In order to learn how to converse with someone, students need to hear conversations, plan conversations, and participate in conversations. So, if we’re giving students a lot of opportunities for interpersonal communication in class, which we should, how do we grade these conversations?
Don’t grade.
My first bit of advice is to resist the temptation to grade everything. You don’t need the burden. More often than not, be content to just listen and be sensitive to teachable moments. Students will be less nervous when you’re without pen and paper, and you’ll have lots of opportunities to give them effective feedback without attaching a grade to it.
Assess according to proficiency.
My opinion is it is just not practical to give students a rubric with a grade for everything they do, or even for everything you grade. However, I use my performance assessment rubric so much that it informs everything I assess. I like it that way, because I know I have certain questions always on my mind: what proficiency should this student have? what does communication at that proficiency level look like?
Use a quick, proficiency-based system.
When I’m actually going to grade a conversation between students, I keep in mind the same categories from that performance assessment rubric. Accordingly, I’ve developed a checklist of 4 things I go through as I listen for no more than 2 minutes. You can take however many points you want to assign to a conversation and divide by 4. I have set this up as a 20-point conversation:
5 points structure – are you using sentences when appropriate?
5 pts vocabulary – are you pushing your vocabulary? (i.e., level 3 students should not perpetually be talking about their likes and age)
5 pts comprehension – can you understand reasonably comprehensible prompts from the other person?
5 pts comprehensibility – could someone accustomed to a language learner understand you?
Limiting the conversations you grade and refining a quick, proficiency-based checklist of things you’re listening for will help you continue to offer students the opportunities they need to converse and the feedback they need to improve. Also, it will help prevent you from burning out on grading too much, correcting too much, and/or grading arbitrarily just to get a number.
Photo credit: Claudio Bustos
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Totally agree with the quick and meaningful eval. Students like immediate feedback so if you can listen and evaluate on the spot they get the connection and are more likely to apply. It may or may not be associated with a grade.
I totally agree. I give my students 5 minutes every day to speak in the target language. To use prewritten questions, or turn sentences from worksheets into questions. I tell them that the goal is to speak from their head or their heart, and not their eyes. And this qtr, I’m not going to quiz them on vocabulary, I going to quiz them on well they use the vocabulary in a conversation or in written form. I like your 4 point checklist. Gracias Sara-Elizabeth.
That sounds great, Loly! Let us know how it goes! Also, can you clarify what you mean by the contrast between speaking from the head/heart and speaking from the eyes?
Sara-Elizabeth
Hi Sara-Elizabeth, when I say that I want them to speak from their head or heart but not their eyes, I mean that I don’t want them to read [which is what they do with their eyes]. If they can speak from their head/heart, to me it means that the words they need have been learned. Much like an athlete or musician, the more they practice the more second nature it becomes, and they won’t need to rely on their “crutches” or the paper in front of them. I have a lot of athletes in my classes and I am always equating learning to speak the language with learning a sport, it takes time and practice to get better, to perfect.
That makes sense – thanks for the clarification!
This rubric is great!! Do you attach a number to each proficiency level according to the course? Could you give an example of that?
I let the student’s level guide my expectation. For example, pushing vocabulary looks different at IH than it does at NH. For my AP students who are pushing IM/IH in speaking, pushing their vocabulary means using rich alternatives (tiene razón for está correcto, e.g.) and including idiomatic expressions. For my 3’s who are struggling between NH and IL in speaking, structure points involve whether they’re using connector words and full sentences when appropriate. Does that make sense?
I missed this before! This is exactly what I need! The rubrics have always been pretty cumbersome, but these checklist questions get to the heart of what I want to know! Thanks!
You’re quite welcome as always! 🙂
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