Task Five

I found a very interesting article which included a video titled: Take a Deeper Look at Assessment for Understanding; Performance assessments go beyond traditional tests and serve as an important teaching tool. In it I found some helpful hints that I can incorporate in my lessons. For instance, an ongoing project in which students have the opportunity to show what they know and can do, developing comprehensive rubrics by which to evaluate student's performance and ensure that the project is more than just fun and engaging activities. This is very insightful because it is easy to confuse engagement and fun with learning or demonstration of learning. As I teach Spanish one constant temptation is to think that because students can say some phrases or sentences or answer some questions they are speaking in a meaningful way. However, as I think about this idea of an ongoing project, I wonder how this can be implemented at the primary level. Not only are most of my students in the process of acquiring basic speaking skills in their native language but my present circumstances prevent me and them from engaging in long term activities. I don't have my own classroom. I "travel" from classroom to classroom. This poses a tremendous challenge in terms of space, storing of project as it progressess, etc.

Nonetheless, I truly believe that performance assessments are the best instrument to gauge student's progress and ability, especially while learning a world language. My students do extremely well when given the opportunity to show what they know to each other, to their parents, their regular teacher and me. The video showed some students engaged in a project and the advantages of applied learning in which they can demonstrate skills that cannot be demonstrated in a standardized test--for instance leadership skills. As I think about my inquiry plan I am thinking about how I can use performance assessments in ways that allow these little ones the opportunity to show what they know and can do and on the other hand provide me with the tools to assess these abilities.

The examples shown in the video and in the articles are all for middle and high schools (which is most often the case) and none deal with teaching and learning a world language. I hope that in the new "Race to the Top" emphasis by the Dept. of Education, teaching and learning world languages will be considerd an important part of a holistic education which begins in kindergarden not high school. As Bill Tucker,the author of "Improving Assessment: Getting from Here to There" says in his blog, " even with the best of intentions, all of the incentives in the current system serve to lock in today’s practice." We have had enough quick fixes. We need "a long-term and cohesive strategy for applying decades of research on learning and measurement, experimenting with major advancements in technology, and ultimately collecting the kind of data that will be meaningful to schools, teachers, students and parents."