Q. What do you do with dictées? Do you mark them? I’m looking at their translations right now and how carefully they copy them. Would you ever use them as summarize marks?
A. I put them into the book as a quiz type of grade. I use a ten point system, and I would award a ten simply for copying (L2) right. I don’t have them translate on the third line but it is a nice time-eater-upper if you do have them translate into L1 on that third line. Remember – mental health is everything. So I use the Interpersonal Skill grade at 65% and the other 35% of their overall grade is made up of quizzes of three types (yes/no Quick Quizzes; dictées; and free writes). Those three quiz-type grades look so real in the book – fooling admins is a fun thing to do and very necessary. It’s funny that they never challenge a grade in the book as long as it’s in there – can anyone say bureaucrats?). And don’t forget that you know that you are doing it right when you recycle more than half of the papers you take in, at least half.)