Ryan McArthur has an excellent question:
Ben,
I’m facing a dilemma that maybe you can guide or give me advice (or others of the forum). I am doing weekly Interpersonal oral skill assessments (once a week) with my Invisibles (I totally love the concept and practice; they are invaluable!) and I have some students coming to me saying the following: “I don’t have enough time to process; I’m thinking too big” or “How can you assess all 33 of us at the same time?” I have my Interpersonal skills category set at 65%, my Interpretive at 30%, and Presentational at 5%.
One student came to me this morning in a tizzy because he is currently receiving a 89% overall. He feels like his grade is in jeopardy and it’s still early in the 2nd quarter. I am using Scott Benedict’s assessment idea that allows a student to change his/her overall grade at the end of the semester by demonstrating proficiency with the overall summative final; in this case it will be a Written/Oral Interpersonal (this will be in January). If a student obtains a greater summative assessment % than his/her current grade then the grade is raised to match the summative score.
Anyway, I told the aforementioned student that he needs to demonstrate his use of the language during our Invisibles. I told him that he needs to demonstrate the use of the language with complete sentences/phrases, not just regurgitated one liners that I often provide. I told him that in the end all the formative assessment scores (Interpersonal) wouldn’t matter if he could show above proficiency on the final — and that his final grade would change.
I guess what I’m asking (or getting at) is: What do I do when these students come to me about the questions above? Do I allow him to make up past Interpersonal scores based on a new performance the following week? Most of my students in class are earning an 85% (they are with me, they are attentive, they produce choral responses, they understand the “this or that” question and can respond, BUT there are several that either aren’t ready to produce (and they are getting the 85%) or
they are too worried about making mistakes. The student this morning says that he needs more time to respond (he’s not SLOW, but he needs a bit more time to put the sentences to together).
I hope this all makes sense? I need some guidance from those that have dealt with this situation before. Thanks for helping!
Ryan