Notes from Amy Roe’s lecture “Will My Students Pass the Test?”
Roadmap
1. Standardized Tests
2. Assessments
3. Timed Writing
Standardized tests
TCI reading class focuses on the main idea of the text, so if you want students to do well on an exam, you need to teach them to notice small details.
Q: What do standardized tests measure?
1. Language proficiency
2. Ability to take a test:
-listen to questions carefully
-choosing between several answers
-pacing: time management
-checking work
3. Different types of questions
4. Different types of thinking
My strategy
1. Focus on teaching with TCI (mostly TPRS)
-3~5 target structures
-Story Outline
-Asked questions
-Circled
-Personalized
-Student actors
-Read & discuss
-Timed writing
2. 98% in the target language
Checked for comprehension: How do you say …in Chinese? What did I just say?
3. Once a week
-Reading question from a previous exam on board as a warm up. (Reading passage with one multiple choice question.)
-Students read and answer, we went over the answer together and the teacher pointed out the little details in the reading.
-Students had nightly homework: reading based on a TPRS story, questions about the reading, and additional input.
Once a week: 2~3 questions from previous exams.
Summary
1. Don’t want to design our curriculum around a test (Teaching to the test).
2. Focus on teaching with TCI.
3. Teaching for language acquisition, while giving your students the tools they need to be successful on an exam.
Tools for success
-Format of the exam
-Types of questions
-Types of answers
-Attention to detail
When we look at language acquisition, exam strategies are not the best use of our time. There are literally hundreds of other things we could be doing that would be more beneficial for actually learning that target language.
What should we teach?
-Focus on high-frequency words
-Compelling vocabulary
When we teach with TCI, our students really acquire the language. It sticks in their brains. This prepares them really well for exams.
Assessments
2 Types of assessments
-Formative assessment: gives teacher feedback where the students are; for information;mostly not graded.
e.g., Story that uses the vocabulary and grammar from one collaborative story.
-Summative assessment: measures what students have learnt over time.
e.g., Story that uses the vocabulary and grammar from multiple stories.
Creating a new story that could be used for assessment:
You can flip the story around, change a few details and add a few details, and then create a new story.
For example, “Little Mermaid”. The prince fell in love with the mermaid and wanted to live in the ocean.
Collaborative Story
1. Teacher write the story outline.
2. Use the story scripts written by Anne Matava.
3. Untargeted TCI:
Teacher doesn’t write story outline, and the students drive the story. There are no target words nor structures. When asking questions, the teacher focuses on giving them the high-frequency words and grammars.
Proposed assessments
Assessment 1: Choral Response-Formative Assessment
-Teacher asks a question.
-Entire class answer the question.
(Teach the students the gestures meaning choral response and individual response, pause to give students time to think after asking the questions.)
Assessment 2: Thumbs Up/Down-Formative Assessment
-Students close their eyes.
-Teacher makes a statement.
-Thumbs up=True
-Thumbs down=False
-No thumb=don’t understand
If everyone understands, the teacher can move on. IF not, give more input and check for comprehension.
Assessment 3: Exit Ticket-Formative Assessment
-At the end of class, teacher hands out apiece of paper with a few questions.
-Students answer the questions and give the paper to teacher before leaving classroom.
-An exit ticket is only as good as the questions you ask.
-Specific.
-Focus on comprehension.
Exit ticket:
-multiple choice questions for beginners
-Check All That Apply
-Short Answer
-Collaborative Story
Assessment 4: Comprehension Check-Formative Assessment
What did I just say? What does … mean in Chinese?
Assessment 5: Multiple Choice-Formative or Summative
-5~10 multiple choice questions in the target language.
-Students choose the correct answer.
Assessment 6: Reading-Formative or Summative
-Comprehensible story or reading passage.
-Questions about the reading:
True/False.
Multiple choice.
Put the event in order.
Short answer.
Assessments
-Keep summative assessment short.
-Break up longer assessment:
Listening on Monday
Reading on Tuesday
Writing on Wednesday
Listening assessment
1. Teacher says several sentences in English.Students write the translation in Chinese.
2. Students look at the picture. Teacher gives a short description. Students mark “True” if the description matches the picture and “False” if the description doesn’t.
3. Teacher gives students a worksheet with 8 blank boxes, numbered 1~8. Teacher gives a description for each box. (e.g.,The prince walks along the beach.) Students draw what the teacher describes in each box.
4. Teacher say a sentence about a story.Students write whether the sentence is true or false.
5. Teacher tells a story in English.Students write a brief summary of the story in Chinese.
Reading assessment
1. Teacher reads several sentences in English.Students write the translation in Chinese.
2. Students read a sentence about a story.Students write whether the sentence is true or false.
3. Students read a story in English.Students write a brief summary of the story in Chinese.
4. Students read a story in English.Students put the events of the story in order. No more than 5~6 sentences at a time.
Timed Writing
1. Give students a time limit (5 minutes).
2. If you teach young children (under the age of 12), don’t tell them there is a time limit.
3. Students rewrite a story in target language.
-TPRS
-PictureTalk (put the picture on the board)
-Picture Story (like a comic strip)
-Special Person
4. Students rewrite as much of the story as they can in 5 minutes.
5. Set a timer for five minutes.
6. When the timer rings, students count the number of words they have written and write at the bottom.
7. Teacher double-check the word count on 2 or 3 timed writes.
How to give timed writing as assessment?
-Give regular timed writes.
-Keep students’ timed writes.
-Folder for each student.
Advantages of timed writing
Time limit
Students are thinking in the target language
The writing doesn’t have to be perfect
-Did you retell the story teacher assigned in the class?
-Did you write in complete sentence?
-What is the word count?
-Is it in the target language?
Growth over time.
The teacher does not correct grammar errors in timed writing.
Errors are natural progression of language acquisition.