Assessment in the Language Classroom

There are many topics within a language class that need repetition in order to achieve mastery. This repetition is and should be a part of the learning process. However, often it is logistically difficult to give a student instantaneous feedback in order for them to adjust as they learn rather than practicing independently via homework or in a group setting in class, both of which often lead to natural missteps and a necessary unlearning and relearning later, hopefully in time for a test!

My grant project aims to improve upon this situation by increasing instances of immediate and useful feedback. The website ProProfs allows a teacher to make “assessments” for both “practice mode” and “exam mode”. In “practice mode” there are many settings that allow for question-specific feedback, and the chance for a student to try again. In both modes, the website keeps track of many valuable statistics both as class averages and per student, per question and for the whole “assessment”. For example, it provides information such as the time taken to complete a question or an “assessment” and the questions answered correctly and incorrectly; it provides the answer itself so that a teacher can also see how a student went awry. It also gives the student immediate feedback: their grade, which questions were answered incorrectly, and the correct answers for those questions.

If a teacher chooses the appropriate setting, the student has the chance to try the “assessment” again. The teacher also has additional capabilities such as giving certain “assessments” a password, or setting an expiration time, or allowing only a certain amount of time for an “assessment”. In addition to providing valuable and instantaneous feedback to a student that is class specific because it is all written by the teacher, this tool also ultimately gives the teacher more time to prepare other class materials.

Since the website auto-corrects, a teacher can spend less time grading and more time preparing other materials or helping students one-on-one. This website also has the ability to incorporate media, such as audio and video, thus giving more potential for broadening types of practice and test questions.

Lourdes Fernandez , MS World Languages Chair

US Spanish Class at Podcasting Studio

Podcasts have gained considerable popularity these days. As an instructional medium they are effective for language teaching because podcasts bring words into focus--how they are spoken and expressed. 

Professora Gabriela Gonzenbach has done impressive podcasts with her Spanish students for the past few years. The photo below shows a few of her Spanish students recording a podcast at the Podcast Garage, a community recording studio, an amazing facility in Cambridge. 

This project is a great example of instructional practice that builds on traditional technologies (theatre and radio) while incorporating digital technologies and connecting a classroom lesson with community resources.

Upper School Spanish telenovelas

Students in Maggie’s Spanish II Honors class were recently tasked with writing, acting, and filming a telenovela. Their goal was to utilize the subjunctive along with vocabulary related to hospitals, body parts, and diseases. In general, students used either the World Languages iPads or their own devices to film the movie then edited the movies with iMovie, and will upload them to the class’ Haiku page. Students seemed to really enjoy the creative aspect of the project and were able to show off their newly acquired vocabulary. The image below is a picture of one group of freshmen acting out their scene in the Drama Room.

-Katrina Fuller

Technology Integration in Upper School Spanish: Book Creator App in iPads and Skype

Several exciting activities have been happening in Rosario’s classes! Spanish III students recently created a story using the iPad app Book Creator. Stories were based on a crime scene set up in the classroom and required students to include a narration of the events using past tenses and utilize a video of a witness interrogation. You can check out their work here: Crime scene book

Meanwhile, students in AP Spanish have been Skyping with students at a school near Barcelona and discussing the Catalan independence movement happening right now. An example of their conversation can be found here: AP Spanish Skype

Students in Spanish 5 Honors have also been Skyping, but this time with two alumni who are currently in Spain studying on a semester abroad. The entire class period was spent discussing (in Spanish, of course) life it Spain and what it’s like to be a student there.

-Katrina Fuller

Video Tutorials in the Upper School Spanish Classroom

To follow-up on Katrina's articles regarding sceencasting in the classroom on Nov 13th and 23rd, below is an update with a little more information from Rosario.

I use tutorial videos in my classes in order to maximize Spanish language use by my students during class time so they don’t have to be quiet listening to me in class but rather busy talking, collaborating, asking questions. This way class time is centered on the students and I can give instructions on the expectations for a Project, on what to do if I am going to be absent in class, on a grammar review or on how to prepare for the Final exam through a video tutorial that is more engaging. Students are still going to hear me say it in Spanish but they will listen to me at their own pace, as many times as they need to and will have to take responsibility figuring out what is expected of them. Having a class website makes it really easy to post everything for everyone.

Here are samples of all different technologies I’m using to make them: 
Camtasia (Tareas del Proyecto)
Powtoon (Gramática y Vocabulario básico)
Screencast-o-matic (Como preparar para el examen final)
Videoscribe (Práctica de audio)
and Explain Everything (Tarea para el bloque C). 

-Rosario 

Green Screens at the Upper School

This is a very exciting and busy week at the Upper School with students wrapping up final projects and preparing for exams.  I just spent this last A block in two classrooms, one Spanish and one French, working with students making movies using green screens.  Students in Spanish with Gaby Gonzenbach and Caroline Meliones are using the World Languages department iPads to make movie trailers using the Green Screen by Do Ink app, while students in Brigitte Tournier's French class used the classroom flipcam to film scenes in front of a green screen.  The footage was then imported into iMovie and combined with a photograph of a beautiful hotel lobby to create a stunning scene.  What fun projects!

Launch Grant 2012-2013: LS French and Spanish Web 2.0 Tools

            This year, the Lower School Spanish and French classes (4-6) experimented with several different Web 2.0 tools. We were looking for inexpensive software that was creative, easy to use, and engaged students vocabulary and grammar skills both written and spoken.  Web 2.0 tools seemed to be the way to go specifically because most websites were free or less than $40.00. Many of the tools offered education specific webpages that provided classroom lists and rubric creators as well as the ability to make the content private to the classroom only with options of sharing it to the public. The following is a brief introduction to each web 2.0 tool, the link to each website, and examples from both French and Spanish classes. In addition, we added QR codes to our multimedia projects. To view them, use any smart device with a QR code scanner (most apps. are free to download) to see and/or hear the projects displayed.

A)  Sound Cloud

B)  QR Code Creator

C)  Animoto

D)  Pixton

E)  Glogster

A) SOUND CLOUD:   https://soundcloud.com

            Sound cloud is a "social sound platform" that lets anyone share sounds publically or privately on any smart device and computers.  Students in the Spanish classes used Sound Cloud to record paragraphs describing themselves using adjectives. Later we turned their audio into QR codes. Students were able to use ipads to individually record and upload their audio simultaneously.  

Pros:                                                                                             Cons:

Easy to use                                                                                    Registration

Good sound quality                                                                      Another password and user name

Free                                                                                                  

Ability to make sounds private

Website for QR codes

Sign in to multiple devices on one account

Easy to share

B) QRCODE:  http://www.qrstuff.com/

     With QR stuff.com, QR codes were created for Spanish student's Animoto and sound cloud activities. Students could scan their smart devices and watch their web 2.0 tool projects come to life. The QR codes could be created with different colors, printed and emailed. The QR codes were a fun way to display students work and keep an element of surprise when presenting projects. Students liked the idea of creating scavenger hunts using QR codes in our future language classes.

Pros:                                                                        Cons:

Easy to use                                                               Takes time to add each webpage

Easy to print

Free

No registration

C) ANIMOTO:  http://animoto.com/                                           

            In the French and Spanish classes we experimented with Animoto. Animoto is a creative website to make quick and easy videos. Students created video flashcards to practice new vocabulary and verbs. We liked the user friendliness of being able to log on to one account on several computers or iPads to create videos, and students were able to create Animotos in one class period. There were limitations  Students were engaged and expressed their enjoyment with the project. The videos were fun to watch and they asked to use Animoto again for additional projects.

 Pros                                                                         Cons:                                            

Easy to use                                                               Computer and iPad Animoto different

Many users on one account                                      Another registration

QR code friendly                                                      Pay for upgrade

Easy to share with others                                          Difficult to find songs without English

Ability to make private and public                            Photo bank limited

Free

Good online tutorials

D) Pixton: http://www.pixton.com/

            Students in French and Spanish explored Pixton. Pixton is a website that creates fun and easy comics for a small fee. What we liked about Pixton was it allowed us to create class lists, rubrics and projects for students. We could track each student on a private school account as well as grade and comment on each of their projects. Students made comics using new vocabulary and grammar for basic conversations. When students first used Pixton, it took a class period to familiarize themselves with the program and several class periods to complete. For the first project we let them explore, but quickly realized that they were distracted making their avatars rather than focusing on the assignment. The second time around, we found more productive to create the comic and have them fill in the conversations. Students enjoyed Pixton and expressed that they didn't want to stop using it.

Pros:                                                                                 Cons:

inexpensive                                                                        Not free

QR code friendly                                                               Accent marks difficult to use

Can make private                                                               Takes some time to set up

Class list creator                                                                 Another registration/password

track student homework/work                                    

Rubric creator

grade

comment on student work

students can comment on students work

Make private

Access to all accounts

Can create accounts for students on one main account

Access to edit

Easy to share

Easy to use

Easy to contact support via email or phone

Great online tutorials

E) Glogster: http://www.glogster.com/

Spanish and French students explored Glogster to create virtual posters for their MFA Projects, and in French, to create personal narratives to describe themselves. Students in both classes created Glogs to write and to illustrate information about their French or Spanish artists for their MFA Action projects (collabration between Art, Culture and Technology for MFA Day.) We liked that students were able to make posters without the mess, it was easy to use, and students could add illustrations, videos and music to support their research in one place. It was not easy to add accent marks and students demonstrated frustration. The only way we could add them was to use one specific font in a word document then copy and past the accents to the Glog.  Students expressed that they liked sing glogs and wanted to use them again.

Pros:                                                                                Cons:

inexpensive                                                                      Not free

QR code friendly                                                             Accent marks difficult to use

Can make private                                                             Takes some time to set up

Class list creator                                                               Another registration/password

track student homework/work

Make private

Access to all accounts

Can create accounts for students on one main account

Access to edit

Easy to share

Easy to use

Good online tutorials

            Overall, we found these web 2.0 tools to be a fun way to present old material and make it new and fresh. Each tool was easy to use with plenty of tutorials to help along the way. Becoming familiar with the programs varied in time. We were often frustrated about registration and remembering different username and passwords. In addition, we had to actively make content private for websites we did not purchase and made specifically for the classroom. We enjoyed discovering new tools and watching students engaged in displaying their different language skills.

-Cristina Carrion Murphy and Soizick Munir

Launch Grant 2012-2013: Interactive Online Program for Elementary Spanish

For the launch grant, I worked with Sparkito, an interactive program for exploring languages. While the program worked fine when I used it in the classroom, I also wanted to use the other feature of the program, which is to allow students who need support to work with the program at home. It ended up being a frustration for many students since the program had too much vocabulary, which was presented at too challenging a pace. The songs also had too much vocabulary that sometimes made it hard for students to understand. The program was mostly used in first grade, but I gave home access to students from different grades. The illustrations in the program were too juvenile for students in second grade and up, which was also a limitation.

I do have to say that I was frustrated myself with the program and happy that I had time to explore it before purchasing a big license for the school.

During the process, in one of our school meetings, Mrs. Lavenberg did a presentation using an app called “Explain Everything.” I got very excited about it, and with the remaining money available from the grant I purchased USB drives. I am currently creating material that children can take home to practice the content we explored in class, and I will also use it in the 2013-14 school year.

-Carolina Gomez-Kramer