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32 thoughts on “New SSR Quick Quiz Tool”
Very cool. I hadn’t picked up from the previous description that kids had the text in front of them during the quiz! Awesome! Like you said it is a deeper reading practice! Can’t wait to try this in my new and improved semester 2. Lately I have been giving reading quizzes where I ask the questions in English, they answer in English AND provide a quote directly from the text to support their answer. Your version is easier to administer though, and done frequently I imagine it cranks up their reading ability bc they are dealing with such short chunks of text. Confidence levels must be soaring!
Can you elaborate on what you meant when you said this awesome new open book quiz format gets more reps on verbs like ‘learns?’
Thunk! An open book quiz! More reps! Plus page numbers!
I had a couple of bitter complainers this fall that the class was too easy. I didn’t think their output reflected mastery, however. Have you had to deal with that when assigning below-their-level texts? When the texts and assessments are super easy, I also get some backlash in the form of students getting kind of limp and passive. Have you ever seen that?
Angie,
What do they think is easy?
Can they give you the English equivalent w/o error?
Can they answer you in complete sentences?
Can they summarize in T2?
Is there a more difficult text they could work with?
Could they multitask, reading a more difficult task (or simply a different task) but being responsible for the quiz on the text the rest of the class is doing?
Could they make a transcript of all that is said during this time?
(You could probably think of some more challenging and better ideas. Just trying to think with you.)
If they are smart-alecs then what Ben/John say below may help. It may be that they need to be accepted for needed more of a mental challenge, so offer them that.
“I have been wondering…maybe you need more of a challenge…would you like to try to see if this would feel more challenging without overwhelming you?” Offer a challenge, as well as a request for feedback after class. “Was that too much? Would you like to try to make it a little more? Should we scale back?” Of course, if they are punks, rather than academic-minded students, that may be another matter. It is just that sometimes if you can give people rein they won’t go as far on their own as they try to make it sound. If it is legit they may have found a niche in the class; if not, they may just come back to the comfort zone of what they class is doing because it is less work.
Angie,
This is a delicate issue, and how to address it depends on your school culture. I wish I had a solution for you, because I am in need of it as well. There are a lot of posts on this plc addressing this. Ultimately, these punks want to seem smarter than everyone else in the room, and their self esteem depends on it. It is not their fault, but they cannot be allowed to dictate the pace of your class, which is probably just fine for the majority of your students. In short, give them additional/alternate work, and require it of them. Then give them the option of coming back to the group, on the condition that they not complain. Make them aware of their lack of mastery, and remind them that your method will help them gain mastery. Give them jobs like taking grammar or vocab notes, writing quiz questions or other tasks that resonate with these students. Starting a new semester is a chance to re-focus our priorities. Choose what you’re willing to fight for in your classroom, and be okay with letting the other stuff go, for now. Just don’t create extra work for yourself. As Ben has rightly emphasized, self care should be the top priority.
Angie I really agree with John. There is one other thing that I do when confronted with these kids:
Yes, the reading is easy, but no, the discussion of the text is not. So they get bored in Step 1 above, the silent reading, but you have a chance to beat them up side the head with a board in Step 2, the discussion.
Yes, make the discussion easy, but when you get to these blow fish fools, speed it up on them. Don’t require the rest of the class to answer those fast questions, but speak faster. Then say to them:
“Well, you can read the text and answer the quiz questions but you can’t discuss it with me. So you must not know it that well. You need to pay better attention.” (I know that this is a falsehood, that you are speaking too fast for them, but they are making it very hard for you to teach them with love, which is a pivotal ingredient of TPRS/CI instruction.) Doing this one little thing in a very subtle way in class, at least, has a way of deflating their blown up egos. If we don’t do that, they run wild on us, and teaching becomes a hell.
I don’t know really. I don’t think that there is an answer, Angie. Like John said, we have to pick our battles in our classrooms. That is just one little thing I have done with such kids. It’s a shame that we can’t just hang out and laugh and enjoy the story, and that we have to teach these blow fish who have little to no interest in what we teach, only in the grade.
Is this what education has become? If so, then it’s no accident that we spend so much time here talking about our mental health and sharing little strategies to deal with the fact that it is school. This is where Krashen has no clue. I won’t go into that here. But we need to worry about CI second and our mental health first. Those blow fish don’t help anything one single bit. Nobody knows what we go through. Nobody. Except us.
Thanks, John and Ben, for your perspectives on this.
On the use of open-text assessments, I am in complete agreement with Ben. All my tests include a clean copy of the reading(s). We know that assessment is a waste of time at best, and at worst undermines student learning and confidence (I think it was Lance who referred to trad. tests as Error Detectors). The result of an open-text assessment, on the other hand, is that students spend most of the test time receiving more CI. The text is their friend, and they are motivated to read carefully.
If a term is being coined, I blogged about “Error Traps.” I do think they’re a huge trick played on language students.
What are the students doing with the text during the assessment, John? I’m always interested to hear about how folks are handling assessments.
My assessments have the following kinds of questions, in order of frequency and weight:
1. translate specific words/phrases into English, for meaning only.
2. answer comprehension questions, in Latin but more often in English, about the reading (from simple questions factual questions, on up to higher order thinking, e.g. who would say…? Which can be mult. choice)
3. translate accurately, to reflect the grammar: full credit for on the horses, partial credit for “horse,” or “horses.”
I need to get this straight, Ben.
First, you announce the part of the page from which the next question will come. Second, you give them time to carefully read in that area. Third, with their books open, you ask the question and they decide whether to write Oui ou Non. Then repeat.
Have I pictured what you are doing? How long does a quiz take?
No I don’t give them time to read around in the announced part of the page. I just ask the question. Once they hear it, you can see them start reading on that part of the page very intently. I give them about 20 seconds on it, repeat it a few times and move on. Quiz takes about five to seven minutes for a ten question test. My goal is not to trick them, but for them to have a positive exerience in my language classroom. When all the kids are meeting standards because I HELP them do so, it’s a win-win Not failing people is my goal. The phrase “teachers fail students” is an indictment of the system right there. I don’t to be a part of that.
For the record, I went “Open Book” for ALL Quick Quizzes after Ben mentioned it almost as an aside last Fall. It makes perfect sense. We want students to read to the target language. Behind that is that school-thing of requiring a bit of evidence to prove students understand what they read.
I first tried it with La Persona and wrote about that (http://magisterp.com/tag/quick-quizzes/), but now I’ve moved to giving this for EVERY quick quiz. Whatever the quiz is on, I project it for them to read.
Lance, I can appreciate your point about the “school-thing of requiring a bit of evidence to prove students understand what they read.” My coordinator is wanting us to do more reading while not fully grasping the 90%+. You helped me realize that this “makes perfect sense” not just to us, but perhaps also to those outside the CI loop. Sometimes we have to be content with anti-TPRSers unwittingly becoming mere anti-TP-Sers.
One question–are there still oral quizzes or are they all strictly reading?
I have students who do well on oral quizzes, but are not at all good at finding answers in the book. And then there are the opposite who don’t understand me when I’m asking out loud, but can pick out answers in the book.
I’ve done open-book for a couple of chapters on each reader, and I always do open-book as make-up work for absent students. I would love to make every quiz open-book (I do that with my level fours on Don Quijote, just because of the difficulty).
I suspect that the issues you’re having arise from asking Quiz questions in target language. Asking, or stating T/F in English eliminates backpedalling of hunting for target language answers, and eliminates the possibility that a student misunderstood your question/statement.
Think about it…we train students to negotiate meaning with us during class, so why would we leave them high and dry during an assessment. Someone here stated best that we constantly assess during class…Quick Quizzes are necessary for school. I’ve actually found it to be one more way to pacify students for a bit, or just slow down the pace of a class. The red pens come out and then they’re a little more receptive to CI when I go over the quiz right hen and there in the target language.
Thanks, Lance. I’ve had written t/f with english q&a but never oral.
So, to be sure I understand…ask questions in english, open book quiz to find answers in TL then grade out loud in TL. I’ll keep checking back on this topic.
I followed this idea for an in-class on-your-feet activity today. After a five-minute grammar (Russian verbs of motion) presentation aimed at the HL IB kid, but explaining in terms of meaning to the rest, I started a series of “find the verb and explain what it means in the sentence.” I’d put up the verb form on the board with where it was located in the reading they’d already done. They would find their new partner, figure out what it meant, and then I’d call on someone randomly. If they could tell me, they got a ruble. (After the first miss, everyone was getting it right.) They loved it! I liked the fact that they had to scan the book, they had already read it so they knew what it meant, and they proved that they knew what these “advanced level” verbs meant. Mostly level 2 kids, with a couple level 1 and a level 3, plus the HL IB student are in that group, and I explained that I only got this particular set of Russian grammar figured out 23 years into teaching Russian. I would probably still have been guessing at meaning, even in context, in my fourth year of college Russian.
I feel a little guilty for doing the grammar thing, but it heads off questions when “khaju/khodit” mean “I go/he goes” (regularly), and “pashla/pashol” mean “s/he went” (this time). “Idyot” is “is going.” And when the IB kid gets the “Verbs of motion” lecture in college, he’ll have a clue.
Thanks Ben for this idea. For some reason it’s got me all excited. I’m doing this in fourth period! They’re like a learning lab for me! Thank God I have a challenge! Otherwise it would be harder to grow.
My only addition to this open-book format is to require students to include the detail I changed if False. If I reaaaaaally wanna check for comprehension, I ask for both the target language AND English, but usually accept one or the other.
Example:
Caesarem pueri viderunt (= The boys saw Caesar).
Statement = The boys laughed at Caesar
Answer = False, viderunt= saw
I added this step after I overheard some kid say “ha, I guessed on all of them and still got a 3/4, sweet!”
This is SOOOOOO much better than assigning a chapter to read as homework, which I used to do with certain chapters of the novels. And it’s much better than R&D followed by a quick quiz. Open book novel quizzes. No trickery, more CI.
Maybe a couple questions pulled from the discussion that aren’t in the reading, to keep the smarties from realizing they still have to participate in the discussion? Or are you using jGR for that?
Thanks again Ben for pushing us closer…
Thank you, I’m going to try this. I LOVE that it is encouraging students to look back in the text for details. This is a skill needed in ALL subjects.
I absolutely love this too and I’m going to try it when we get to our next chapter. I’m not crazy about the way I’ve been doing novels and I’m eager to change things up! This is great! Thank you!
This is a great idea. I really love having the students read. It gives me a bit of piece and quiet.
I am using very easy readings to accomplish the same thing, but I am adding a few new words with an English footnote.
I’m wondering what ideas there are about introducing a few news words into very simple reading in this way. I find that there are a few students that are able to use every word I put in front of them, and I am really intrigued to see how much these students can remember when only introduced a few times to the words.
As long as you’re in the 95-98% understandability range, do it! Depending on the length, that might only be one new glossed word.
I’ve also done “find the phrase” searches as bell-work where I have 5 -8 phrases in English from the chapter we just read the day before and they need to write down the Spanish from the book. I include the page number.
It works well, especially when I throw in a starred phrase that I tell them is extra difficult and they probably won’t be able to find it. There are several who rise to that challenge.
Ooh, ooh! This sounds like FUN!! I think my kids will definitely dig it! I realize this has probably been addressed somewhere else but do any of you count these Quick Quizzes as summative scores? Just curious. As Ben pointed out in a different thread, sometimes it’s not because the admin or district requires it, but because it appeases parents.
I’m a new subscriber and am devouring all the posts as fast as I can. Love everyone’s excitement and committment to CI. Am reading Ben’s Big Book of CI as fast as I can as well. SOOOO much to learn! But a whole helluva lot of fun, too!
Agaaaaaaaaarrrrrr!!!!!
Hey!!!
😀
Yes! I count quick quizzes as summative whenever I feel like it. Sometimes I call whatever we are doing “summative” in order to get them to shut the heck up. Unfortunately in some groups the only “compelling comprehensible input” is the numberZ I feed into the machine, so telling them “summative” makes them focus. Exasperating to me, but that is what I’ve had to do.
Sure, I’ve also done jGR as a summative, or “final exam” assessment.
AGAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!
Hey!