In the previous articles jen described how she assesses and grades. In this one she describes how she gathers data:
Data: we are required to submit our “benchmark data” at each quarter. This one cracks me up. First quarter I was shivering in my cowboy boots bc it seemed so daunting. Confession: my “benchmark assessments” are nonexistent as a separate “big assessment” like all the other classes. I just used one of my usual activities and called it a benchmark retroactively. The kids were not even aware. “We had a benchmark?” “When was it?” I just read them a story and had them retell in English. Used a 1-2-3 rubric. 0= didn’t do it 1= understood a few random words 2= got part of the story line 3=got most of the story line 4= got the whole story line in detail. The rubric and assessment I typed up after the fact bc we had to submit it, so I pimped it up to sound very official. In reality I went thru my roster and put in numbers 1-4 for each kid. A few times I did “interpersonal benchmark” which I did announce to them right there on the spot…only so they would shut the F up and follow rule number 2! It worked. So I throw that in there sometimes bc otherwise they would never hear any Spanish.