Making Assessment Sustainable in the World Language Class with Kia London

In episode 66 of “Growing With Proficiency The Podcast”, I’m excited to have Kia London with us. We chat about making assessments sustainable and effective in world language classes.

We started by discussing the basics: How often should we assess our students? What should we focus on when grading? And, how long should these assessments be?

Next, Kia talked about some of her favorite assessments in world language teaching. She shared examples that are not just effective but also really engaging for the students.

And the highlight? Kia gives us a fantastic tip on a type of assessment that works great for any class, no matter what level or topic you’re teaching. It’s a really practical suggestion that I think you’ll all love.

This week on the blog, I’m sharing the highlights of that episode. To hear more, click above or listen to episode 66 on your favorite podcast player. 

Assessment Tips

Before we started talking about different types of assessments, we chatted about the ups and downs of assessments themselves. Many students don’t even look at the notes you write in their journals or on the side of their papers. One day, Kia observed another teacher do something different. She put her students in pods and, using a different colored ink, work with their peers to go over each other’s papers and mark areas that needed revision such as sentence structure or accents. This builds community in the classroom and helps them understand their learning. This helps solve the problem of spending valuable time making remarks on papers when students don’t even read the notes. It also helps with the amount of time we spend on reviewing assessments at home.

When to do Assessments

Then, Kia and I touched on when she does assessments. Kia shared her schedule of quarter assessments. Kia explained that she does two modes per quarter and a little quiz. So, for example, one mode would be writing and the other mode would be reading. Then the next quarter, the modes would be speaking and reading.

For reading, Kia would be looking for if they are understanding the questions that she’s asking them. She also selects some daily activities to put a grade in her grade book. We also talked about spending a lot of time with many different informal assessments. Kia also doesn’t like to call her assessments tests or exams in front of her students. This may help with ones that are nervous about formal assessments. Later in the episode, Kia shares a fun way to assess your students. 

Kia’s Favorite Types of Assessments

I asked Kia what types of assessments she found that are going to be successful for students where they really can show what they have acquired in the language and their proficiency, while also allowing her, as a teacher, to be able to really feel excited about it and not feel drained from doing assessments. Kia said her first one would have to be the interpersonal assessments. She loves these for so many reasons. One of the reasons being is that it is really good for when you have students that aren’t always going to want to share out or volunteer in front of the class.

Projects for Assessments

Next on her favorites list, are projects. When she taught high school classes, she was not a fan of projects because she found, as many teachers do, students may just throw something together and not really put an effort into the project. However, after moving to a project learning school, she has tweaked the way she does projects.

Kia explained that now she gives students a choice. They have a choice board. So, “Do you want to do a bio or an autobiography? Do you want to do a little bit of research about somewhere else that maybe we’ve talked about? Or maybe, we haven’t quite talked about yet? Do you want to create a story? Do you want to talk about a sport?”

Then, Kia outlines the steps of their project with them. For example, week one would be to choose their topic and have a deadline for that. The next week would be to start their research and how many resources they may need. For more details on this process, listen to episode 66 of the podcast. 

Kia emphasizes that you have to make projects your own so look at what works best for you, within your school community and what you can handle. Usually, projects are the end-of-the-year assessment for her students. 

Remember, having students work in class instead of at home allows us to provide feedback right away and help them with their understanding. By also assessing in real time instead of through recordings, we limit the work we do at home and we can provide real time feedback with students whether one-on-one or in small groups. It may take some practice though, but it is worth it!

Take Risks & Try Something New

I ended our discussion by asking Kia if she had anything else to suggest on the topic. Kia suggests to take risks and try something new. If something doesn’t work, then try another way. Something I like to do to assess my students with is with Venn diagrams. Students put what they learn in the diagram. This is really great for novices. You can also utilize a Venn diagram at the end of a topic study. Remember, we can’t do it all. We have to pick and choose and really think about our priorities, in terms of what it is we really want to asses with our students. Listen to our whole discussion above or here.