If you're not familiar with integrated performance assessments, I'd love for you to check out my six part blog series explaining my rational for using them, how to write these assessments, and how to give them with your students.
The free interpretive resource I'm excited to share with you today is from my GROWING interpretive activities bundle and focuses on city vocabulary and Barcelona. Students will access two different authentic resources, an adorable video my students love and a highly comprehensible infographic as part of today's freebie, La Ciudades de España interpretive activity.
What I love most about interpretive listening and reading activities is that they take highly engaging videos, infographics, articles, etc. and scaffold what students already know while exposing them to new words that help them build a vocabulary.
My students tend to view interpretive activities a scavenger hunt of sorts as they seek out the words the need to find; they're challenging, yet motivating at the same time. I've created a growing bundle of interpretive activities, which you can save a ton of money (and LOTS of time). This is an amazing deal, especially now while they are 20% off, and you'll have access to all of the interpretive activities as I add them in the future.
Some of my favorite interpretive activities (which are all part of the bundle) are:
You'll love this social justice-themed interpretive activity that will do so much more than reinforce vocabulary about school and clothing and will teach your students the value of preserving Mayan Culture. The video students will access (either individually or as a whole class) is beautiful and gives students an eye-opening glimpse into what education looks like in other parts of the world.
This is a fabulous interpretive activity for September to teach your students about Hispanic Heritage Month, what it means to be Hispanic versus Latino, and teach some basic cultural and historical information. The authentic infographic is colorful, to the point, and highly comprehensible for novice and intermediate students.
I love interpretive activities because they set the stage for my students to comprehend authentic texts in the target language and prepares my students for their end-of-unit IPAs. My curriculum and my students' success all really revolve around interpretive activities!
Now that you've checked out one of my favorite types of resources and downloaded the City Interpretive freebie, I'm excited to send you to the next station on our back to school blog hop! Head on over to The Spanish Brew; she's got a really cool conversational freebie for your first weeks back to school. Be sure to follow the blog hop chain to score 11 more awesome freebies!
If you end up using my freebie, I'd love to hear your thoughts and even share pictures or videos! You can connect with me here on Facebook and @SraShawSpanish on IG and Twitter. I'd also love for you to follow me on my blog Spanish with Sra. Shaw, as I share ideas :)
Hope you're about to have your best school year yet! Con Amor, Jen AKA Spanish with Sra. Shaw
I've been meaning to write this post for a solid 4-5 years, but have you every been so excited to talk about something that you couldn't formulate the words? That's how I feel about SeeSaw, my hands-down favorite technology tool for the World Language classroom. SeeSaw is Check out this video all about SeeSaw:
Breakdown of What I Love about SeeSaw:
1. It effectively and efficiently shows students proficiency/performance in the Target Language.
Students can add photos, slideshows, videos, and drawings and combine presentational speaking/writing to caption over their samples. It's also a simple way to do interpersonal speaking assessments because students can record themselves speaking with a partner.
Just to give you an idea of what types of tasks students can create in just minutes, here are some student samples:
I've had lots of students say how much fun they have creating their SeeSaw assignments. Then again, I've had a few bemoan them and beg for worksheets instead, but I always remind them that they are not going to learn to Speak Spanish with a worksheet. Worksheets are tools, but these SeeSaw assignments take language performance to an entirely different level.
2. It's differentiated
I give students choices so they can create products that interest them. Frequently they revolve around the same ACTFL Can Do Statement, but students have choices in how they choose to demonstrate their mastery. For example, if I give students the Can Do Statement, "I can talk about what I do and do not like to eat," some kids create videos with presentational speaking showing which foods they like and others posted pictures with captions. Both are great examples of language ability and I think it's important that students choose options they are comfortable with and that are motivating.
3. It's fun
I like to give students a lot of creative liberty. I often give them an ACTFL Can-Do statement and then leave it to them to figure out how to demonstrate their mastery. Most of them time, their ideas are way better than what I would have come up with!
Lots of kids utilize the same apps they would in real life, which I think is really cool. I frequently see samples from Instagram, SnapChat, text messages, etc., which makes the texts that much more authentic and completely hits ACTFL standard 5, "Learners use the language both within and beyond the classroom to interact and collaborate in their community and the globalized world." Sure, my students are connecting with their own classmates, but considering they are 8th graders, I'm insanely proud of their creativity.
4. It's flexible and is available on all devices and platforms
SeeSaw is available on literally any device or platform. It has apps for Apple iOs, Android, Kindle, Chromebooks or is usable on any device with Chrome or Safari. You can use it 1-to-1, have students share devices, use it on a cart, or students can access it on devices at home.
5. It's shows language development and self-creates a portfolio
At the end of each year, I have students take a class period to look through their SeeSaw postings from the entire year and reflect upon their proficiency growth. They are always blown away by how simplistic their language was in the fall and how much they can do by June. Lots of students make comments about how proud they are and and how silly they sounded in the beginning. As a teacher, these moments make me glow. It's so cool to see my students as proud of themselves as I am.
Another item worth mentioning is that you can create folders for students to submit work. I like to create one folder per unit so we can all see what students were capable of doing in the first unit and how much they've grown by the last unit. These folder portfolios can be downloaded at the end of the year or transferred over if you are part of a SeeSaw for Schools district.
6. SeeSaw is easy for teachers to use
SeeSaw is super easy to use. I simply open SeeSaw, select the class I want to see and scroll through newly submitted work from the entire class. Alternatively, I can also select a student's name from the roster and look at only their work.
I can comment, enter feedback, and approve items within a matter of moments and with no clicking or searching around. Instead of waiting for items to load, I can click play to watch videos and listen to speaking recordings and they load immediately.
In terms of creating classes, there's several ways you can do it. There's a class code, you can send invites, or students can log in with their Google accounts; you get to select the way that's easiest for you. The first time we use Seesaw, I always have my students use their Google accounts to login. type the class code, and they create their first posts that same day.
7. SeeSaw is easy to use and intuitive
I find that after I preview how to use SeeSaw for my students, they just get it. This generation inherently understands how to make the various types of posts with almost no teaching of the app itself.
That being said, I like to use this lesson to get my students acclimated to SeeSaw's framework and I find that 1) my students are able to do all the different types of submissions and 2) I learn about my students and what makes them unique because they are posting "all about me" information.
I've done SeeSaw trainings for teachers who are self-proclaimed "tech un-savvy" and they acclimate really well. I should also mention that SeeSaw is an app primarily used by elementary schools; my kindergartener uses it pretty much on her own in the classroom, so middle and high schoolers will think Seesaw is easy peasy.
8. SeeSaw is free
SeeSaw is free! I used SeeSaw completely free with no complaints for years. That being said, there is a SeeSaw Plus option, which allows for standards-based grading and a few other features, but you don't need to upgrade. Use this link to create a SeeSaw account and they'll give you a free month of SeeSaw Plus to try out.
9. SeeSaw has an optional parent component
SeeSaw has a free, optional parent component that allows parents to easily access their students' work. Parents can download the SeeSaw Families app or use a browser logon and will instantly be connected with only their child's work. Each time their child makes a new submission, parents are notified, which I love because my students are more accountable and because SeeSaw helps me communicate with families and stakeholders. If you're interested in more details, check out this video about the family communication aspect of SeeSaw.
10. SeeSaw is the most powerful WL tool around
No other WL tool can attempt to encompass all of the capacity that SeeSaw has. Other tools can do pieces of what SeeSaw can do, but none of them can do all of the same things in one tool.
For example, Flipgrid is indeed a fun way to do collaborative presentational or interpersonal speaking, but that's where it ends. Google Classroom is a great way for students to share documents and presentational writing, but it can't handle all of the speaking, images, and caption that SeeSaw can do.
I'm a definite EdTech enthusiast, but I like to carefully select which tools I choose to use with my students. Because I don't want to overwhelm my young students with too many different apps, I use only a handful of the most essential tools, but if I only had to choose one, I'd choose SeeSaw every time. To read about my other favorites, click here.
Conclusion
I really hope you feel inspired to get out there and try SeeSaw with your students. One more thing I forgot to share about SeeSaw is that it helped me to become more "Can Do" focused in terms of focusing on what my students could actually do with the language instead of what they know about grammar or vocabulary. My students learned to focus on communication and the communicative structures they needed to complete a task and I found that they are much more comfortable trying to speak instead of constantly being afraid of making mistakes.
If you have questions, comments, ideas, etc. please comment below or email me at spanish.with.sra.shaw@gmail.com. Also, I've been recently doing 1, 3, and 6 hour professional development sessions for teacher groups and I'd love to work with you and your colleagues! If you're interested, please reach out; I love working with teachers to implement technology and SeeSaw is the best way to start.
ClassroomScreen.com is the classroom management tool I'm most excited to implement with my students this fall. I attended an educational technology PD yesterday with the amazing Leslie Fisher and ClassroomScreen was my favorite takeaway. It would take me way too long to write about all it's features, so I'm going to show you instead. Check it out my video tutorial here (and please ignore my terrible hair day):
Let me summarize my favorite implementations of ClassroomScreen.com for the WL classroom:
1. The Volume/Sound Level Monitor
Not that this has ever happened to any of you, but I know I've had moments when I clearly explained that the volume level for students working was supposed to be a level 1 and within moments the class is screaming at a level 4. It's maddening and kids seem completely oblivious to how stinking loud they are!
Enter the ClassroomScreen volume monitor. You set an acceptable volume marker and when gets go above that level, it turns red. Then you don't have to be the bad guy; ClassroomScreen tells the kids they were too loud. Boom. Done.
World Language classrooms aren't supposed to be silent; our students need to talk to learn the language, but that doesn't mean they have to be yelling. Agreed?
2. The Conversation Symbols
If you've read about my intense love for the CHAMPS classroom management system or use my CHAMPS expectations poster, you'll know why I LOVE the conversation symbols on ClassroomScreen.com. You can select silence, whisper, ask a neighbor, or work together. Sure, you'll need to talk to students about what volumes go with each of these behaviors, but it will be easy to redirect students by point to the symbol on the board as a reminder.
3. A Recurring Timer
This doesn't seem like a big deal, but a recurring timer is HUGE news for my classroom. My students do speed-dating interpersonal speaking practice often (I need to write a blog post on this, but think a bunch of students talking in an organized fashion and rotating to the next person when the timer goes off). With speed-dating the recurring timer will be ideal.
I've always just used a maraca every minute or two to let students know they need to rotate, but it's annoying and I sometimes forget. With the ClassroomScreen recurring timer, I'll be able to set the length of the timer, the number of times I want the timer to start over, and that's it.
4. You'll Wow Administrators During Evaluations
This goes without saying. ClassroomScreen.com is classroom management dream come true. It makes your expectations clear. If you aren't already, you'll look like a management rockstar and that section on your evaluation will be amazing. We all know teachers don't do things just for good evaluations, but it can't hurt right?
5. You Can Set the Target Language
This is kind of self-explanatory, but I love that I can set the language for ClassroomScreen. There's even an option for Castilian and Latin American Spanish. What language teacher doesn't love that? Plus, the language has a cute little flag that stays on the screen. Adorable.
I'd really love your feedback on how you'd implement ClassroomScreen with your students! Please comment below and share how you'd use it because I know there are a ton more uses I haven't considered.
Want to know what unit I used to hate teaching the most? Greetings and introductions. It just seemed so boring and repetitive and I swore if I heard one more kid say, "Cómo te llamas" and pronounce the word like the animal, I was simply going to lose it and do this:
I hated teaching the introductory conversation until the day I realized that it was probably the most important unit I was going to teach my students. They were likely going to need to use basics of the introductory conversation more times than anything else I ever teach them. I changed my attitude about the unit unit and completely redid the first few weeks of Spanish I, culminating in an IPA assessment that my students actually enjoy taking? Enjoy taking a test? It's possible. Here's how...
Here's what I realized:
1. I had to find a way to get students excited about a seemingly boring topic.
First, I implemented "fake it til you make it." I'd never been the least bit excited about teaching the introductory conversation and so, not surprisingly, my students weren't either. It didn't help that they'd heard, "Hola, ¿Cómo estás? Mucho gusto" hundreds of times on Dora the Explorer or in elementary Spanish. I convinced them that 1) just because they have heard it or been introduced to it didn't mean they knew how to have the conversation and 2) it would probably be one of the most valuable conversations they'll ever need to learn.
2. Students need to start off the year feeling successful.
My favorite thing about IPAs is that they are straightforward and assess what students can do, not what they know. I find that my advanced students feel challenged, but that IPAs also scaffold for students who might typically struggle on assessments. After taking this first IPA in my class, students feel proud of themselves for what they've accomplished. Some kids will ask, "Is that it? That was the test?" Yup, that's it. There's no tricks, it's not a game. In my class you'll have to speak, write, and understand Spanish and you just proved you could.
3. Students needed to listen to people actually having the introductory conversation.
I think part of the issue was that students didn't see the value in learning greetings and introductions. It didn't seem like something people actually did in real life. I found a bunch of authentic videos of people greeting and introducing themselves to one another in a really fun context and my kids LOVED watching them. They had the opportunity to hear how heritage speakers use the vocabulary I was teaching and it hooked them. You'll find a bunch of practice interpretive listening activities that prep students for the experiences they'll have on the IPA here.
4. Skits weren't going to cut it.
Skits are lovely and students enjoy doing them, but skits themselves aren't sufficient to prepare students for the demands of on-the-spot, spontaneous interpersonal speaking experiences with people they've never meet. Instead, I've found students really love doing speed-dating speaking activities in which they rotate and talk with many classmates in a short period of time. Read more here about speed-dating and other ways to prep students for interpersonal speaking.
5. IPAs give students multiple ways to demonstrate mastery.
Some students love speaking Spanish, but the majority don't, especially not at first. Some students excel at reading, while others are beautiful writers. My most struggling students are usually not amazing readers or interpreters, but they often do quite well with interpersonal speaking because they are good communicators. What I like about IPAs is that there is usually something for everyone. Educators today are expected to provide multiple ways to demonstrate understanding and with IPAs, students have to opportunity to show what they know and can do in several modes of communication.
If you've been thinking about using IPAs or you're looking for the perfect introductory unit assessment, this is it. You're students will finish the IPA feeling confident, motivated, and like there is a real-world application for what they've just learn. Check out this IPA here.
If you'll like to read more about IPAs, check out my blog series here, which explains them start to finish.
Today is August 1, which was a little bit of an unwelcome arrival because I feel like I'm just one month away from fall. On the other hand, August brings all of the back to school excitement that I love. While I know many of you are busy getting your classrooms ready for
school this week or later this month, school in Michigan doesn't start
until after labor day, which means I still have just enough time to start planning how I'm going to decorate my classroom this year.
I'm kind of obsessed with classroom organization and decor and I love revamping and changing things every year. Here's what my classroom looked like last year and a few photos of my favorite decor features.
Seating Arrangement:
After playing around with seating arrangements for about a decade, I now have have my desks arranged in groups of four and I love it for the purposes of interpersonal speaking. I can quickly pair kids by side partner or across partner so that they don't get bored of working with the same person.
Bulletin Boards:
Most of my classroom decor revolves around the six bulletin boards I have the pleasure of covering each year. Finding decor was daunting my first year, to say the least, but now I have it down to a rotation that I change out every 3 or so years to keep it interesting for the kids since I teach many of my students for all of middle school.
I designed these last summer as a way to get my kids using different educational technology tools in their Real World homework choice assignments. They look whimsical and I had good feedback from kids that they liked using a lot of the apps.
I found a pin last summer about Spanish text lingo and decided that it would make such a fun and engaging bulletin board for my students. Plus, it doubles as a fast-finisher activity for my more advanced kiddos because they can try to figure out the meaning of the texts.
At my last district, I attended a training about CHAMPS, which is a classroom management approach that I love. It seriously changed the way I approached explaining expectations for activities to my students.
I love this word rejoinders bulletin board from Amy Lenord. Since the highest level I teach is Spanish I for 8th grade, I think I'd like to to rework the categories and the terms used, but I think her idea is genius. Even though I referenced it throughout the year, I found almost none of my kids used it, so I'm thinking the terms are a bit advanced. I'd like to add categories for common classroom commands and courtesy phrases.
Inspired by all of the Path to Proficiency posts from last summer, I made this bulletin board last summer and I found myself actually referencing it in lessons so students could see my expectations and the language progression I was looking for. My Spanish I kiddos, in particular, found it motivating to see themselves improving.
I have used the interrogative (question) words printables from the Creative Language Class for the last several years, but I'm so excited that they've put out an updated version! Hurray for cute posters!
So, while I won't be able to be in my classroom for a few weeks because my building isn't yet opened to us, I hope that these ideas will be motivating to those of you headed back sooner than I. ¡Hasta pronto!
From what I've seen, the presentational task is the most easily
understood of the three IPA assessments. I think this is because as
teachers, we inherently have our language students write and
occasionally present. Since most people already have a pretty good idea
of what the presentational mode is, my goal for today's post is to share
some hopefully new, or at least motivating ideas of some different ways
to approach this task.
But first, a few things about the presentational task. This assessment can be either written or spoken or combined to have both, which is my personal favorite. Presentational speaking can be done in person or digitally performed. This is one area where I think almost anything goes. I always aim to create a real-world reason for doing the task in the first place and to use a clear rubric with detailed descriptors.
After a few years of toying with different rubrics, I've finally adapted two by blending and adjusting one of Laura Terrill's presentational rubric and a Ohio Department of Education novice-mid rubric. While it takes a while to get comfortable using a rubric and it typically requires some tweaks for future assessments, here are the grading categories and goal descriptors for the rubrics I'm currently using for Spanish I.
Here are a few examples of various longer summative presentational assessments I've given as part of IPAs. I tend to do presentational projects every other unit and incorporate a different ed tech tool each time. I always provide pre-writing graphic organizers for these as they tend to help students feel less overwhelmed and more clear about the task at hand.
Below is an example of a student's family project:
Here is an example of a project dealing with likes and basic personal descriptions:
Finally, here's another example of a student presentation for a gustar unit reviewing personal descriptions:
For shorter writing assessments as part of my IPAs, the prompts tend to look more like the one below.
I think it's important to try to mix up presentationals as much as possible and to use them to give students voice. While kids will gradually learn to have fun with interpersonal speaking assessments, it's the presentational assessments, especially the projects, that kids will remember about our classes. I still remember the projects I did for my own high school Spanish classes. So be creative, let the kids have play with the language, and express themselves as much as possible.
Anytime I hear the concept of the interpersonal task introduced to a teacher who is unfamiliar or at least has not tried it in the classroom, there is a ton of resistance. I totally get it! I was the same way when I first learned about interpersonal speaking assessments.
Here are just a few of the concerns I've heard teachers discuss (with some help from my amigas on the Spanish Teachers in the US Facebook page) and then I'm going to address the primary concerns in a moment.
Concern #1: It takes way too much time to assess speaking.
This is probably the most common concern that teachers have about the interpersonal task. For most of my teaching career, I agreed though I forced myself to do interpersonal speaking assessments, but hated it. I use to find listening to students speak be one of the most time-consuming, mind-numbing activities I ever had to do as a teacher. Thankfully, that has changed and I now thoroughly enjoy them. More about that later along with tips to get through 30 students' speaking tasks in one just one class period. It can be done. I promise.
Concern #2: What do you do with the rest of the kids while I'm testing students?
Typically, I focus my complete attention only on the students speaking while the other 28 run around like wild animals. Kidding! I usually have students take the interpretive reading and/or presentational writing portions while I listen to students speak and grade them. I honestly works perfectly. Sometimes students work on projects (usually an extended presentational task) or learn their new unit vocabulary online while I grade. Once you set the expectations for how students should behave during the interpersonal and reinforce them, it really goes very smoothly. I think you just need to have an individual task that can be done silently and independently and you won't have any issues.
Concern #3: My kids aren't yet able to have those kinds of conversations.
I'm a believer that even my 6th graders can perform an interpersonal task if the expectations are appropriate. However, if your students haven't practicing interpersonal conversations or teacher-based question and answer activities beforehand, they probably won't be able to have a thorough conversation. I found that when I went with my current model for interpersonal tasks, I really had to change my teaching practices to include more daily conversation. If this is your primary concern, I'd love it if you could read yesterday's blog post for a bunch of tips and tricks to preparing students for the interpersonal speaking task.
So, what does my model for interpersonal speaking assessments look like? In the past, I would call a student up to my desk and the two of us would have a conversation. I've heard of some teachers doing them in the hall, which sounds a little scary for a classroom management fanatic like myself. My old way took forever and I apparently didn't clearly explain what the rest of the students were supposed to do because, in short, it was a chaotic nightmare.
I'm happy to say that all of that chaos is in the past. Last year, I attended a session on Proficiency with ACTFL presenter Laura Terrill. If you've been reading all of the previous blog entries about IPAs, you know how I feel about her ideas. She seriously changed my teaching and finally made the IPA interpersonal make sense. Based partially on her teaching and ideas I picked up previously, this is what I know do for my interpersonal tasks. See more detailed explanations further below.
1. I re-explain the scenario and the grading rubric to students before the task. This results in fewer questions and confusion and makes the process go faster, plus it's always good to remind students of how you're assessing them on the day of.
2. I carefully plan and clearly explain what students are working on while I'm assessing, but most often students work on the interpretive reading and presentational writing tasks. Believe it or not, I can typically do the interpretive, interpersonal, and presentation tasks all in a 50 minute period for over 30 students. It can be done! Plus, I usually still do a warm-up. You could really do any individual task, but I find that the other IPA tasks work perfectly because it keeps them silent so I can focus on the assessment at hand. Some would say, however, that not all 3 tasks should be done on the same day. I'll stick with what works for me and my students.
3. I randomly pair up two students and I've never had students questions this practice. I set the precedent at the beginning of the year that my partner selection isn't a discussion or a debate. If I know the kids I randomly pick aren't a good pair, I usually just make a quick change and the students are none the wiser. As to the practice of pairing two students versus me having a conversation with a student, Laura Terrill claims that a teacher and student aren't a good interpersonal pair because the teacher inevitably will bail the student out while their peers won't. I've found I agree, but the best part about pairing two students is that I can kill two birds with one stone and I grade half as many conversations. Yay efficiency!
4. At Laura Terrill's suggestion, I give each pair 2 minutes to prepare. At first, I completely disagreed with this concept because I argued that it makes the situation not spontaneous. However, I decided to try it out and I love the effect that 2 minutes has upon my sanity. Besides, I've found that 2 minutes isn't enough for students to memorize anything, but just enough to work out the kinks and get the interpersonal moving much more quickly and efficiently. While one pair is performing, another pair is on deck so things move smoothly.
5. I grade using a rubric while each pair presents and provide feedback to each student on the spot. I've spent a lot of time revising and rethinking the grading rubrics I use to ensure I have the criteria I'm looking for and I'm really happy with this one. For the moment at least.
In the next post, I'll be discussing the presentational task and, while it is the area of IPAs that most teachers are most comfortably with, I think it helps to see some different examples. Also, if you're interested in checking out some of my IPA units by thematic unit, please visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store:
