1. HKIS workshop
Foreign Language Proficiency:
Performance Assessment &
Instructional Practice
proficiency based curriculum planning
&
assessments
Oct 1-2 2011
For ISM ML dept
A. Vargas/N. Mes

2. What is Proficiency?
= “what can they do with the language?”
S can speak the
language fluently, • Can you?
S can read and • So what?
write • Now what?
– not enough!

3. Proficiency-based Curriculum Planning
= CONTEXT! NOT Immersion
– Negotiation of meaning
– Even for beginners – provide the zone of
proximity, it doesn’t matter if students don’t
understand, keep feeding the information

4. Thematic focus for teaching should be
(by Helena Curtain)
• Communicatively purposeful
• Cognitively engaging
• Intrinsically interesting – tap
students own interests
• Culturally connected – even candy
wrappers can be the source of
cultural thoughts

5. Planning Learning Objectives

6. 3 modes of communication
Interpersonal Interpretive Presentational

7. All Three = Performance Task

8. Learning Objectives
= What can students do with what they learned?
= language FUNCTIONS

9. Powerful verbs for
language functions
demonstrate tell ask & answer identify
Talk about retell express compare
respond suggest criticize relate
interpret create relate summarize
Come to agree decide negotiate infer

10. Let’s see if these objectives are good.
(keep it simple –context will help students)
• Tell time
• OK
• Learn 10 new words
• X – no purpose
• Talk about likes and dislikes
• X – no goal
• Understand the meaning of the text
• X – how do they demonstrate this?
• Plan a menu
• X - too narrow
• Know the differences between A and B
• X – change to “Compare”

11. Functions for Unit for Clothing
• Level 1
• Ask the price/express their preference
• Level 2
• Compare/describe/state likes&dislikes/tell
• Level 3
• Suggest what to wear/give reasons for likes
• Level 4
• Suggest reasons for what to wear for
occasions/discuss/sell an
idea/persuade/criticize/compare/debate

12. Assessing Performance Toward Proficiency

13. Assessing performance toward
proficiency
Proficiency does not mean perfection
Instruction and assessment at each level should target:
Conceptual
control
Partial control
Full control

15. What forms my global identity?

16. • Interpretive
– Watch video of last year’s exchange students
• Presentational
– Design a poster that identifies what creates
your global identity (family, reading, media,
interests, travel, language learning, etc.).
– Explain the poster you designed to the class.
• Interpersonal
– Try to come to consensus what key elements
are

17. Respecting the environment

18. • Interpretive
–Read a website about actions
students abroad take to respect the
environment
• Interpersonal
–Spontaneous conversations
comparing what local students do to
what they found out from the website
• Presentational
–Create an infomercial

19. Assessments should have
a goal and purpose = GRASP!
Move from: To:
Decide if it’s logical to infer
Answer that…and provide evidence
questions from the reading to support
after reading why and why not.
Move from: To:
Share class Find out who has the busiest
schedules day.

20. standards-based assessments
• Provide how the best performance looks like.
• It’s important to TEACH students this, not just
assume they would know

21. Assessing Presentational mode
•Did everyone hear it? Was it clear? Eye
contact? Not reading?
•Was the content (what does this mean)? –
supported by evidence of various aspects, main
topic is clear
•Was information accurate, relevant and
organized?
•Was the language clear and appropriate to the
task and the context? Did it interfere with the
communication?

22. Rubrics
• Rubric should be Rubric is for feedback
assignment specific  Will my students know
how good is good
enough?
 How can my assessment
task pull out the desired
performance?
 Is my feedback focused
on what really counts to
help students increase
their proficiency?

23. Differentiated Rubric (proficiency level)
• ‘Differentiated instruction and products will require
differentiated rubric’. – As a precondition, it needs
Benchmarks for each proficiency level.
• Benchmarks are not just word list, but functions and
purposes.
• You can’t necessary communicate even when you
memorize all the vocabulary.
Benchmark
3
Benchmark Functions/
2
purposes
Functions/
Benchmark 1 purposes
Functions/
purposes

24. Resources from the workshop for your
further Professional Developments

25. Teaching Foreign Language K-12: A Library of Classroom Practices:
http://www.learner.org/resources/series185.html
This video library and professional development guide bring to life the Standards for
Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century. Illustrates effective instruction and
assessment strategies in K-12classrooms around the country. 27 teachers and their
students; eight languages; full range of competency levels. (#30 was recommended by
Mr. Sandrock)

26. World Language Assessment: Get in the Mode!
http://www.ecb.org/worldlanguageassessment/
Seven video segments (15 minutes each) take teachers into K-12 classrooms to
explore issues and examples of assessing world languages. Focuses on three modes of
communication, includes web resources, provides a framework of formative and
summative assessments for use at any grade level.

27. Image sources:
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/graphicreality/818287997/sizes/z/in/photostream/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/familymwr/5115357756/sizes/l/in/photostream/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharynmorrow/9676184/sizes/z/in/photostream/
• http://globalengage.ibo.org/eng/post/international-global-citizens-award
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/22177648@N06/2137734862/
• http://www.transportgooru.com/2010/03/webinar-alert-experience-from-others-
how-to-successfully-apply-the-its-knowledge-resources-for-decision-making/