Developing Language Proficiency through Assessment in French as a Second Language

1. Developing Language Proficiency through Assessment in French as a Second Language A collaborative professional development project of the Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium (ERLC) the Alberta Assessment Consortium (AAC), and the Institute for Innovation in Second Language Education(IISLE) in Edmonton Public Schools

2. Who are you? Introduce yourself, and tell us: • school/ jurisdiction • grade level of FSL you teach • something you hope to get out of this workshop

3. Agenda • Workshop goals • The big picture • A current snapshot • Role of curricular documents • Principles & purposes of assessment • Assessment strategies & tools • Future directions

4. Workshop Goals p. • Strengthen understanding of the overarching goal of FSL Program of Studies • Reflect on current assessment practices and explore new assessment strategies • Discuss and explore how assessment can be used to achieve functional language proficiency, using Alberta curricular documents • Select assessment tools and strategies for use in the FSL classroom

5. The Big Picture: What is it? • Examine the photo puzzles at your table. • How many can you identify?

6. What does it mean? • What is the forest? What is both the forest and the trees of: • French as a Second Language • Classroom assessment • Language proficiency

7. The Big Picture for FSL: Building Language Proficiency Language Proficiency • What someone can do in a language Proficiency assessment • “assessment of what someone can do/knows in relation to the application of the subject in the real world.” (Council of Europe)

8. What’s happening in assessment? • List language assessment tasks that you typically use to gather information for FSL in a term. • Snowball time! Assessment in FSL for Term ___

9. What’s happening in assessment? Tally the data in your group. Which language skills do the language assessments fit best with?

10. √ Proficiency Checkpoint • Look at the assessment strategies listed • Which of these reflect a real-life application of language use?

11. The ‘front matter’… matters! THE OVERARCHING GOAL of the FSL Program of Studies “The overarching goal of this program of studies, then, is to develop students who are sufficiently competent in French so that they can function in the language and culture outside the confines of the classroom.” p.8, French as a Second Language Nine-year Program of Studies (Grades 4-12)

12. The Big Picture for FSL: Building Language Proficiency Language Proficiency • What someone can do in a language Proficiency assessment • “assessment of what someone can do/knows in relation to the application of the subject in the real world.” (Council of Europe)

13. FSL Program of Studies • General outcomes • Specific outcomes

14. General Outcomes • Communication • Language • Culture • Language Learning Strategies

15. Specific Outcomes • the details of what students must know and be able to do at each grade • exit outcomes

16. Car Metaphor Driver: Communication Front seat passenger: Language Passenger: Culture Passenger: Language Learning Strategies

17. What’s new? Program Articulation Documents • grade 4-6 • grade 7-9 • grade 10-12

18. Provides a new focus on Communicative Targets (language functions) while still addressing existing general and specific outcomes Assists teachers to interpret the Program of Studies document to ensure the development of language proficiency Why a Program Articulation document?

19. Focus on Communicative Targets & Overarching Goal • What do the overarching goal and the Communicative Targets have in common?

20. Think about… .

21. Linking curriculum to assessment • We’ve done lots of thinking about the FSL curricular documents… • Now what about assessment?

22. Principles and Purposes of Assessment Establishing a Framework for Classroom Assessment

28. The Key Visual . . . a framework for classroom assessment

29. Agenda • Workshop goals • The big picture • A current snapshot • Role of curricular documents • Principles & purposes of assessment • Assessment strategies & tools • Future directions

30. Pause Café

31. Assessment Strategies vs. Assessment Tools • Assessment Strategies are how you gather information to find out what the students can do in French (e.g. observation) • Assessment Tools are what you use to record that information (e.g. observational checklist)

32. How do we gather evidence of learning? Assessment Strategies to build language proficiency

33. Examples of Assessment Strategies • Observations • Self-reflection • Peer Coaching • Teacher Feedback • Performance Tasks/Projects • Assignments • Tests

34. Assessment Strategies • Review the FSL tasks (with Communicative Targets) on the handout. • Discuss your choices with an elbow partner • Debrief as a large group

35. To build language proficiency… • Which types of assessment strategies help students build French language proficiency? • Which types of assessment strategies may have less impact on French language proficiency? • Which assessment strategies focus on about what students can DO in French rather than just what they know about French.

36. A balanced assessment plan is essential to gather evidence of the range of learning within our curriculum. Assessment Strategies

37. Flashback! • think about your most memorable language assessment experience as a student • rate it on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 is high) • line out • talk to the person next to you in the line • If your experience was positive, what made it so? • If your experience was negative, what could have improved it?

38. Language Performance Assessment Tasks

39. Why are performance assessment tasks so teacher-friendly? Performance assessment tasks are great for FSL because they: • Address a number of outcomes at the same time • Allow students to demonstrate what they can do in French in a tangible way • Engage students in learning over an extended period of time • Help to generate a grade (generally) • Naturally incorporate assessment for learning strategies, even if they are used for assessment of learning

40. What is a performance assessment task? • a meaningful, real-life task that enables students to demonstrate what they know and can do in situations like those they will encounter outside the classroom as well as in situations that simulate how people do their work

41. Authentic language • What does real-life, authentic language use mean? • What is “authentic” mean to the students?

42. Authentic, or not? • Find someone in the room you have not yet worked with. • Determine if each of the FSL scenarios on your handout are authentic…or not.

43. Debrief

44. Snowball fight revisited

45. Points to Ponder . . . culminating [assessment] performances should be occasions of pleasure. Gardner (2000) We don’t mark students while they are learning Alberta Assessment Consortium

46. p. ‘Made in Alberta’ Language Assessment Tasks Free Shopping on the AAC website! www.aac.ab.ca→ Performance Assessment Materials → Assessment Material → Second Languages → French as a Second Language

47. Where and how do we record our observations and evaluations of student learning? Evaluation Tools

48. Evaluation Tools • Evaluation tools are where and how we record our observations and evaluations of student learning.

49. Evaluation Tools Jigsaw • Review your sample evaluation tool with your group • For each tool identify: • key characteristics • advantages/disadvantages in an FSL classroom • if it helps improve students’ French language proficiency.

50. Descriptive Feedback • Uses only specific, descriptive, written (or oral) feedback • Needs no letter grades, percentage, number rankings