Assessing Student Learning - Report Example

Except form aiming at all objectives stated above, this unit and its assessments cohere to many of the goal areas outlined in ACTFL's World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages. Foreign language national standards are generally grouped into five levels, namely; communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and community. Foreign language instructors tend to refer to these categories as the five Cs.'The five Cs’ according to ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language), stress that any learners of a specific language must apply the use of the language beyond the instructional base.

National standards are typically defined using the five C's. The five C's are very significant in assisting students as they focus on essential areas through language features. My primary areas of focus while teaching dealt with listening, speaking, reading, and writing.ACTFL recognizes five significant categories of language proficiency, namely, Distinguished, Superior, Advanced, Intermediate, and Novice. My class's level of language proficiency fits in the Novice stage, which is also the beginner's stage as my students have begun to learn Spanish recently.

CulturesDuring my teaching, I enquired about how my students may have been exposed to the Spanish culture. One of the common responses was of students claiming that watching Mexican soap operas had exposed them to some elements of Spanish culture. I also encouraged my students to search for information regarding Spanish culture for them to get exposed to the Spanish culture in the most authentic ways possible. I also presented ways by which language and culture are connected. The culture goal area aims to enable my students to be more accommodating of other people's different views about life and become more accepting of the Spanish culture and also reflect on differences among cultures.

ConnectionsRegarding connections, I introduced my students to the concept of how language and culture relate to other subject areas such as history and science. The goal of connection is essential as students are always trying to gain new knowledge about a specific topic

Comparisons

Linguistic comparisons

I helped my students compare elements of their home language to items from their target language, Spanish. This, in turn, enabled my students to identify both similarities and differences between their languages and the Spanish language.

Cultural comparisons

Through cultural comparisons, I encouraged my students to note some of the cultural differences between Spanish and their own respective cultures. Cultural similarities also enabled my students to view their own cultures from new angles.

Communities

The main goal here was to find ways by which my students could connect to people of the Spanish community within the class and school and outside school. I emphasized that we live in a global society and therefore challenged my students to use what they learned to make connections with the broader community, the city, and country at large either through joining Spanish clubs, school associations, and if possible travel to connect with Spanish native speakers in reality. This area aims to encourage students to use Spanish for their enjoyment and also formulate personal relationships with Spanish native speakers to make the Spanish language relevant and a real language in their lives.

Communication

Regarding communication, my students should gradually have the ability to express their ideas and emotions through the Spanish language. Through communication, I will be able to focus on what my students can do with language as opposed to how much they know about the Spanish language. The assessments I offered showcased what my students can do with the few Spanish vocabularies they had learned in class. The students were also able to showcase what they can do with the Spanish language through the writing activities I administered and even orally both in class and outside class. After completing the unit, my students could interpret some original Spanish phrases and words spoken by native speakers.

Interpersonal communication

Among communication goals, students should communicate meaning while interacting amongst themselves to exchange large amounts of information. In this specific unit, learners are expected to communicate and share meaning to effectively learn how to describe their health and bodies and how to use direct object pronouns to do so.

Interpretive communication

Interpretive communication states that learners need to comprehend, clarify and examine what they hear, read or view on a variation of topics; therefore, students will interpret the data provided on the learning worksheets or diagrams supplied too.

In this unit, I introduced my students to direct object pronouns. I provided them with the opportunity to learn how to use direct object pronouns to describe specific scenarios, e.g., when something hurts through provided sample worksheets. The students also learned how to name various body parts in Spanish using the sample worksheets provided titled 'Las Parties Del Cuerpo.' My students also learned how to incorporate the use of both singular and plural direct object pronouns, e.g., me- me, te- yo and le-you, him, her for singular direct object pronouns and nos-us, es-you and les-you, them for plural direct object pronouns. The students also practiced how to use direct object pronouns in their conversation orally.

Assessment plan

Assessment #1- Traditional Unit test

The first summative assessment presented is a traditional unit test administered to students at the end of the two-week unit. The 'fill in the blank spaces' analysis mainly focuses on helping students test their knowledge of a particular concept and narrowing down to one specific answer to avoid guesswork. The assessment totals to 50% of the student’s final grade. This test's primary goal is for learners to assess the following unit goals. ...Download file to see next pages Read More