learner needs.
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
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Content Type: 2
Title: Help Us by Taking a Survey
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How useful is InterCom for you? Please let us know by taking this short survey: https://oregon.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0olSCReElqjqUFD.
Source: CASLS
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Content Type: 5
Title: STARTALK 10th Anniversary Fall Conference
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The STARTALK 10th Anniversary Fall Conference took place on October 14th and 15th, 2016, in Atlanta, Georgia.
The mission of the STARTALK program is to increase the number of U.S. citizens learning, speaking, and teaching critical need foreign languages. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) launched STARTALK in 2006 granting oversight of the program to the National Security Agency (NSA) who in turn contracted the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC) at the University of Maryland (UMD) as subject matter experts in the implementation and administration of the STARTALK program.
The STARTALK summer language programs use LinguaFolio Online in all their courses. The original version of LinguaFolio, developed by members of the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages (NCSSFL) and based on the European Language Portfolio (ELP) and the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements, was produced on paper and is still being used extensively. In order to take advantage of the benefits of a digital space, NCSSFL, in collaboration with the CASLS, began development of the online version in 2009. LinguaFolio Online is an ePortfolio evaluation tool that allows students to collect evidence demonstrating their communicative abilities in a world language, according to the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements.
The fall conference affords STARTALK grantees time to reflect on the 2016 programs, attend sessions for teaching critical languages, learn about resources, and network with other colleagues. Dr. Julie Sykes, CASLS Director, and Stephanie Knight, CASLS Language Technology Specialist, presented a 60-minute session that highlighted the outcomes from the use of LinguaFolio Online in the 2016 STARTALK summer programs. Using these outcomes as a frame, they provided examples of best practices highlighting work done in current STARTALK programs. Emphasis was placed on ways to include real-time evidence collection without disrupting regular class sessions, providing exemplar activities that can be applied to STARTALK programs as well as language classrooms in other contexts.
Source: CASLS Spotlight
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Content Type: 5
Title: Deutsche Telekom and CASLS Design App for Refugees
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Currently, about 1 million refugees are living in government-sponsored accommodations waiting for permission to permanently stay in Germany, which can take up to six months. Meanwhile, refugees have no access to work or education during this wait time.
Deutsche Telekom is partnering with CASLS at the University of Oregon to create a new mobile app in order to help support Arabic-, Farsi-, and Pashto-speaking refugees living in Germany. The app is intended to help refugees learn the German language and operate successfully within cultural norms, such as making appropriate requests in different contexts. It will combine augmented reality, virtual reality, and interactive learning experiences to create a dynamic digital learning environment.
The app will have 20-30 modules, which will be divided into four categories: daily life, workspace, future life, and social life. Each specific lesson will teach content relevant to assisting refugees with language tasks ranging from immigration to daily life. The app will include 3D viewing glass capabilities for demonstration of particular situations of life and culture in Germany. It is scheduled for completion in mid-2017, and there several “Daily Conversation” lessons are scheduled for an earlier release to provide more immediate support.
Deutsche Telekom AG is a German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. The company strives to be a top innovator in telecommunications on an international level. CASLS is excited to work with Deutsche Telekom on transformative uses of technology for language education.
Source: CASLS Spotlight
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Content Type: 3
Title: Examining Articulation in a University Program using Program-wide Assessment
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By Linda Forrest, CASLS Research Director
Second language study represents a large investment of institutional resources, student time, and tuition dollars, yet large-scale, program-wide standardized assessment is almost non-existent in post-secondary institutions. With no clear evidence of program effectiveness or student outcomes, and in the face of dwindling campus resources, both administrators and students question with increasing frequency the validity of the enterprise.
One critical component to achieving successful student learning outcomes is adequate articulation between course levels. First year outcomes should provide sufficient preparation for second year course work, and so on. Program-wide assessment provides the means to determine whether this is the case.
Recently, CASLS worked with the Romance Languages Department at the University of Oregon to administer the Computerized Assessment of Proficiency (CAP) to all students enrolled in first- or second-year Spanish or French courses, approximately 1,000 students. CAP includes computer-scored reading and listening components and human-rated speaking and writing components. Results provide evidence of student proficiency with levels similar to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines.
Our research questions were these:
- Within our university program, does each level of our program offer sufficient preparation for successful vertical articulation?
- How can proficiency data inform programmatic changes across levels?
In summary, our findings are these:
- Reading: About 40% of 1st-year and 60% of 2nd-year students reach Expanding (similar to ACTFL Advanced) levels;
- Listening: About 30% of 1st-year and 50% of 2nd-year students reach Transitioning (similar to ACTFL Intermediate levels; few reach Expanding;
- Writing and speaking: About 50% of 1st-year and 75% of 2nd-year students reach Transitioning (similar to ACTFL Intermediate levels; few reach Expanding.
Based on these results, the following conclusions can be drawn: (1) Student proficiency for all skills increases year to year. (2) Reading is the strongest skill, and by the end of second year, many students are able to read Advanced level materials. Thus, third-year courses can use materials at Advanced levels to strengthen and increase students' abilities. (3) Listening is the weakest skill, and few students are able to perform at the Expanding level. It may be useful to consider curricular changes that build higher level listening skills. (4) Both writing and speaking lag behind reading. Here, the program administrators may want to compare the students’ speaking and writing samples on the test with those observed in the class room. It is possible that the assessment environment does not provide the best venue for producing Advanced level writing.
Reflecting on the test results and student behaviors in the classroom can offer insights as to how to focus the program and improve skills to satisfy both program and student goals.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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