UW -Whitewater Languages and Literatures Ellen Titzkowski Boldt boldte@uww August 6, 2014

1. Summer Assessment Workshop for High School World Language InstructorsThe Three Modes of Assessment: Interpretive, Interpersonal, Presentational UW-WhitewaterLanguages and Literatures Ellen Titzkowski Boldt boldte@uww.edu August 6, 2014

2. Overview Understanding Assessment Designing Assessments Implementing Assessments Evaluating Assessments

3. 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

4. Why is assessment important? Why do we keep doing it in our classrooms, despite the challenges it can present?

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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)

8. Attitudes towards Assessment http://gratisography.com/

9. Attitudes towards Assessment http://gratisography.com/

10. Assessment Stakeholders: How do different groups view assessment and why? Step 1: Brainstorm individually • Goals? • Attitudes? • Problems? • Stakeholders • Teachers • Students • Administrators • Students’ Families • Curriculum planners • Future employers • University admissions counselors Step 2: Share and compare • Discuss ideas with a partner. • Focus on differing motivations. (Norris 2000)

11. What makes a good assessment? Discuss in pairs.

12. Quality and Selection: What makes a good assessment? TRICK QUESTION! The selection and perceived quality of an assessment depends on its intended use.

13. Intended Use of Assessments WHAT? Test Information WHO? Test Users INTENDED TEST USE IMPACT? Test Consequences WHY? Test Purposes (Norris 2000)

14. 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)

15. Developing Effective Assessments • Purposeful language assessment 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)

16. Developing Effective Assessments • What does purposeful assessment look 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

17. Assessment Models • Common Assessments • 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

18. Types of Assessments Traditional Assessment Tools Alternative Performance Assessment Tools • Focus on: • grammatical accuracy • focus on form • vocabulary building • discrete learning checks • Focus on: • communication • application of learning • authentic language use • performance of real world tasks • meaningful contexts • proficiency development • integration with standards • 3 modes of communication • teaching to the “test” (Sandrock 2010)

19. 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)

20. Types of Assessments Formative Assessment Summative Assessment • 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

21. Characteristics:The 3 Modes of Communication • Interpretive Mode: • listening, reading, viewing • authentic, text-based (audio, written, video/film) materials • monologic tasks (one-way communication) • Interpersonal Mode: • spontaneous communication (oral or written) • negotiation of meaning • dialogic tasks (two-way communication) • Presentational Mode: • speaking, writing • monologic tasks (one-way communication) • Rehearsed language usage

22. The 3 Modes of Communication (ACTFL Performance Descriptors for Language Learners 2012)

23. Standards-Based Performance Assessment Interactive graphic:http://wimedialab.org/worldlanguageassessment/clover.htm

24. Assessment: Interpretive Mode How do you typically assess students’ abilities to communicate in the interpretive mode?

25. 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)

26. Considerations for text selection (Intermediate Level) • Assessment targetsability to detect main ideas and supporting details. • Texts should focus on simple narratives, routines, familiar contexts, personal experience. • Include arange 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. Assessment: Interpretive Mode (Sandrock 2010: 82)

27. Assessment: Interpretive Mode Sources for authentic LISTENING & VIEWINGtexts(highly contextualized & thematically appropriate) • commercials (TV/radio) • public service campaign announcements • simple TV or soap opera segments • Interviews • talk show excerpts • film excerpts • songs • comic strips/cartoons • podcasts • descriptions (art/photos in museum guides; directions) Sources for authentic READINGtexts(highly contextualized & thematically appropriate) • product advertisements • public service campaign announcements • interviews/surveys from youth magazines • poems • simple stories • genre-specific letters/email • advice columns • personal ads • photo stories with captions • simple news articles • resumes (Sandrock 2010: 82)

28. Assessment: Interpersonal Mode How do you typically assess students’ abilities to communicate in the interpersonal mode?

29. Assessment: Interpersonal Mode • Interpersonal Assessment Task = • Two (or more) studentsexchangeinformationspontaneously, as well as express opinions, feelings, and emotionswith 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)

30. Assessment: Interpersonal Mode • Example Interpersonal Tasks (with partners or in small groups) • Information gap tasks • Interviews • Cultural comparisons • Discussions • opinions • reactions • pros/cons • personal perspectives

31. Assessment: Presentational Mode How do you typically assess students’ abilities to communicate in the presentational mode?

32. 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).

33. 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 student-produced products. • Create a balanced rubric • task appropriateness • content • language usage (Sandrock 2010: 84)

34. Assessment: Presentational Mode Example SPEAKING Tasks • Speech • Monologue • Voice mail • Video • Commercials • Podcast • Short play • News broadcast • Digital Story • Genre-specific speech (eulogy, campaign, etc.) Example WRITING tasks • Essay • Poem • Letter (genre-specific) • Email (context-specific) • Advertisement/Flyer • Blog post • Description • Glogster • Journal Entry • Photo essay with captions

35. 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.

36. (Sandrock 2010: 28)

37. 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.

38. Templates for Designing Performance Assessments • Download the Blank Curriculum Planning Template • http://wimedialab.org/worldlanguageassessment/resources.htm • 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

39. Example Unit: Clothing(Intermediate Level)

40. Sequencing Performance Assessments • ACTFL suggests a sequenced approach: • Interpretive assessment • Interpersonal assessment • Presentational assessment • 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).

41. 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.

42. Rubrics • Sharerubrics with students to allow familiarity and goals for expected performance levels. • Modelrubric 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 rubrics. • UW-Whitewater Rubrics  based partially on the ACTFL Performance Descriptors for Language Learners (1998 Version) & ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines • Presentational-Writing Rubric • Presentational-Speaking Rubric • Interpretive Rubric (Assessing Textual Literacy)

43. K-12 Assessment Resources in WI • Get in the Mode: Assessment Videos (2008) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAJ8ZqanZr4&list=PL77DDFFFF389160BB&index=6 • http://wimedialab.org/worldlanguageassessment/video.htm

44. Challenges Time Constraints Class size Curriculum Departmental Involvement Student Attitudes  “test” or “performance” anxiety http://gratisography.com/

45. 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)

46. Final Thoughts Assessment… …is more than a test. • …is all the things along the way that prepare students. • …builds on itself to help students progress. • …needs to be both formative and summative. • …can be informal and formal. • …provides opportunities for meaningful feedback. …needs to be purposefuland meaningfulfor students. …is motivational by setting a clear path for performance goals. …drivesinstruction. …is integratedin the classroom and allows for evaluation of all three modes of communication  interpretive, interpersonal, presentational.

47. Final Thoughts “Language assessment…is much more than simply giving a language test; it is the entire process of test use. Indeed, the ultimate goal of language assessment is to use tests to better inform us on the decisions we make and the actions we take in language education.” ~John M. Norris (Norris 2000/2012: 42)

48. References • American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. (2012). ACTFL performance descriptors for language learners, 2012 Edition.Alexandria, VA: ACTFL. • http://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/PerformanceDescriptorsLanguageLearners.pdf • Byrnes, H. (2001). Faculty assessment and evaluation: additional considerations. ADFL Bulletin, 32(3), 34-36. • http://www.adfl.org/bulletin/V32N3/323034.htm • Frank, J. (2012). The roles of assessment in language teaching. English Teaching Forum, 50(3), 32. • http://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/50_3_7_frank.pdf

49. References • Norris, J. M. (2014, April). How do we assess task-based performance? Invited LARC/CALPER testing and assessment webinar. • http://larc.sdsu.edu/testassesswebinar/jnorris/Norris_Task-BasedAssessment_PPT.pdf • Norris, J.M. (2012). Purposeful language assessment. English Teaching Forum, 50(3), 41–45. (Reprinted from Norris, J.M. (2000). Purposeful language assessment. English Teaching Forum,38(1), 18–23.) • http://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/50_3_10_norris.pdf • Sandrock, P. (2010). The keys to assessing language performance: A teacher’s manual for measuring student progress. Alexandria, VA: ACTFL. • Tedick, D & Cammarata, L. (2014). "Integrated Performance Assessment: Adapting the Model for CBI." [online • http://carla.acad.umn.edu/cobaltt/modules/assessment/ipa/index.html

50. Questions? Feedback? Contact me at boldte@uww.edu http://gratisography.com/