In episode 118 of Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast, I sit down with the amazing AnneMarie Chase to talk about a topic that we can’t avoid as educators—assessments! We dived deep into the concept of low-stress assessments and how to shift the focus away from simply measuring language accuracy to building language proficiency in meaningful, stress-free ways. In this post, I’ll highlight our conversation, but listen to our whole conversation here.
Qualities of a Good Assessment
In episode 118, Anne Marie outlines four qualities of a good assessment.
- Easy to administer and grade: AnneMarie shared that you will not find anyone who hates grading more than she does. This is one reason why she has spent almost 20 years trying to make assessments less stressful for her and her students.
- Provide more input: Students build language in their brain when they’re understanding the message. They need input in for a little bit of output out. Assessments can be a sneaky way to give them more input, because assessing them is not going to make their language better. It’s just a measure and just shows us what they can do. The only way we can give them more language in their brains is by giving them input. So, AnneMarie wants assessments to give students more input.
- Be low stress: AnneMarie emphasized that it has to be low stress for everyone! When kids are stressed out, their affective filter is up high, and we can’t see what they really can do.
- Have a low floor and high ceiling: This quality AnneMarie learned from her friend, Allison. Low floor means everyone can show us something. High ceiling is so our High Flyers can fly, and we can really see what they can do.
I read a great article, find the link below, in Edutopia about short assessments where the students have the possibility to really think about what they have done, and it also provides more input.
Implementing Low Stress Assessments
Next, I asked AnneMarie about her Magic Cards, and she explained the use of “magic cards” for assessing speaking and listening skills. Basically, she uses index cards with students’ names and proficiency levels to call on students randomly. Every student has an index card with their name across the top, and on their index card, in the top left corner, she has a little S for a speaking grade. On the other side and the top right is an L for a listening grade, and at the bottom, a little r for reading.
It’s important to be strategic about which students to call on and to remember to keep the assessments low stress. You always want to set your students up to be successful. AnneMarie explains that she knows where students are at and their skills, so she will ask a question that she’s certain that that student can be successful at. Also, don’t overthink it. Magic cards are great to keep track of student participation and provide data for grading. AnneMarie always keeps a stack of these in her hand or nearby. You can hear more about how she uses them in her classes here.
Assessing Speaking Skills
In one of AnneMarie’s trainings that I attended, she told us, that as teachers, we need to trust ourselves, and that we know our students, so we’re going to go by our hearts when grading language proficiency.
I then asked AnneMarie to share her assessment on speaking skills. AnneMarie explained that during her 19 years of teaching, she didn’t like any of the assessments for speaking skills. So, she designed one herself. AnneMarie points out not to do this until the end of level one. Also, remember our students need so much language in for a little bit of language out. So, if you are a level one teacher and you have to give a speaking grade, do the cards that make it really low stress, like what we just talked about above with the magic cards. AnneMarie does use this assessment as a final for level one classes.
Kids are stressed out when they’re talking to teachers, but they’re a lot less stressed out when they’re talking to their peers. So, this assessment is a little inside/outside circle action, where everyone has a partner, everyone’s facing their buddy, and chairs are set up in two concentric circles.
Students also have a role. So, if they’re in the outside circle, facing in and facing their partner, their role is to talk as much as they can about the prompt on the screen. Maybe, it’s a picture to talk about, a series of screenshots from a movie talk, a topic or a question, etc. Their job is to talk as much as they can in Spanish, French, German, or whatever language. The person they’re talking to is there to help them. They’re there to jump in if their buddy can’t remember a word or if they don’t remember a name or a detail. If they can’t think of what else to say, their buddy can also ask them questions.
AnneMarie stays in the middle with a clipboard and has all their names down the side. Then, she has the different proficiency levels across the top. She just eavesdrops while she checks off her sheet. This is done over a period of two days. In episode 118, she explains how she rotates students and changes topics to reduce stress and provide varied opportunities for students to demonstrate their skills. Listen here.
Challenges and Solutions in Assessment
Finally, AnneMarie and I discuss the challenges of assessing speaking skills and the stress it causes for both teachers and students. AnneMarie also shares her experience with students getting nervous during one-on-one interviews and how she now uses group assessments. Remember to trust yourself as a teacher and don’t rely solely on traditional grading methods. AnneMarie also has a new training called ‘So long aSTRESSments’, and you can find the link below. Don’t forget to listen to our whole discussion here or above.
