3 modes of assessment

Summer Assessment Workshop for High School World Language Instructors The Three Modes of Assessment: Interpretive, Interpersonal, Presentational... + Developing Effective Assessmentsreq

Summer Assessment Workshop for High School World Language Instructors

The Three Modes of Assessment:

Interpretive, Interpersonal, Presentational

+ Overview

UNDERSTANDIN

G ASSESSMENT

DESIGNING ASSESSMENTS

IMPLEMENTING

ASSESSMENTS

EVALUATING ASSESSMENTS

+ Overview

 Introduction

 The Purpose of Assessment

 Attitudes Towards Assessment

 Intended Use of Assessments

 Developing Effective Assessments

 Types of Assessments

 Integrated Performance Assessments (IPA)

 The Three Modes of Communication

 Assessing the Modes: Tasks & Strategies

 Designing Performance Assessments

 Rubrics

Why is assessment important?

Why do we keep doing it in our classrooms, despite the challenges it can present?

+ The Purpose of Assessment

To motivate students

To serve as more than a vehicle to assign a grade

To drive the instruction (Sandrock 2010)

To show evidence that learning is occurring

To evaluate the effectiveness of instruction

To identify areas needed for improvement

+ The Purpose of Assessment

Assessment is used as a diagnostic tool to

 describe what students have learned in the past

 shape future learning goals

 document progress towards student learning objectives

 identify areas needing improvement (in instruction and student performance)

 measure language proficiency, communicative

competency, and cultural awareness

 evaluate teacher effectiveness*

 WI Educator Effectiveness System  DPI

 *Starting in 2014-2015, all WI educators will be evaluated on student achievement & student learning objectives/outcomes (SLOs).

 See http://ee.dpi.wi.gov / for the latest information.

+ The Purpose of Assessment

 “Language assessment is the process of using

language tests to accomplish particular jobs

in language classrooms and programs” (42).

 “To keep our language assessment practice

purposeful, we therefore need to evaluate the

extent to which the language testing tools we

select and use are actually helping to

accomplish the jobs of language assessment

in our classrooms and programs” (44).

(Norris 2000/2012)

+ Attitudes towards Assessment

http://gratisography.com/

+ Attitudes towards Assessment

http://gratisography.com/

+ Assessment Stakeholders:

How do different groups view assessment and

why?

Step 1: Brainstorm individually

Step 2: Share and compare

 Discuss ideas with a partner

 Focus on differing motivations.

(Norris 2000)

Discuss in pairs.

Drag picture to placeholder or click icon to add

Drag picture to placeholder or click icon to add

What makes a

good assessment

?

+ Quality and Selection:

What makes a good assessment?

TRICK QUESTION!

The selection and perceived quality of

an assessment depends on its

+ Intended Use of Assessments

(Norris 2000)

INTENDED TEST USE

INTENDED TEST USE

WHAT?

Test Information

IMPACT?

Test Consequence

s

WHO?

Test Users

WHY?

Test Purposes

+ Developing Effective Assessments

 Key questions to ask when creating/selecting

the right assessment:

 Who uses the assessment?

 What is being assessed?

 Who/What is impacted?

 Why? What is the purpose?

 Specify the intended use of the assessment.

 Provide a general description of the intended

assessment.

 Note problems and possible solutions. (Norris 2000)

+ Developing Effective Assessments

requires:

Acknowledging the context for assessment

Focusing on assessment, not just on tests

Specifying the intended use(s) of the

assessments(s)

Evaluating the outcomes of the

assessment(s)

(Byrnes 2001; Norris 2000)

+ Developing Effective Assessments

like?

 Identifying the thematic and cultural contexts

 Setting attainable benchmarks or learning

targets

 Creating classroom activities to support

student success on performance assessments

 Synthesizing language and content

instruction

 Fostering task-based instruction

 Developing both formative and summative assessments

 Involving all three modes of assessment

 Embedding assessments into curriculum

+ Assessment Models

Level- and course-specific assessments

Formative vs Summative vs Prototypical

Exit interviews (OPI, SOPI, MOPI)

Content-based, task-based, genre-specific

Performance Assessments

Three Modes of Communication

5 C’s of the National Standards

 authentic language use

 performance of real world tasks

 meaningful contexts

 proficiency development

 integration with standards

 3 modes of communication

 teaching to the “test”

Traditional Assessment Tools

Alternative Performance Assessment Tools

(Sandrock 2010)

+ Types of Assessments

Assessment is a continuum.

 Teachers need to provide students with a

variety of feedback on various types of

assessment across the spectrum, including:

 specific and focused feedback

 holistic and broad feedback

 Formal (rubrics) and informal (learning checks)

feedback

 A balanced assessment system = both

formative and summative assessments.

(Sandrock 2010)

+ Types of Assessments

 Learning checks, guided

activities with teacher support

 Informs and modifies

instruction, classroom

activities and student learning

 Builds students’ confidence

 Scaffolds information to be

used in summative

performance assessments

 May focus more on specific

learning targets (i.e grammar

concepts, vocabulary)

 End-of-unit, end-of-course assessment (no support)

 Demonstrates knowledge gained without teacher assistance

 Motivates students

 Showcases application of various skills learned via formative assessments

 Synthesizes a variety of communication skills and language concepts

Formative Assessment

Summative Assessment

+ Characteristics:

The 3 Modes of Communication

 Interpretive Mode:

 listening, reading, viewing

 authentic, text-based (audio, written, video/film) materials

 monologic tasks (one-way communication)

 monologic tasks (one-way communication)

 Rehearsed language usage

+ The 3 Modes of Communication

Interpersonal Interpretive Presentational

Active negotiation of meaning

among individuals

Interpretation of what the author, speaker, or producer wants the receiver of the message to understand

Creation of messages

Participants observe and monitor

one another to see how their

meanings and intentions are being

Adjustments and clarifications are

made accordingly Interpretation differs from comprehension and translation in

that interpretation implies the ability to read (or listen or view)

“between the lines,” including understanding from within the cultural mindset or perspective

To ensure the intended audience

is successful in its interpretation, the “presenter” needs knowledge

of the audience’s language and culture

Speaking and listening

(conversation); reading and

writing (text messages or via

social media)

Reading (websites, stories, articles), listening (speeches, messages, songs), or viewing (video clips) of authentic materials

Writing (messages, articles, reports), speaking (telling a story, giving a speech, describing a poster), or visually representing (video or PowerPoint)

(ACTFL Performance Descriptors for Language Learners 2012)

+ Standards-Based Performance Assessment

Interactive graphic: http

://wimedialab.org/worldlanguageassessment/clover.htm

+ Assessment: Interpretive Mode

How do you typically assess students’ abilities to communicate in the

interpretive mode?

+ Assessment: Interpretive Mode

 Interpretive Assessment Task =

 Demonstrate literal comprehension (keys words, main ideas,

details) and interpretive comprehension (word and concept

inferences, cultural perspectives, author intent, text organization)

 Use a comprehension guide (worksheets, Q&A, creating or

identifying images based on descriptions, etc.) to document both

levels of comprehension.

 Strategies for Developing Interpretive Communication

 Routinely incorporate authentic listening, viewing, and reading

texts/tasks into classroom instruction  skimming, scanning,

identifying language patterns.

 Encourage focused listening/viewing/reading of smaller textual

chunks and teach comprehension strategies  context clues, word

families, textual organization (headings, captions, photos).

 Design group activities that allow for collaborative interpretive

skills.

 Assist students as they move from literal comprehension to

interpretive comprehension goals.

(Sandrock 2010: 83)

 Include a range of sentence lengths from simple to

paragraph-length text

 Topics should be of high interest

to students and include cultural content from the target

culture(s) to allow comparison and contrast to their own

cultural practices.(Sandrock 2010: 82)

+ Assessment: Interpretive Mode

Sources for authentic

LISTENING & VIEWING texts

(highly contextualized &

(Sandrock 2010: 82)

Sources for authentic READING

texts(highly contextualized &

 photo stories with captions

 simple news articles

 resumes

+ Assessment: Interpersonal Mode

How do you typically assess students’

abilities to communicate in the interpersonal mode?

+ Assessment: Interpersonal Mode

 Interpersonal Assessment Task =

 Two (or more) students exchange information spontaneously, as

well as express opinions, feelings, and emotions with each other

 The student(s) may have information the other(s)do not have, thus

creating an information gap and purposeful exchange of real

information and negotiation of meaning.

 Generally no notes or written support are allowed.

 Strategies for Developing Interpersonal Communication

 Incorporate regular classroom activities that require interpersonal

communication to

 lower students’ anxiety levels for later assessments

 practice spontaneous speech in non-evaluation situations

 use discourse markers and key phrases to negotiate meaning

 reduce reliance on written notes and support

 negotiate meaning via information gap tasks

 allow students to interact with a range of peers and their

different proficiencies (mutual benefit of modeling and support)

(Sandrock 2010: 83)

+ Assessment: Presentational Mode

How do you typically assess students’ abilities to communicate in the

presentational mode?

+ Assessment: Presentational Mode

 Presentational Assessment Task =

 Students create a message to communicate to an

audience by means of a written or spoken language product

 Monologic task  one-way communication

 Often used as a summative task after building upon previous interpretive and interpersonal tasks

 Presentational rubrics often evaluate “impact, which refers to the degree to which the message maintains the attention of the reader or listener The teacher should explore with students strategies for creating presentational products that have impact (e.g

selection of topic, use of visuals, choice of words,

visual layout)” (Sandrock 2010: 84)

+ Assessment: Presentational Mode

Strategies for Developing Presentational

Communication

 Use a process-oriented approach (drafts, peer-editing,

revisions, rewrites, scripts, rehearsals, videotape) to allow

for a variety of feedback opportunities

 Incorporate peer- and self-evaluation into the feedback

loop

 Address the issue of “impact” in your rubric

 Discuss and practice evaluating the “impact” of various

presentational messages in a variety of authentic and

+ Assessment: Presentational Mode

Example WRITING tasks

+ Designing Alternative Assessments

 Task and assessment instruments must fit the intended purpose for the student learning

objective and connect to the standards.

 Effective assessments (formative, summative, informal and formal) should be situated in a

meaningful thematic context with real world

application and authentic language use.

 Transparency: Assessment ≠ Mystery

 What is the goal of the specific assessment?

 Informing students about the expectations and

communicative goals fuels student motivation

 Discuss well-crafted rubrics at the beginning of the unit

so that students understand what the expected

performance involves

(Sandrock 2010: 28)

+ Designing Performance

Assessments

Backward Design

 By first selecting the intended goal,

performance assessments can function as a filter for selection the content needed to

achieve the student learning outcome(s) in a unit.

 What is necessary to complete the task(s)?

 Develop an essential question based on

the content/thematic unit in order to determine the tasks.

 Create learning targets and formative

assessments to build towards summative performance assessments in the three

modes.

 Templates for designing integrated performance assessment tasks in future thematic units

 Copies are in your folder for use in afternoon

workshop session (Sandrock 2010: 34) and with

workshop handouts/references online.

 Nature Unit  detailed example

 With workshop handouts/references online

+ Example Unit: Clothing (Intermediate

Interview a partner about their personal style preferences in various contexts and what they project.

Fashion Show: Write and present a text describing and a peer’s outfit and comment on what trends & image(s)

it projects in which contexts.

Info-gap tasks describing outfits/

style; view/analyze YouTube interviews 

“Kleider machen Leute”

outfit/personality perceptions

Describe outfits in writing (draft & revise); describe orally what others are wearing, how the clothes they fit and what they project about the wearer.

Question-Answer Dative verbs

Personal Pronouns Comparative/

Superlative Express opinions

Adjective endings (synthesis and application of everything previously listed)

 This methods allows each assessment to build on the

following one, securing vocabulary and language functions from textual modeling via authentic texts in the

interpretive mode which are needed to be successful in the interpersonal and presentational modes when the

language becomes productive

 There is some debate about the last two steps since

spontaneous dialogic communication with its inherent

negotiation of meaning may appear more complex than monologic presentational tasks, such as writing and

speaking (Tedick, D & Cammarata, L 2014)

+ Rubrics

 Rubrics are a necessary tool for teachers and students to evaluate communication.

 Rubrics must describe the expected

performance and provide useful, targeted

feedback

 Does not meet expectations

 Meets expectations

 Exceeds expectations

 Rubrics should demonstrate how increased

proficiency can be achieved so students know what to aim for.

+ Rubrics

 Share rubrics with students to allow familiarity and

goals for expected performance levels

 Model rubric evaluation with students via sample

performances

 Examples (included in your folders)

 ACTFL Performance Descriptors for Language

Learners (2012) can serve as a basis for creating

+ Final Thoughts

“ Assessment is perhaps one of [the] most

difficult and important parts of our jobs as

teachers Ideally, it should be seen as a

means to help us guide students on their

road to learning No single procedure can

meet the needs of all learners and

situations, so we need to remember to

incorporate a variety of tools to help our

students know how they are progressing

and to gauge the effectiveness of our own

methodology and materials.”

~ Jerrold Frank (Frank 2012: 32)