I have moved further and further away from any kind of assessment. This is based on my strong belief that we can’t really measure what a kid takes out of a CI classroom. In my view, it is like trying to measure the root system of a tree after we water it at frequent intervals. We still have to wait to be able to see what the product of the watering becomes.
We can’t “learn” a language so how can we “assess” a language?
In my view there are too many factors needed to bring accuracy to either formative or (especially) summative tests. And yet we work so hard and spend so much money developing them. It seems silly to me.
This is especially obviously true for any kind of test measuring output. Anyone who has tried to evaluate a student formally by doing a one-to-one interview knows what I mean, how really hokey that is. No one has designed an effective instrument and they never will be able to. Claire is nudging us in the direction of the only authentic assessment possible in a CI classroom – portfolios (also jGR/ISR). But we are not hearing her, probably because we are all so busy with end of year stuff right now.
Like so much we do in this work, the testing part is really nothing more than a very big joke. Think about it. People who are paid at the district level push us to design instruments made in their image. Sounds prideful to me.
We act like we know what we are doing but we don’t. We especially don’t know or seem to mcuh care about the negative emotional impact on children’s motivation in learning a language when, after only a few months of being in our classrooms, they have found their slot, which often happens to be the same one that other teachers in other subjects have slotted them into, and it never ends. Most kids end up getting jobs reflecting their assigned slot in school. I’m not sure I want to be a part of that, knowing what untapped language genius lies inside each and every one of them.
WE don’t think about how the effect as anything as benign as a quick quiz might have on them emotionally (during the test and after it is scored) because when we were in our language classes we slotted in at the highest level. So we don’t know how are testing affects motivation. I suspect it has a lot more negative result than we think. But hey, we “gotta grade ’em, right?”
Steven Ordiano, the Fresno Star, was recently challenged after a class by observing admins (they totally love him, they just expressed some curiosity). Here is what Steve told me about that:
…my administrator felt that a few students could have exited the class without “knowing” what the story was about. My beginning teacher supervisor wants me to use a randomizer of sorts or a techy-thing where ALL students respond as to a poll….
So what do we think about this? Is it a healthy request to ask for some formative data? Or is it a waste of time? Can we really measure what a kid takes out of our class after a story? What is the affective piece in a quick quiz? What if the questions are too easy bc they typically? What indicates learning on a quick quiz? Do we have to gather data or can we use jGR/ISR uniquely.
As the language experts in the building can WE make that the decision as to how we assess? Or do the four skills still hold sway like they did in the last century? (I’m totally leaving out of this discussion the part about how the kid will break the law and can be arrested if they decide what we are offering them is not what they want and how their test results just might be a little skewed).
I am probably alone in questioning if it indeed makes a lot of sense to even suggest that those two admins may be silly to ask Steve for some formative information. Steve – having a brilliant first year – then comes here to us and asks us for any advice to help him approach both of those admins with a plan that he can implement and so make the admins happy because they can say that they are doing their jobs helping young teachers and the beat goes on.
So what do we offer Steve in the way of formative assessment ideas to help him evaluate kids after a story so that the admins are happy? (I’m sorry. I have to recuse myself on this one. My nose hurts. I smell a big ugly rat in the formative assessment discussion.)
Related: http://www.yhwh.com/tarot/Tarot0.htm