Unforgettable trip presentational writing
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I adapted the rubric from the Musicuentos website. I found this to be appropriate for the task. Traditionally teachers have demanded students' grammar and spelling be 100 percent accurate. Now, best practice research shows that the MESSAGE is what ought to be valued more.
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Between the two Spanish 2 classes, there were 3 students who did not submit the assignment. One student had a multitude of words that were obviously looked up. She and I met, and she completed the assignment in my presence. Of the remaining 48 students, the only place I made deductions were for depth of the message (Did the writer use simple statements or more in-depth descriptions?) OR for interaction (Did the writer's errors interfere with the reader's level of understanding?). This holistic approach of evaluation helps to lower students' affective filters and, thus, fosters a more positive, motivating learning experience.
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I tried some new things in this unit. Breaking down the past tense into singular vs. plural was helpful and less stressful to students. I wish that I would have more TIME to provide input before students would be responsible for producing in the past tense. It was interesting to note that the students seemed to have a greater degree of accuracy with past tense when they produced a story as opposed to changing single words. This strongly suggests that Comprehensible Input breeds Comprehensible Output.
As we look to revising curriculum in the future, we need to ask if the types of tasks and amount of material in this unit (and others) are appropriate for level 2 students at a Novice High proficiency level. We MUST look to best practice research in teaching and assessment as we move forward. Having different expectations for grammar production at various proficiency levels is a complete paradigm shift for many teachers. Getting those teachers to understand and to "buy in" are difficult, but necessary conversations to have. Less is more! |