Part 2: Reframing Accountability in a comprehension based classroom

If you haven't read Accountability, Part 1,
please do so!  

What does it mean to reframe accountability for a comprehension based classroom?

Thanks for asking!  I think there are some very concrete steps that we can take to support learning for the sake of learning and move away from the point based transactions in our classrooms. 

Please remember that changing the culture of a classroom, department, school, and community is not going to happen at once. Sometimes, all you can do is start behind your closed door, and that's ok.  Sometimes you might have to be
quietly subversive- which is OK too because being subversive might mean doing what is best for your students behind closed doors.  

But what do I do???

1) Grade and report on mastery of standards.  

This is also known as standards based grading. You can do this even if your school reports grades on an  A-F scale.  A key idea in standards based grading is that teachers report accurate information about mastery of standards, and exclude information about engagement, timeliness, behavior, and practice in the mastery grade.   

• For tons more resources on standards based grading, take a look at this article: Assessment in SOMOS. 
• For some ideas of what goes in my grade book: What goes in the grade book?

2) Set standards that your students can reach, and celebrate what they can do!

Here is a brief article with suggestions for reasonable standards in a comprehension based classroom: Performance Targets.  

3) Change the focus from points to proficiency.

Teach what different levels of proficiency look like to your students and share that information with administrators and parents,  and be transparent in how you grade and assess.  Put rubrics directly on assessments and use consistent language for all assessments.  This helps change the conversation from "how many points is this worth?" to "look what you can do"!  Here are some ideas and a lesson plan to address how I did this with students.   I am proud to mention that the head of the school used the display  that we created from this lesson as a regular stop on tours for prospective families and school visitors.  It helped frame expectations for all stakeholders and create a common language. 

4) Build relationships and community. Connect with students.

Use all the wonderful comprehension based strategies that you learn in workshops (or wherever you get training!)  to build relationships, connect with your students, learn about their interests, and build a community where students feel seen, safe, and joyful.  

These strategies might include: Special Person Interviews, One Word Images, Chit Chat, Card Talk, Weekend Chat, Personalized Questions and Answers, and my all-time favorite: Story Asking.  There are SO many more things that can be done in comprehension based classes-don't be limited by my imagination!  

 Remember that learning how to do this kind of collaborative teaching takes some skill, practice, and might feel different for you as the teacher and very different for students. That's ok!  Give yourself some grace. 

Also remember that these strategies, when grounded in a framework of communicatively embedded input, are based on a principled understanding of the mechanics of language acquisition.  While it may look like just talk and play, these principles truly meet the definition of "student centered."

CARLA (The Center on Advanced Research for Language Acquisition (CARLA) defines student centered instruction as “Instruction that builds upon what students need, already know, and can do.” Note that the definition does not dictate roles or activities in a lesson, but instead tells us that the content of the lesson is what makes something student centered.  In our framework, what students need is consistent and comprehensible target language input, what they already know is about their own lives and interests, and what they can do is communicate (which includes interpretation) about those interests. Thanks to Martina Bex for making this important and relevant connection and her explanation in her article Proficiency Oriented Language Instruction.

Here are a couple of video resources about connecting with students: (Although I have been ignoring this little blog quite a lot lately, I have been incredibly busy doing other things!)

• Equity and Engagement in 2020 Online Teaching, with John Bracey, Meredith McDonald White, Dr. Robert Patrick, Dahiana Castro, and Elicia Cárdenas.
• Connecting with Students of Color with John Bracey, Martina Bex, and Elicia Cárdenas.

5) Find and teach content that is relevant and moderately interesting.

Use the information that you learn to find and create comprehensible content that is moderately relevant and interesting to your students. You don't have to have a home run story or unit each day or week or month- but trying to keep class personalized and connected to their lives is important.  

Even if I know that I want to teach about something that is content-related, I am going to try to use student experience and background knowledge to build interest and connect them to the content. Pro Tip: The SOMOS / Nous sommes / Sumus curriculum uses this framework for all units and it works incredibly well.  

A concrete example from my own classroom might be a learning sequence that looks something like this: 

Novice Spanish 

Note: I have done variations of these activities in Spanish 1a, 1b, and  1 honors. 

Content: Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro, by Carol Gaab (Fluency Matters)

Connection/relevance: Pets that students have or want to have/have had.  Responsibilities and fun/not fun parts of pet ownership.  

Ideas

Students submit 1-2 pictures of their pets (or pets they want/have had, stuffed & mythical animals included)  and a short L1 paragraph about their pets. I put together a slideshow of their pets with L2 sentences that I am confident that we can read together.  I show 1-2 slides each day as a warm up and lead a comprehensible L2 discussion about the information.

Discussion: Which pet would you rather have? I present 2-4 different types of animals as pets and we discuss the pros/cons of each, in a scaffolded L2 discussion.   

Story: We co-create a story or two (TPRS©) to pre-teach vocabulary from the book that is unfamiliar. Using actors, pictures, and student ideas, we build the story then play with it.  The story becomes part of our community narrative- relevant, personal, and usually hilarious.   

Having created some community experiences around pets, shared opinions and laughter and probably disagreed about pets, moving into the book (the content) suddenly feels more relevant. When Brandon's dog chews his favorite pants in the narrative, we can relate that to the time Luis' snake ate his sister's hamster, and then perhaps have a whole discussion about gross things that pets eat and shouldn't. (True story. One of my best classes ever!)  

But wait! Don't you have to give grades? Sure, of course!  The difference is that I don't want to trade points for behavior.  I want students to be interested in what we are doing in class because they are motivated by relationships and relevant content. (For more great information about motivation, please check out Liam Printer's The Motivated Teacher resources and podcast.)    

You can read about what goes in my grade book if you like.  Notice that I had to fit my beliefs about standards based grades and what should go in the grade book into the culture of my school (and make compromises).  

I recognize that all 5 of these steps are big. None of them can be accomplished over night, but I do think that in reframing accountability and points-as-motivation,

I am positive that we can make sure that all students feel like they can succeed and center our classrooms as places of joy, language acquisition, and equity. 

Part 1: The A word (Accountability)

Let's talk about the A word. I'm talking about accountability, friends.  I have been chewing on some ideas about this word for a long time, and have recently been able to put to words some concerns I have about this idea.  

Holding students accountable for their learning is not inherently bad.  Conflating compliance with evidence of learning (or in our case, acquisition) is not the same as holding students accountable for their learning.  And in fact, the whole idea of accountability might have some problems, at least the way it is used when applied to students.  

Accountability often comes up in discussions about student engagement.  It usually sounds like this: "How do I hold them accountable for ___?" and when teachers are more frustrated (sometimes feeling defensive, especially when we are talking about the intersection of grading, assessment practices, and equity), "but they won't do it if I don't hold them accountable/give them a grade for it."  

First, I hear you, and I feel you, and I am not in your context, and I am not here to judge.  We are all just trying to get through this crazy year, and all the crazy years.  

Second, I want to unpack a few ideas wrapped up in what teachers mean by student accountability.  

Finally, I hope to offer some fairly concrete ideas for how to reframe accountability in a comprehension based classroom.  (See Part 2.) 

Since this is my blog, this is real talk. This is me, unfiltered, and asking hard questions.  It's ok if you don't agree with me, but I do think it is worth asking hard questions about our classroom practice. Don't give up on me. 

What "holding students accountable" looks like (based on observations and discussions with teachers) 

• Assigning point values to every thing done in class and collecting and grading it all, e.g. collecting and grading bell work/starters.
• Requiring that students complete "proof of learning" such as graphic organizers (that don't prove anything, really) or filling in guided notes. 
• Giving students assignments to complete that have little-to-no relevance for learning or acquisition, e.g. assigning busy work to be completed after free voluntary reading to prove that students did something.
• Believing that students won't do work unless there is a grade attached.
• Rewarding compliance (doing the work) and conflating compliance (or lack thereof) with learning.

(Please know, I have done most of these things and held these beliefs, and I am not in your context nor do I have to comply with your school's expectations. These are just examples.  #nojudgement)

Who gets held accountable in our general adult world?

Well, I am accountable for being licensed to drive and having insurance- or at least, if I was caught without those things, I would have some kind of consequence.  Often, our society talks about holding people accountable for misdeeds and violence against others.  In fact, accountability seems to be very closely related to punishment or consequences for doing harm. 

I am sure that there are a million other ways to consider accountability, so please forgive me if this is just one facet of this complicated concept.  But- as we are seeing such a disproportionate rate of students of color receiving behavior referrals¹, it does seem pertinent, right? Holding a kid accountable for their behavior/compliance  often results in punishment. This punishment might be low grades, which research shows is not a motivating factor².

Why do you do your job? What makes you accountable?

Then there is the idea of holding people accountable for doing their job.  I am expected to show up to events and workshops and classes that I have scheduled and contracted, and provide the services that I have agreed to provide.  I am held accountable by the very real consequences of losing my job.  But that's not why I show up. I show up because I chose this work, I like this work, and I am motivated to engage in this work.  

Few teachers are motivated by money (although there is *no* doubt that we should be paid fair and equitable wages, and not be shamed into working 60+ hours a week or risking our lives "for the children").  And if you are just motivated by having a job- that's ok- we all need a job! 

 So what motivates you to be accountable for your work? Is it fear? Is it the paycheck/health benefits (no judgement!)? Is it the sense that you are doing something bigger for your community? Is it that you adore the students and love what you do? Is it your love of your school community and colleagues?  Are you motivated to show up for work or are you held accountable? Are those factors in balance?  

Let's talk about the kids in the classroom

Considering a few different reasons to be held accountable and some motivations for doing what we are asked to do- as adults-is it reasonable to expect kids-to be motivated by external factors?   I mean- we are talking about kids, not fully formed adults.  And to be clear- I am speaking now very specifically about kids in a classroom context, and how they are held accountable or not for doing their job of learning in the classroom.  

 

 This leads me to consider motivations- my own and those of students.   Giving grades to increase motivation really comes from a behaviorist framework of punishment and rewards.  This framework, also known as extrinsic motivation, has some problems.  Joe Feldman shares this critique:

[...] extrinsic motivation is not an effective motivation strategy for authentic learning. While extrinsic motivation yields benefits for menial and repetitive tasks- such as offering prizes for stuffing the most envelopes [...]extrinsic rewards and consequences have been found to be wholly ineffective to engage people in tasks that require higher-order and creative thinking [...]. (Feldman, Grading for Equity, 2019)³ 

Grades as Rewards

This idea of grades as rewards- also known as a points economy- is so deeply embedded in our school culture that it is incredibly hard to reframe.  But consider: do we want students to be engaged in learning for the sake of learning? (Also, do we want them to be engaged in order to contribute to their community, to develop connections with each other and their community, and all those things we talk about when we create vision statements for learning?) Or, do we want students to be engaging in points transactions in classrooms?  Are we, as teachers, the brokers of points or guides for learning/language acquisition?  Rick Wormeli, a teacher and leader in supporting teachers in implementing equitable assessment practices, wrote this amazing response to a concern about moving to standards based grades. Take a moment and read it.  

OK, welcome back to talking about accountability.

When we talk about giving points for assignments (because otherwise students won't do the work) and rewarding the "good" behavior, we are doing harm.  Grades should not be rewards for compliance.

We are engaging in points transactions rather than engaging learners. And, if students aren't engaged in the work, if they are not "paying attention" or "just turning in blank papers", isn't that a big neon sign pointing to the lack of connection and relevance of the learning to their lives?  Or...perhaps something else that is really important to know about the learner?  

This is a BROAD statement- but dig in with me here.  I know that teachers are social workers, food providers, emotional support providers, nurses, therapists, tech support, and all the other things that have been put on our plate.  And I know that it might feel like I am telling you that you have to do more. And it might feel overwhelming-especially this year, especially with remote and hybrid and roomies and zoomies and the global trauma that we are living through.  Give yourself some grace, but please, keep reading.  

When a teacher says to me "but I have to hold them accountable" by assigning a grade to each piece of learning, I want to ask the following questions:

1) Do you know why the student is not engaged? Have you asked them or their care givers? Have you listened to the answer? Have you used that information to support that learner within your means? (And if the answer is yes, or I have done all I can, that's ok! Read this great article: When is it ok to say you've done "enough" for a student? from Angela Watson.) 

2) Is what you are asking the students to do something that they can and wish to engage in?  Is your content relevant to their lives or at least moderately interesting? Do they feel respected as learners? Do they feel like they are capable of doing the task, and that it has a point?  Do they feel like they are part of a community? Do they believe that you care for them and see them as for who they are?  

3) How deeply are you and the students engrained in the points transaction universe?  

4) Do students think that they have a reasonable path to success in your class, despite not having the requisite points or making the choice to not do work? Can they recover? 

The Hard Work

I know. I KNOW.  I am telling you the hard stuff. I am asking you to think and dig in and reflect and perhaps admit something uncomfortable, and yes, work more, and harder.  

But this work- developing engaging curriculum, connecting withs students and building relationships, and giving students the opportunity to succeed- this is good work. It is important work.  If you can focus on this, and try to minimize (or even eliminate) the work that doesn't serve students, then you will have more time for building connections and creating curriculum that is truly engaging and relevant.  Here are some thoughts about focusing on what matters.

OK, you've made it this far. Thank you. In my next post, I will talk about reframing accountability and what this looks like in a comprehension based (acquisition driven, proficiency oriented, CI) classroom. This is getting REALLY long!  

References

¹Riddle, T., & Sinclair, S. (2019). Racial disparities in school-based disciplinary actions are associated with county-level rates of racial bias. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America, 116(17), 8255-8260.)

²Selby & Murphy, 1992 as referenced by Tom Guskey, "Five Obstacles to Grading Reform," Educational Leadership, ASCD, November 2011

³Feldman, J. (2019). Grading for equity: What it is, why it matters, and how it can transform schools and classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, a Sage Publishing Company.

ASSESSMENT: a new three-session course focused on learning to love assessments

 I am super excited to share this news! In February, I will be launching a new Teacher Lab series focused on assessment and grading.  This has been in the works for a LONG time but it has taken me a while to figure out how to fit the content into something that actually makes sense for teachers.  

I truly believe that the way we assess and grade students can help us become more equitable educators and I want to share the work that I have done with teachers.  I also believe that grading doesn't have to be the worst part of the job.  Did you know that for most teachers, grading is the #1 least-satisfactory part of their job?  It doesn't have to be!  It *is* something that we have to do, but we can at least take the agony out of it.  

Grading for Equity (Joe Feldman) is a book that I recommend to all teachers.

We will look at some research about language acquisition (how our brains acquire language) and consider the implications, take a deep dive into what traditional grades don't do well and why (and look at alternatives), and finally, dig into assessments can we give in comprehension based classes.  We will also look at how to grade so that our reporting is accurate, representative of what students *can* do, and resistant to bias.   WHEW! It's a lot for 4.5 hours.  

Plus, I get to stretch myself and see how to make some Zoom classes more interactive and collaborative.   

Click on the picture above or visit our page for more information.  I am also revisiting a couple of great workshops from 2020, including Teaching for Acquisition (90 minutes) and All About the Texts (60 minutes) in January.  Please join me!  

Standards Based Grading and My Classroom Practice

Grades. Assessment.  The pile of papers staring at me, just waiting for me to put little marks on them, then enter some more marks in the computer, so that kids and parents can ignore, celebrate, or argue  about (with each other or with me, depending on family culture).

Doesn't it just feel overwhelming sometimes?  And I feel like I have a pretty good handle on it!!! (Click here for information about what goes in my gradebook, here for how I grade reading and listening quizzes, and here for how I grade writing.)

I recently attended a 2 day seminar on Standards Based Grading with Rick Wormeli. (It was awesome.)  I am not at all new to his work and ideas, and I have spent time with proficiency based grading (a la Marzano- two full seminars).  I am also enrolled in an edX course (offered by the MIT teaching and learning lab) about Competency Based Grading.  Since the term ends in a few weeks, I am looking at end of term grades, my grading practice, my assessments, and trying to make sense of my new learning.   So, this is more of a personal blog post, with less practicality and more reflection.

 In no particular order, here is my attempt to process what I came away with:

Schools conspire against learning. Yes, well, this is so patently obvious it almost doesn't need commentary.  If I could just teach, and be free of the arbitrary nature of so much of my job, I would be a better teacher and I think the kids would acquire more.

Never sacrifice sound pedagogy because someone above you isn't there yet.
Yes.  Yes. A MILLION TIMES yes.

Sorting or cultivating? Is one better than the other?
Isn't that language super judgmental?

Are we here to sort or cultivate students?  I think I am here to cultivate students. So what am I doing that is sorting? Is sorting a negative word? Thanks to my colleague today who pointed out that it doesn't have to be negative.  When I differentiate, isn't it sorting?

Is it sorting to put a judgement on a product (an assessment, a project)?  Wormeli argues yes.  He argues that judgement does not promote learning.  But that assumes that students have control over their own learning, which is true for learning that involves the explicit system (math, science, other subjects) but not true for the implicit system of language acquisition.

I believe that giving feedback isn't going to affect their acquisition, especially not at the levels I teach (mostly 1 and 2).  Giving feedback on what they can control- that is, behavior that supports language acquisition...well, now we are getting into compliance.  And that is messy.

On another note: if I am teaching to cultivate, what about tracking students?  (My school has two tracks of math and Spanish.)  This brings up a lot of personal stuff for me because my experience with school was terrible and consisted of virtually no differentiation until there were honors classes that I could go into.  (I dropped out of public school and went to college at age 16.)  Now that I teach honors classes, I strongly believe that I am serving the kids better by splitting them up by proficiency, and meeting them where they are at.  But this is a very unpopular view, and I can see why.  I am going to have to put that one aside for now.

Compliance or competency?  MESSY!  

Compliance vs. Competency: It is MESSY.
Some of my peers and trainers argue that we should never grade for compliance (engagement), because that has nothing to do with their competency. And what about neuro-diverse students?   Others say that we should not grade their competency because they have no control over it, but we should grade what they can control (behaviors that support language learning), which is basically compliance.

Assessment is where we live our values. This resource, from the indominable Tina Hargaden, comes at just the right time.  But it brings up some difficult questions for me.  Am I grading too hard? Am I accurately assessing their proficiency levels?  Am I falsely inflating or deflating grades?  How do I know what proficiency levels look like?

Because if I am being honest, according to Tina's rubrics, I grade WAAAY low.  But I am consistent within my department, and within myself.  This is important to acknowledge, and a thought that I come back to again and again.  Scott Benedict's trainings on assessing freewrites helped me solidify this.  For more information, check out his work at Teachforjune.com.


I am already using standards based grades, and I think that my grades finally (mostly) represent what students can do and understand.  Whew. What a relief.  I have worked SO hard on this. And this is the best year so far, in that my students' reported grades really do seem to reflect their proficiency, not their organization or compliance. Sure, I can improve, but I feel like I am on the right track.  Even if I am trying to squeeze into my school's 100 point averaging system.

If I believe that students have no control over the rate at which they acquire language, I should not be grading them. Period. Full stop.  
Ouch.  And yes.  But reporting what they can do is valuable, both for them and for me, and required in the school system.  And I do like to see what they can do, and so do they.

Corollary: If students can't control what they acquire, why am I spending so much time and effort on this assessment stuff?  I mean, weighing the pig more often does not make it fatter.  
Oh wait. Because this is actually part of my job. Hmm.  Refer to my first point.  However, it does give me some peace thinking that my goal to load up the input, create a community where students feel valued, recognized, and successful, and where I love to go every day (because I have the time for self-care and self-reflection), is actually where my time should be spent.  And the majority of my assessments *should* be input-focused.  (Thanks to Lance Piantaginni for helping me see the value in input-based assessments.  After all: more input is always a good thing.)

I am so grateful to not be tied to a fixed schedule of summative assessments that are worth a certain percent and are unrecoverable.  However, I *am* still tied to getting enough grades in the grade book.  And "citizenship" as a grading category. (Can you hear the scorn dripping from my voice? This is one school requirement that really chafes at me.)

The assumption that students can control their language acquisition is incorrect, and the assumption that giving them descriptive feedback will help is just plain wrong.  Sorry, Rick.  
It might not be wrong for subjects like math etc. that rely on explicit learning, but the nature of second language acquisition is different.  Thanks, Bill VanPatten, for helping me get real clear about this.  So I am not going to spend a ton of time giving them feedback.  The payoff isn't that great for the time spent, especially when I could spend my time taking care of myself so I can better connect with kids, or finding interesting, compelling things to talk about with them, or trying to build my skills to speak so that they understand me.  Because those actions actually will help them acquire more.

Which leads me to some classroom practices that I am re-examining: 

Student Learning Objectives: 

Oh man, we love our objectives, don't we?  Many teachers have to have different ones daily, and track each student through each one and blah blah blah.  I am (once again) very grateful to work at a school where they are not required.  I developed them anyway, and every time I go back to teach a unit again, I look at them to decide if they still have meaning.  I think it is important that the kids know what the end goal is, even if it is very broad.  In fact, I hand them out to the kids to glue in their interactive-ish notebooks, and even post them as part of our starters.

In the first few weeks of the year, I ask students to self-reflect on their learning daily, usually based on the starter we did, and discuss what objective it was checking and what they can do to acquire.


But I stopped doing this around around October. I stopped because I would rather speak Spanish and ask how they are doing and just converse, not meta-process something over which they have no control.  Plus, twice a week, my starter is FVR/SSR, with no paperwork for the kids.

Another reason I stopped going over objectives was because the answer to "how will you move up the proficiency ladder" is ALWAYS more input.  I can remind kids of where to find that input (in class, on my class web page, during office hours, etc.) and that they can access it without anyone else, but the answer never changes.  And I felt like a broken record.  (There might be value in that though.)  It can be useful to have the discussion about the value of "practice", quizlet, and "write sentences". (That is, if it is input, it's great.  "Practicing sentences" or flashcards on quizlet , probably not.)


What I changed: After returning from the Wormeli workshop, I intentionally decided to refer to the objectives again in each class, and give the opportunity for self-reflection of progress.  My high-anxiety, high achievers really liked it.  Most of the others seemed to be confused and/or tuned out. And it took SO MUCH TIME!!

My verdict?  I think that I will continue creating and sharing objectives, and when the mood strikes, ask the kids to look at their progress and the objectives (through the starter), but it is not going to be a daily thing.  Maybe weekly?

Target structures, rubrics, and feedback:
I often ask students to write quick freewrites (10 minutes) at the end of the unit and incorporate the target structures from that unit. For first year students in 7th grade and Spanish 1B (8th grade) I decided that students being able to use the structures as practiced (3rd person) was proficient, as that was mostly what they were reading in the units, and seemed reasonable.  The application of using different endings to the words to talk about self and others seemed like an advanced goal, for writing. So that was my rubric.  I also graded more holistically on a modified ACTFL rubric (basically this from Martina.)   

Now, I have been using this target structures rubric for four years, and never loved it.  What if they use two correctly and forget the third?  Wormeli would perhaps say that I should disaggregate the grade for each in the gradebook to give a better reflection of their learning.  Well, that is great if you are working on different skills in a different subject,  but since I know that language is acquired in messy chunks, and the stages of development are fixed and also messy, and that kind of feedback won't help with acquisition, disaggregating seems like a poor use of (my) limited time.

 Wormeli says that descriptive feedback is helpful. I am doubtful about this assertion regarding language acquisition, but I do see the value in showing students where they did or didn't meet the expectation.

What I changed: I decided to ask the kids.  I took 10 minutes of class and just told them what I was thinking, and asked if the target structures rubric was helpful for them.  They said that they wanted to know which words they were using at what level.  I suggested that I just give them feedback- a checklist and grade them holistically on the ACTFL rubric.

This is the new rubric- this DOES NOT go in the grade book!

It was so smooth for me to grade in this last round of writing, and they commented how useful it was to see what they were doing right.  So that's a keeper!!!

Proficiency levels

Posters on my classroom wall

The last thing that I decided to change up this week was to spend a little bit more time in L1 talking about proficiency levels.

I spend almost a whole day at the beginning of the year having students work on an activity that introduces them to proficiency levels. (See examples below.)  I will write about what I do more specifically- I even have a video- but for now, suffice it to say that I explicitly teach about the ACTFL levels at the beginning of the year, and discuss with kids and families what their goals are (for June).

I also use rubrics with proficiency levels on them already, and I do talk to the students about what they mean.  But am I doing it enough?  This is what I wanted to find out.

Proficiency Project in the hall
I do this at the beginning of the year
(Novice High)

Novice Low

Intermediate  Mid

I decided that after giving a writing quiz, I would take the kids out to the hallway where I have their proficiency level projects hanging.  I asked them to re-read their quizzes and mark on the rubric where they thought they were, proficiency-wise, based on the rubric and the examples we did at the beginning of the year.

Like this adorable cat that doesn't quite fit into his box, kids taught in comprehension based communicative
classrooms don't fit nicely into ACTFL levels.

Now, there is a MAJOR problem with this.  If you have been focused on providing compelling, comprehended input in your classes, you can probably guess what it is.  ACTFL proficiency levels, originally developed for a non-educational context, don't play nicely with kids who get tons of input and start writing paragraphs almost immediately.  They tend to skip novice low completely and speed through novice mid, at least in my experience and understanding.   Depending on the teacher, they might start writing paragraphs in a variety of time frames.
Yes, it is usually messy, but as Tina Hargaden reminds us, novice and intermediate writers need a sympathetic reader.  (And remember, there is no such thing as an error, only an indicator of the developmental stage the learner is in. Again, thanks to BVP for reminding me of this.) So is their writing indicative of micro-fluency, and thus they are really not intermediate low or mid?  Tina has a strong case for the opposite- that teachers constantly rate their students too low.  I am still really struggling with this, and have been for years.

That being said, is this a worthy struggle for me as a teacher?  Does it *really* matter if my kids are novice high or intermediate mid? It is probably not going to change what I do.  I am still going to give them a huge diet of comprehensible, comprehended input, including fiction, non-fiction, academic language, adapted authentic resources, music, etc.

I mean, common language is great but totally meaningless if other teachers have different interpretations of these same words.

What goes in the gradebook....

I have seen a lot of questions about setting up a gradebook lately on social media.  So, here's my response.

First, I have some flexibility in how I set up my gradebook.  Most teachers at my middle school use categories like Tests, assignments, projects, and citizenship.  All teachers have a citizenship category, but we have flexibility to define it.

After working with a great administrator for a couple of years, our language department moved to the following: Assessments: reading and listening, Assessments: Speaking and writing, Language Participation, and citizenship.  We all have different weights depending on the level and grade for each category, but we pretty much agree on what the categories mean.  This is as close to proficiency based grades as we can get within the system that we have at our school.  It is not perfect, but it is a good compromise, and student grades now tend to reflect their language abilities at their level.

Language Participation 
First, it's important to know that we define participation as engagement- NOT as speaking. Students can get 100% in this category and never produce an original, spoken sentence.  They are, however, expected to respond to questions, respond chorally, and be engaged.  "Work" also goes in this category, which in Spanish mostly means whatever they do in their Interactive-ish notebook.  Any (rare)  homework assigned and anything that is not an assessment goes here too.  Truth be told, there aren't too many assignments in this category outside of the interactive-ish notebook and our weekly daily engagement grade.  For more information about how I assess their interactive-ish notebooks, check this out. 

What we actually expect from the kids in class is this: listening to understand, one person speaking at a time, signaling when the teacher is not clear, doing their 50%- defined as responding enthusiastically and all the time (chorally, or to individual questions at their level), getting as much comprehensible input as they can, and supporting the flow of class and language.  We modify this based on individual students (i.e. eye contact is tricky for some students, etc.).  We use a slightly modified version of this rubric.   (Click here for my version)  We call it daily engagement.

Adapted from MagisterP 

Depending on the age/grade/level, students self assess daily or weekly, write down their score, and at the end of the week, come up with an average.  (I tell them to eyeball average it.  And that a .5 is fine.)  Then, the teacher goes through those scores, agrees or disagrees as appropriate, and puts them in the gradebook.  Weekly engagement grade complete.    Our version has 8 weeks on one double sided page, so it is easy to keep track of and we don't use a ton of paper.

Citizenship
This is a required category, so we decided that it has to do with two things: being prepared for class with their notebook and something to write with, and getting tests and quizzes signed by parents. (Another school expectation).   To keep it simple, we start by giving kids 100 points per trimester.  As they forget something, they sign a Citizenship log, and we periodically go through the log and deduct points from their 100.

Assessments: Reading and listening

This is what my gradebook looks like- or at least a few things!  

We use the reading and listening assessments included in the unit plans for SOMOS in Spanish 1, 1A, 1B, and 2.  We tend to give some kind of interpretive quiz for each unit, sometimes more than one. For my units that don't have included reading assessments, I have started using a text from the unit (or one that I write) and one of these forms to grade it.  For more info about how I grade these, see this post.  

Assessments: Writing and Speaking
The title of this category is a bit of a misnomer as well as we only assess speaking once, during their 8th grade year.  (They are novices! They need input, not "practice speaking" or presentations. But it looks good.)  

Most of the SOMOS units include writing assessments; for the ones that don't, either we do a timed freewrite or a focused freewrite based on the target structures or content of the unit.
For more information about how I actually grade these, see this post.  In 7th and 8th grade (Spanish 1, 1A, 1B, and 2- we have honors classes) we also do timed freewrites weekly, and grade them about every 4-5 weeks per class.

The weight of each category changes depending on the level of class.
Span 1A (7th grade):   Writing/speaking: 20%, Listening/reading: 40%, Language Participation: 25%, Citizenship, 15%
Span 1B (8th grade):  Writing/speaking: 30%, Listening/reading: 45%, Language Participation: 15%, Citizenship, 10%
Span 1 (7th grade honors): Writing/speaking: 25%,  Listening/reading: 50%, Language Participation: 15%, Citizenship, 10%
Span 2 (8th grade honors): Writing/speaking: 40%,  Listening/reading: 35%, Language Participation: 15%, Citizenship, 10%

Note that the highest class level has more weight on what they can actually do.  This is an experiment for me this year- previously it has been more in line with the other classes, but I feel like I want their grades to reflect what they can actually produce at that level (but only that level!). 

Quick update: I will be teaching a whole TeacherLab Series on assessment and grading in February 2021. Click on our page for more information! 

February  2021

Grading Writings - it does not have to suck

I don't dread grading writing anymore.  Not since I...

• drank a whole lot of the standards-based grades kool-aid.  
• simplified my system and made it consistent (mostly).  
• spent some quality time with Scott Benedict and his grading system. (Some of best hours of my life if I consider how many hours I have gotten back from investing that time.  And Scott is pretty cool too.)

HACK #1 - Plan ahead: Only grade one class per week! (and don't assign writing assessments to every class at the same time).

I attempt to plan my weeks and units so that I almost never have two classes worth of writings to grade.  This is very intentional.  My time is MUCH better spent planning great units or taking care of myself, but feedback is important, so keeping it manageable is priority.    Plus, as MagisterP points out, time spent on assessment that is not input-based is time lost.  (To do this, I try to keep those assessments at 15 minutes or less- 10 or fewer for writing, and 5 for "caretaker" stuff- passing papers, discussing or clarifying directions, etc.  I use a timer.)

Hack #2: Put the rubric on the page you pass out.

Alternate: buy yourself some stamps with your rubric categories- I have Advanced, Proficient, and Developing made up from an on-line stamp maker and I love them.

This way I know exactly what I am assessing and the kids, if they wish to read it, do too.  Most of the time, I assess using a slightly modified ACTFL scale, available in a variety of flavors from Martina Bex's Universal Screener.  This product is the most life-saving of lifesavers.

Hack #3: Be consistent: Use the same rubric, or a variation of it, for everything. 

All my writing and speaking assessments are assessed on the same rubric (adapted from the Universal screener), but modified for level.

All my reading and listening (input) quizzes use the same rubric.

The difference is that in my honors classes, the expectations are higher (intermediate mid, intermediate low, novice high, novice mid) than in my standard classes (intermediate low, novice high, novice mid), but the rubrics are based on the same information.
In my classes, proficient is 85%.  For Spanish 2 at the end of the year, that is intermediate low, and for Spanish 1, it is Novice high.

Hack #4: Don't mark errors!

I do not mark errors.  Repeat: I DO NOT MARK ERRORS! I may keep note of a persistent error and try to work that into class over the next few weeks, or I may even do a grammar pop-up the following day, but that's it. Don't mark errors.  It does not help students and it is not a good use of your time.  For a student who really wants to know why they got one grade (and not another), they are welcome to come talk to me during my office hours before or after school, and I will spend time reviewing proficiency guidelines and their work.  I have had two kids ask in four years.

Tip: If you are looking for certain words, have kids underline them.  Sometimes it is ok to skim writing assessments, especially if you are really looking for just one or two things.  Think about it like reading for just one trait, like elementary school teachers do.  *This only applies to focused freewrites.* See more about them below.

Focused Freewrites vs. Timed Freewrites 
"Focused" (targeted) freewrites can be used as summative assessments at the end of targeted units.  This may be as simple as "use the words for runs, walks, and sees in a story." (In that case, the unit was focused on those words- it is one of the first units in Martina Bex's SOMOS curriculum.)  It may be more cultural: Compare and contrast the tradition of a quinceañera with a tradition in your own family.  The directions depend on the unit and the objectives.  Some CI teachers do not believe in these types of assessments (with very valid arguments against doing them) but in my school community, this is appropriate and useful.

Timed freewrites are done almost every week with almost every class.  (The exception is if we are doing a focused freewrite that week.  No reason to make them write twice!)  Students are given a sheet of paper (I downloaded mine from here) and write for a certain number of minutes.  We start at 10, and when all kids can reach 100 words, we write for 9 minutes, and so on.  Sometimes I give the kids an optional prompt- a silly photo from the internet, a vignette with the stuffed animals in my class, etc. but they can write about whatever they want.  The goal is fluency- a real look at what they can do with written language under pressure and no constraints.  Kids record their word count in a graph each week.

How I grade writing:

Focused: These can be given two grades: one on content (using a rubric adapted from...you guessed it: Scott Benedict) and the other for their overall level of proficiency. Another way to grade them is  whether they can use the target structures (with few errors, with some errors, with errors that impede meaning), and just mark their level of proficiency but not record it.=

Timed: I use the ACTFL levels, but my rubric has two extra sections inspired by and adapted from Scott Benedict's rubrics (found here).  I include:

• One thing that impressed me:__(I write it in)_ 
• One thing to work on for next time. This is in a checklist form and includes things like verb endings, spelling, increase vocabulary, add dialogue, verb tense, accents, longer sentences, hard to read, and other. 

These take longer, certainly, but are great windows into what has been truly acquired.  I roll a dice to decide who gets graded each week.  

The elephant: how do you actually know what is novice high?

OK, let's talk about the elephant in the room: what is novice high writing? How do you know what to mark it as?   If you are lucky enough to have done the OPI training from ACTFL, you might know the answer.  If not...I am going to save that topic for a later post.  Stay tuned!



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