Episode 28: "Input-Based Assessment That Doesn’t Make You Want to Cry"
Input-based assessment for CI teachers — in this episode of Comprehend THIS!, we dig into why traditional grading systems clash with comprehension-based instruction and what to do about it.
If your assessment routine is eating your weekends and still not telling you what your students actually know, this conversation will give you a clearer path forward.
Pamela Parks spent years as a professional translator for film and TV before landing in the world language classroom — which turns out to be excellent preparation for spotting when the wrong tools are being applied to complex human communication. Lynne Hendrick brings 22 years of public school German teaching to the table, plus a track record of making CI work in contexts most teachers don't even try — including special education. Together, these two have a lot of practical things to say about assessment that actually serves acquisition instead of just documenting it.
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Hosts:
- Scott Benedict - https://www.instagram.com/immediateimmersion
- Pamela Parks - https://imim.us/pamela
- Lynne Hendricks - https://www.instagram.com/@LMHgirls
Resources & Links:
- CI Survival Kit: https://imim.us/kit
- Assessment Academy - https://imim.us/academy
- Señora Chase - https://senorachase.com
- JJ Morgan - https://senorajotajota.com
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Transcript
Hello everybody and
Speaker:welcome to episode number 28.
Speaker:How's everybody doing this morning?
Speaker:You ever get to the end of a grading
Speaker:session and realize you have
Speaker:no idea what you're actually
Speaker:measuring anymore?
Speaker:You're circling things, you're writing
Speaker:comments, you're
Speaker:calculating percentages, and somewhere
Speaker:in the back of your mind, you know none
Speaker:of it is really about
Speaker:whether your students can
Speaker:understand the language.
Speaker:It's just assessment shaped paperwork
Speaker:that your school expects to exist.
Speaker:That's not a you problem, that's a
Speaker:systems problem, and it's
Speaker:exactly what we're getting
Speaker:into in this episode of Comprehend This.
Speaker:Pamela Parks has spent years as a
Speaker:professional translator for
Speaker:film and TV, which means she's
Speaker:had a front row seat to what happens when
Speaker:the wrong tools get
Speaker:applied to complex human
Speaker:communication.
Speaker:Now she's in a world language classroom
Speaker:and she has opinions
Speaker:about assessment, the good
Speaker:kind.
Speaker:And joining her is Lynn Hendrick, a
Speaker:German teacher out of
Speaker:Southeast Virginia with over
Speaker:22 years in public school classrooms,
Speaker:someone who's been making
Speaker:space for CI not just in
Speaker:her own room, but in
Speaker:special education too.
Speaker:If you ever tried that, you know it takes
Speaker:a particular kind of
Speaker:patience and determination.
Speaker:Together we're talking about input based
Speaker:assessment and what
Speaker:actually reflects what
Speaker:CI students can do.
Speaker:Fast, fair, and not
Speaker:something that ruins your Sunday.
Speaker:This is input assessment that doesn't
Speaker:make you want to cry.
Speaker:The title pretty much covers it.
Speaker:We'll be right back
Speaker:after these short messages.
Speaker:Pop quiz.
Speaker:Are your assessments aligned with what
Speaker:you're actually teaching?
Speaker:No?
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:Let's fix that.
Speaker:The Assessment Academy is 10 pre-recorded
Speaker:lessons that help you ditch the scantrons
Speaker:and actually assess what matters, like
Speaker:proficiency, performance,
Speaker:and whether your students are
Speaker:still breathing by Friday.
Speaker:Watch on your time as many times as you
Speaker:want for a whole year and
Speaker:know there's not a single
Speaker:lesson about bubble sheets
Speaker:or grading 72 essays at 11 PM.
Speaker:You're welcome.
Speaker:Head over to mm.us slash academy and
Speaker:start assessing like
Speaker:you actually mean it.
Speaker:Welcome to Comprehend This, Real Talk for
Speaker:Real Language Teachers.
Speaker:No drills, no dry theory, just honest
Speaker:stories, practical ideas,
Speaker:and a reminder you're not
Speaker:alone in the CI trenches.
Speaker:Let's dive in.
Speaker:Good morning and welcome this morning.
Speaker:Welcome back, Pamela.
Speaker:And welcome back, Lynn.
Speaker:It's been a while, but you've been on
Speaker:before as well, so we're
Speaker:glad to have both of you
Speaker:this morning.
Speaker:How are we doing today?
Speaker:Doing great.
Speaker:Lynn, I'm trying to remember what
Speaker:conference I met you at.
Speaker:Was it practical and comprehensible?
Speaker:Might have been, yeah.
Speaker:You were amazing.
Speaker:Yeah, been a good time.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm doing well this morning too.
Speaker:So yes, we've got Lynn who represents
Speaker:German with us today.
Speaker:It's always great to get somebody from a
Speaker:different perspective than Spanish.
Speaker:And Pamela, as we know, does the French,
Speaker:the Spanish, and the Japanese.
Speaker:So we've got lots of
Speaker:different experience here.
Speaker:Many of us have been in the
Speaker:teaching world for decades.
Speaker:Scary to say at this point, but yes.
Speaker:I know, I'm so old.
Speaker:I don't have the gray hair yet, but I
Speaker:don't have much hair left at all.
Speaker:And my kids don't forget one of the
Speaker:quickest words we learned two
Speaker:weeks ago, we had descriptions
Speaker:in level one, "kallibol," "bald."
Speaker:We're practicing the words, we're playing
Speaker:a game, and I'm like,
Speaker:"What's the word for
Speaker:bald?"
Speaker:"Kallibol."
Speaker:Wait, there was no hesitation there.
Speaker:No thinking time.
Speaker:They're like, "No, we know that one."
Speaker:My kids, and they love
Speaker:to let me know it too.
Speaker:They're like, when I make things, they
Speaker:go, "Oh, you need a haircut."
Speaker:He goes, "Well, do you remember the days
Speaker:when you had haircuts?"
Speaker:I'm like, "Oh, thanks."
Speaker:Dad, are you still at middle school?
Speaker:No, I moved up to high
Speaker:school two years ago.
Speaker:I went back.
Speaker:He moved, okay.
Speaker:Well, when my husband and I were helping
Speaker:out with middle school
Speaker:at our church, one of the
Speaker:boys looked at my husband and said, "You
Speaker:don't have a forehead.
Speaker:You've got a six head."
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:He spelled up his hands.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In middle school, they started that, and
Speaker:I didn't understand what they said.
Speaker:"You have a five head and a six head."
Speaker:I'm like, "Oh, what?"
Speaker:I didn't get it, right?
Speaker:I didn't get it because four is not
Speaker:spelled the same as the
Speaker:number four, so my mind did
Speaker:not go there.
Speaker:But then it took me maybe about six
Speaker:months for I found ...
Speaker:Oh, now I know what you're
Speaker:talking about.
Speaker:Oh, come on.
Speaker:Many linguists love puns.
Speaker:I didn't ... That is one I didn't get.
Speaker:That is one I did not
Speaker:get for the longest time.
Speaker:I didn't get four or five, and so my
Speaker:always default is ...
Speaker:See at six, seven?
Speaker:Oh, God.
Speaker:Don't start with that one.
Speaker:What's my default like?
Speaker:The Urban Dictionary is my friend.
Speaker:It's blocked at school, but I go on my
Speaker:phone and I'll look up
Speaker:things because I'm like,
Speaker:"I don't know what they just said."
Speaker:Or they'll give me a name of something,
Speaker:like they would name
Speaker:something, and I'm like, "Is
Speaker:that an appropriate name or is that not
Speaker:an appropriate name
Speaker:because I don't know?"
Speaker:Because I remember they go, "Sigma."
Speaker:They want to name everything sigma.
Speaker:Sigma, that would ... Yeah.
Speaker:I didn't know what that meant.
Speaker:I'm like, "Is that a bad thing?"
Speaker:I can't ... Sometimes I pull a kid I
Speaker:could trust off to the side.
Speaker:What's that mean?
Speaker:Is that a bad word?
Speaker:They'll tell me, but
Speaker:sometimes they won't tell you.
Speaker:Urban Dictionary is your friend,
Speaker:urbandictionary.com.
Speaker:There are things that are interesting to
Speaker:know, and there are some
Speaker:things that you never wanted
Speaker:to know in your life that are on there.
Speaker:My old school, our librarian had access
Speaker:to Urban Dictionary,
Speaker:and if you had a question,
Speaker:you would ask her and
Speaker:she would look it up.
Speaker:I remember there was one
Speaker:that I can't even repeat.
Speaker:It is not appropriate for anything, even
Speaker:rated R. It's not
Speaker:appropriate, but the kids were
Speaker:using it.
Speaker:I'm like, "Oh my ... Where
Speaker:did they even learn that?"
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I think this has been a real problem,
Speaker:because as a linguist,
Speaker:I'm always trying to teach
Speaker:the kids how to use
Speaker:language appropriately.
Speaker:In the past, I want to say two or three
Speaker:years, suddenly they are potty mouths.
Speaker:They're not swearing at me, but they are
Speaker:using swear words when
Speaker:they are talking to me.
Speaker:I'm like, "Look, I've got to teach you
Speaker:English now, because this is not
Speaker:appropriate language."
Speaker:Then they come in, they're like, "Teach
Speaker:me how to swear in Spanish.
Speaker:Teach me how to swear in French."
Speaker:Japanese is easy.
Speaker:You just use the politeness improperly
Speaker:and you're swearing.
Speaker:I'm like, "Guys, I need to teach you how
Speaker:to speak properly
Speaker:before I can teach you any
Speaker:slang words, because if you go to Japan
Speaker:and you use the wrong
Speaker:level of politeness, they
Speaker:are mad at you.
Speaker:Their stomach clenches up.
Speaker:They're like, "Whoa, you
Speaker:don't know how to talk."
Speaker:If you go to France and you start
Speaker:insulting people, the
Speaker:waiters are not going to wait
Speaker:on you.
Speaker:The store employees are not
Speaker:going to sell you anything.
Speaker:You have to learn to be polite, kids.
Speaker:It's so percolated into the language.
Speaker:What I find is so funny.
Speaker:I explained to them that the swearing
Speaker:culture and the nude
Speaker:culture are opposite, where in
Speaker:America, nude is absolutely a no-no and
Speaker:swearing is like everyday
Speaker:words, but you go to Mexico
Speaker:or some other place like that in
Speaker:Spanish-speaking world,
Speaker:swearing is the no-no and nudity is
Speaker:not as big of an issue.
Speaker:Most of the swear words in Spanish go
Speaker:back to the Bible, so
Speaker:that's why they are 100 times
Speaker:worse than the English equivalents.
Speaker:Nobody knows how to
Speaker:insult better than the Germans.
Speaker:There's innocent words.
Speaker:Do they call you a schwein or they call
Speaker:you a hoot, like a pig or a dog?
Speaker:But if they call you a
Speaker:pig dog, that's really bad.
Speaker:They're really good at that.
Speaker:But I find it so funny.
Speaker:They'll use Google Translate for
Speaker:everything, but they
Speaker:won't look up swear words.
Speaker:I'm not going to tell you to Google them,
Speaker:but you Google everything else.
Speaker:Why wouldn't you Google that as well?
Speaker:Well, the problem with French is if they
Speaker:Google Translate French,
Speaker:it's going to accidentally
Speaker:be like, "Oh, you just
Speaker:propositioned me, kiddo.
Speaker:I'm going to take you down to the vice
Speaker:principal if you say that again."
Speaker:Because Google Translate doesn't
Speaker:understand the nuance of
Speaker:language that there's all these
Speaker:innuendos that a
Speaker:robot doesn't understand.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But it's funny.
Speaker:Yes, they are.
Speaker:And I found going back to high school, I
Speaker:have found that the cuss
Speaker:words are exponentially
Speaker:worse than they used to be before.
Speaker:Because I did 11 years in high school,
Speaker:then I did 11 years in
Speaker:middle school, and now I'm
Speaker:back for 11, for years 12
Speaker:and 13 in the high school.
Speaker:And I'm telling you how many times I say
Speaker:language in a day, in a class period.
Speaker:I need to have one of those little, like
Speaker:back in the sitcom days,
Speaker:we used to go laugh track.
Speaker:The laugh button would be up
Speaker:there so people would laugh.
Speaker:I need to have that so
Speaker:I just click a button.
Speaker:Because I'm getting tired of singing it.
Speaker:You can find code in the app.
Speaker:It's so ingrained into their movies and
Speaker:their games and their movies and music.
Speaker:It's ingrained into everything.
Speaker:And then I think sadly, if you actually
Speaker:listen to how some of
Speaker:these parents talk to their
Speaker:kids, it's ingrained in their everyday
Speaker:conversation at home.
Speaker:So, yeah, you have to
Speaker:learn how to code switch.
Speaker:And they're like, what?
Speaker:Code switching is not good.
Speaker:I'm like, no, code switching is what we
Speaker:do when we want to have a job.
Speaker:When we don't want to get tired.
Speaker:Because we're working at Chick-fil-A and
Speaker:we accidentally cuss
Speaker:somebody out because we
Speaker:didn't even know we were using the words.
Speaker:Code switching is what we
Speaker:do if we want to keep a job.
Speaker:I always find it funny.
Speaker:I had a teacher I worked with in Las
Speaker:Vegas and she always
Speaker:had a potty mouth and then
Speaker:the first couple weeks of
Speaker:school, we had a reminder.
Speaker:It's school time.
Speaker:You got to put your school voice on
Speaker:instead of your summer language.
Speaker:And she's like, I got to get back in the
Speaker:habit of doing that.
Speaker:We'd be out talking in the hall and she'd
Speaker:be like, F this, S this.
Speaker:We're like, no, no, no, no.
Speaker:Kids, kids, kids over here.
Speaker:Kids over here.
Speaker:I just find it much better not to use
Speaker:those words in the
Speaker:first place so I don't have
Speaker:to filter myself.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'm like, do you use
Speaker:those words at church?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'm like, oh my gosh.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:I see kids at the churches, you know,
Speaker:wearing shorts and tank
Speaker:tops and I'm like flip flops
Speaker:and I'm like, oh no, we weren't even
Speaker:allowed to wear jeans.
Speaker:My parents would have killed us.
Speaker:You know, you dress up to go to church,
Speaker:you know, so they
Speaker:don't even know, understand
Speaker:the word Sunday best.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Oh, true.
Speaker:True.
Speaker:They have no idea what that is.
Speaker:No idea.
Speaker:Well, today's topic is assessment, which
Speaker:is one of my babies is
Speaker:if you, anybody knows
Speaker:me well, you know, the assessment is my
Speaker:big thing because, and
Speaker:I'll just give you a little
Speaker:background before we get started.
Speaker:This is what I had.
Speaker:I got hired as an emergency permit in
Speaker:2001 and I had this girl named Brittany.
Speaker:I still have her senior picture on my
Speaker:wall and on the back of
Speaker:her senior picture, she
Speaker:wrote thank you for passing me.
Speaker:Cause she knew she shouldn't have passed
Speaker:either because that
Speaker:first year I didn't know what
Speaker:I was doing.
Speaker:I was in an emergency permit.
Speaker:I never even went to teacher school yet.
Speaker:So I did what every teacher does and
Speaker:steals every other
Speaker:policy from another teacher.
Speaker:So I had my rules like
Speaker:no hats in the classroom.
Speaker:I don't know why I put that on there
Speaker:because I don't care if
Speaker:they wear a hat in a classroom.
Speaker:I'm just glad that
Speaker:they're in the classroom.
Speaker:But I put that as a rule because someone
Speaker:else had it as a rule.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I also copied the grading policy.
Speaker:So you know, you have X amount for
Speaker:homework, X amount for
Speaker:quizzes, X amount for tests,
Speaker:X amount for projects, X amount for
Speaker:participation, you know, the
Speaker:standard traditional grading
Speaker:system.
Speaker:Well, that's how Brittany passed because
Speaker:she always did her
Speaker:homework and she always made
Speaker:really pretty projects.
Speaker:So that bumped her up.
Speaker:But her language was never there.
Speaker:It was level two and she could, I don't
Speaker:know how she got to
Speaker:level two, to be honest.
Speaker:She couldn't write or speak any Spanish
Speaker:whatsoever and she ended
Speaker:up with a C. So she actually
Speaker:passed but she shouldn't have because
Speaker:when you look at her
Speaker:quizzes and her tests, none
Speaker:of them were passing.
Speaker:So I vowed that that will never happen
Speaker:again in my classroom.
Speaker:And the big thing, and I hear other
Speaker:people now talking about
Speaker:this, and I was talking
Speaker:about it over 20 years ago, I wanted
Speaker:their ability to match
Speaker:the grade in the gradebook.
Speaker:So if they were proficient, they had to
Speaker:be at least 80% in my gradebook.
Speaker:And if they were advanced, they had to be
Speaker:at least 90% in my gradebook.
Speaker:And if they were approaching proficiency,
Speaker:that was the 70% area.
Speaker:So I needed to do that.
Speaker:And that second year, all
Speaker:my kids were guinea pigs.
Speaker:Now they always voted the
Speaker:way I wanted them to vote.
Speaker:I kind of manipulated them.
Speaker:So it was always their decision.
Speaker:So I never got in trouble like them
Speaker:complained to their parents
Speaker:about how the grades changed
Speaker:every quarter because the way I graded
Speaker:changed every quarter
Speaker:because I would propose to them
Speaker:after I did an experiment.
Speaker:I go, this is what's going on.
Speaker:This is what I'm seeing.
Speaker:And this is what I, what is it,
Speaker:alternatively, I think might be better.
Speaker:Let's vote as a class.
Speaker:And the way I presented it was they were
Speaker:going to vote the way I
Speaker:wanted to change it to no
Speaker:matter what.
Speaker:And they always did.
Speaker:And it worked.
Speaker:But I changed it every
Speaker:quarter until I found what worked.
Speaker:I found what worked.
Speaker:And I tweaked it over the
Speaker:years to what I use now.
Speaker:And it works.
Speaker:And it's consistent.
Speaker:And so that's why I wanted to do this
Speaker:episode to talk about
Speaker:some of those things because
Speaker:a lot of us are still
Speaker:in that traditional.
Speaker:I know my current school has a grading
Speaker:system that's very traditional.
Speaker:I've had to work the numbers to get it to
Speaker:where I'm by the, not
Speaker:by the letter of law,
Speaker:but by the intent, I am fulfilling their
Speaker:percentages that they want.
Speaker:But I am making it more so I can, because
Speaker:my grade book is much more like a map.
Speaker:It tells you where my kids are strong and
Speaker:where they're weak so
Speaker:that I know what areas
Speaker:to help them with.
Speaker:And the way they set the
Speaker:grade book, that is not happening.
Speaker:You cannot tell because they've got like,
Speaker:I think it's like 40% is classwork.
Speaker:And I'm like 40% and then 15% is no, we
Speaker:upped it to 20% is the final exam.
Speaker:So 60% right there.
Speaker:And then the left, what's left over is
Speaker:your quizzes, your
Speaker:tests and your projects.
Speaker:And I'm like, that's not giving me any
Speaker:information that I need to know.
Speaker:So I kind of manipulated it.
Speaker:So technically, yes,
Speaker:that's how mine works.
Speaker:But I break up my classwork into
Speaker:speaking, reading, writing
Speaker:and listening and give that
Speaker:percentages based off of those.
Speaker:So that's the kind of stuff that I do.
Speaker:And everybody knows me also.
Speaker:I use gamification as participation.
Speaker:So they don't earn any grades with that
Speaker:they are earning privileges
Speaker:and prizes in my classroom
Speaker:to get that done.
Speaker:So let's start with Lynn.
Speaker:What do you think about grading?
Speaker:And what's the first feeling that comes
Speaker:up for you right now
Speaker:when you think about it?
Speaker:So Scott, when you and I first got to
Speaker:know each other, you
Speaker:helped me a lot to develop
Speaker:my grading system into something that was
Speaker:based on actual progress.
Speaker:And I broke things down in my grade book
Speaker:by reading, writing,
Speaker:speaking, listening and
Speaker:culture.
Speaker:And I was having such great conversations
Speaker:with my kids and parents.
Speaker:I could walk into a meeting with a parent
Speaker:and say, this is
Speaker:where your kid is strong.
Speaker:This is where he's not.
Speaker:And then my school district took away all
Speaker:independence that we had in how our grade
Speaker:book was set up.
Speaker:And so currently I have three grading
Speaker:categories, assessments and
Speaker:projects, 40% of each quarter,
Speaker:quizzes and labs, or what I would
Speaker:consider a lab in a language room is 30%.
Speaker:And then practice is 30%.
Speaker:And then at the end of the course, I take
Speaker:my four quarter
Speaker:grades and we did away with
Speaker:final exams.
Speaker:We're now doing culminating assessments
Speaker:and we have to have one every quarter.
Speaker:And I cheat here because I
Speaker:try to pair them together.
Speaker:So they're doing a reading assessment and
Speaker:a listening assessment together.
Speaker:And then I break it apart into two
Speaker:culminating assessment grades.
Speaker:And then they're doing a writing
Speaker:assessment and a
Speaker:speaking assessment together.
Speaker:And then I can break it
Speaker:apart into two assessment grades.
Speaker:But this new system that we're under, I
Speaker:can't tweak anything.
Speaker:It has to go in the book like that.
Speaker:And so this is actually an area that I'm
Speaker:struggling to find
Speaker:meaningful ways to grade
Speaker:them because I'm back to saying, well,
Speaker:their quiz grades are low.
Speaker:They don't do well on tests.
Speaker:But unless I save every test and every
Speaker:quiz and break them apart
Speaker:as I'm going into a meeting,
Speaker:I give them any more
Speaker:information than that.
Speaker:This is being made at a district level
Speaker:because my district
Speaker:has seven high schools.
Speaker:I think there's somewhere between 15 and
Speaker:20 middle schools and in
Speaker:upwards of 50 elementary
Speaker:schools.
Speaker:So it's a large
Speaker:district and they won't listen.
Speaker:They won't talk.
Speaker:And then the best part, this is the best
Speaker:part in order to pass my course.
Speaker:This district also made this little
Speaker:spreadsheet called the grade calculator.
Speaker:So out of the five grades that I
Speaker:accumulate over the course
Speaker:of a course to figure out
Speaker:their final grade, they have to pass two.
Speaker:Two.
Speaker:And they can pass my course with a D.
Speaker:And as long as they pass the course with
Speaker:a D, they get to go to the next level.
Speaker:And I cannot say you
Speaker:really should repeat this class.
Speaker:And this is the problem right off the bat
Speaker:because they're
Speaker:already, if they're coming
Speaker:with a D, they're already at a 40 percent
Speaker:deficit and it puts them way behind going
Speaker:in the next class.
Speaker:And a couple of things that you talked
Speaker:about, I understand why
Speaker:districts want to do that
Speaker:to make it there.
Speaker:This is where you have to do what you do
Speaker:to keep your job, but
Speaker:advocate for your students
Speaker:and say that it doesn't work.
Speaker:Think about you can't grade band the same
Speaker:way you grade English,
Speaker:the same way you grade
Speaker:PE.
Speaker:We're different things.
Speaker:And I understand from a district
Speaker:standpoint that it makes it
Speaker:easier, but easy isn't always
Speaker:right.
Speaker:And the same problem here, that was my
Speaker:big problem also with
Speaker:the way it's broken down
Speaker:that you had to go back to every quiz and
Speaker:find out which
Speaker:questions they got right versus
Speaker:which ones they got wrong to be able to
Speaker:take it from actionable.
Speaker:Because if you break up your grade book
Speaker:into quizzes and
Speaker:projects and assessments and all
Speaker:those things, then all you can say is my
Speaker:kids are good or bad at taking quizzes.
Speaker:And the answer to fix that is to give
Speaker:them more quizzes and assessments.
Speaker:They practice that habit.
Speaker:But that's not our goal.
Speaker:Our goal is not to do that.
Speaker:They need to be standards because there's
Speaker:no standard about a quiz.
Speaker:There's no standard about
Speaker:an assessment or a project.
Speaker:So they need to be
Speaker:aligned by the standards.
Speaker:So the standards from
Speaker:English are not the same as math.
Speaker:So the grade book should not
Speaker:be set up the exact same way.
Speaker:And I also have a problem with some of
Speaker:the standards because
Speaker:some people go and take
Speaker:that too literal and then they make their
Speaker:grade book into
Speaker:presentational, interpersonal,
Speaker:and inter...
Speaker:I can't say the word.
Speaker:Interpretive.
Speaker:Interpretive.
Speaker:I could not get that word out.
Speaker:But here's the problem with...
Speaker:And those aren't even standards anyway.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Those aren't...
Speaker:Those are modes of communication.
Speaker:So what I want...
Speaker:That doesn't tell me because, okay,
Speaker:they're not good at interpersonal.
Speaker:What part of
Speaker:interpersonal are they not good at?
Speaker:Is it the comprehension part
Speaker:or is it the production part?
Speaker:So for me, I still take out my listening,
Speaker:reading, speaking, and writing.
Speaker:I don't do culture anymore explicitly.
Speaker:I build it into the other things.
Speaker:But then I have in my speaking, I have
Speaker:presentational and I have
Speaker:interpersonal speaking stuff in
Speaker:there.
Speaker:So I break it up into those four skills,
Speaker:but I'm using the
Speaker:different modes to assess.
Speaker:So I'm making sure that there's equal
Speaker:number of presentational
Speaker:opportunities and equal
Speaker:number of interpersonal, but I'm taking
Speaker:that interpersonal and breaking it up.
Speaker:Are they writing and listening or are
Speaker:they writing and reading?
Speaker:And so those go into two different grades
Speaker:so that I can look at my grade book.
Speaker:And this is the biggest
Speaker:problem of using traditional.
Speaker:And this is where I go to my
Speaker:principal's at and I advocate.
Speaker:I want to be able to
Speaker:look at my grade book.
Speaker:And more importantly, I want my students
Speaker:to be able to go and
Speaker:look at the grade book,
Speaker:know their strengths
Speaker:and their weaknesses.
Speaker:And it changes the
Speaker:discussion that we have.
Speaker:Because instead of saying, I've got a C
Speaker:profé, what do I need to do to get a B?
Speaker:They come to me and go
Speaker:profé, I am weak in speaking.
Speaker:What do I need to do
Speaker:to practice that skill?
Speaker:That's what they need to know.
Speaker:And so it changes the whole conversation.
Speaker:Like Lynn said, it was a more meaningful
Speaker:conversation when you had
Speaker:a built in different way.
Speaker:And the really crazy part is that I can't
Speaker:even figure out how to
Speaker:do that because we're
Speaker:using Canvas as our LMS, which talks
Speaker:directly with Synergy,
Speaker:our grade book of record.
Speaker:And so they have to match.
Speaker:The categories in Canvas have to match
Speaker:the categories in Synergy.
Speaker:Or I am creating a mess of
Speaker:stuff that I have to fix.
Speaker:And I'm teaching three
Speaker:different preps every semester.
Speaker:And I have 90 minutes of planning time
Speaker:and that's it and a life.
Speaker:So yeah, it's like you're in this catch
Speaker:22 that you either fix
Speaker:by spending a whole lot
Speaker:of time or you just are
Speaker:like, well, this is what it is.
Speaker:Because yeah, my kids are like, oh gosh,
Speaker:they don't even worry
Speaker:about what area they're
Speaker:weak in.
Speaker:They're just like, wow,
Speaker:I have too many zeros.
Speaker:I guess I got to make some of those up.
Speaker:And I'm like, yeah, you think?
Speaker:I'm having
Speaker:conversations about missing work.
Speaker:And I miss the days.
Speaker:That's all it is this year.
Speaker:Yeah, I miss the days of that
Speaker:conversation about actual real learning.
Speaker:And it's so hard to
Speaker:reconcile that in my head.
Speaker:And so I guess the one way that I've
Speaker:really focused on trying
Speaker:to do my best to work within
Speaker:the system, doing things that I know are
Speaker:important is by how I
Speaker:assess and things like that.
Speaker:And I mean, the best part is, you know,
Speaker:in 90 days, I have to
Speaker:complete a course because
Speaker:we're on the semester system, which means
Speaker:every four and a half
Speaker:weeks I'm grading, giving
Speaker:a quarter grade.
Speaker:And in four and a half weeks of classes,
Speaker:I'm supposed to have two
Speaker:assessments, two quizzes,
Speaker:practice items, a minimum of
Speaker:10 grades in the grade book.
Speaker:And I'm supposed to have completed one of
Speaker:those days, community
Speaker:culminating assessments
Speaker:that adds up to the
Speaker:final exam equivalent.
Speaker:Well, if I do those culminating
Speaker:assessments outside of
Speaker:class, most of them won't do it
Speaker:because they don't do homework.
Speaker:But those who do do it cheat.
Speaker:So then you have to do
Speaker:them in class, right?
Speaker:And it takes doesn't take a day, it takes
Speaker:days, because I've got
Speaker:kids who work at such
Speaker:various levels.
Speaker:And I don't know about you guys, but
Speaker:these students currently,
Speaker:what used to take my students
Speaker:20 minutes takes them
Speaker:40 minutes to an hour.
Speaker:It takes them 20 minutes
Speaker:just to actually get started.
Speaker:And it doesn't make them a timer board or
Speaker:what if they make them stop at the end.
Speaker:They're just like little sloths.
Speaker:It's crazy.
Speaker:It's focused.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm really focused on
Speaker:what I do and how I do it.
Speaker:Like by combining two of the CAs last
Speaker:semester in my German one class at the
Speaker:end of the semester,
Speaker:I gave them little biographies of people
Speaker:because some very nice
Speaker:German teacher made all these
Speaker:little short, perfect for level one
Speaker:biographies about famous
Speaker:Germans, famous Americans, famous
Speaker:sports figures.
Speaker:And I was like, this is awesome.
Speaker:So stage one of this culminating
Speaker:assessment was, here's
Speaker:your two, you're going to read
Speaker:them.
Speaker:And you're going to show me your
Speaker:comprehension by creating
Speaker:like a mind map about each person
Speaker:showing me what you learned about them
Speaker:and what you understood.
Speaker:And I told them it could be in German or
Speaker:English, whichever they wanted to use.
Speaker:But it had to be clear that they knew
Speaker:what the information was.
Speaker:And then step two of the process was in
Speaker:small groups, they
Speaker:interviewed each other.
Speaker:And I gave them a little chart, right
Speaker:where they could fill
Speaker:in the person's name.
Speaker:And then they had vital information they
Speaker:needed to collect about each person.
Speaker:So now I had them speaking and I had them
Speaker:record that in their
Speaker:small groups onto Canvas
Speaker:so I could just go to
Speaker:one place and grade it.
Speaker:And then stage three was choose one of
Speaker:those new people you
Speaker:learned about and now write
Speaker:me a short biography
Speaker:like the ones you read.
Speaker:And so to complete that, they really did
Speaker:have to use German and
Speaker:they really did have to
Speaker:understand what they read and understand
Speaker:what they heard and
Speaker:then be able to communicate
Speaker:back to me what they learned.
Speaker:And there was purpose to it, which I
Speaker:think I've been trying to
Speaker:incorporate more purposeful
Speaker:communication.
Speaker:So I've resorted to really trying to be
Speaker:very conscious of how I
Speaker:assess and what I'm doing
Speaker:to assess to try and account for the lack
Speaker:of professional
Speaker:courtesy I'm being given in
Speaker:how I grade.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And that's a really good example of how
Speaker:to do really
Speaker:input-based assessment in a real
Speaker:way that has real impact
Speaker:and shows growth over time.
Speaker:So that was a really excellent example.
Speaker:So thank you for sharing that.
Speaker:Pamela, what are your thoughts?
Speaker:So first of all, let me say how much I
Speaker:love being here because
Speaker:like everything you guys
Speaker:are saying, it's like, "Oh, finally, I'm
Speaker:with my people who
Speaker:understand everything I'm thinking."
Speaker:Like, you know, I was making notes while
Speaker:Lynn was talking and
Speaker:then Scott was chiming in.
Speaker:I'm like, "Yeah,
Speaker:that's what I just said."
Speaker:Yeah, totally.
Speaker:So first of all, I want to say, Scott,
Speaker:good for you for being
Speaker:flexible, your first year,
Speaker:second year teaching, not
Speaker:being afraid to make mistakes.
Speaker:That's part of the learning curve.
Speaker:I think so many times we're so afraid,
Speaker:"Oh, no, we have to be
Speaker:the experts and the students
Speaker:can't see us not
Speaker:knowing what we're doing."
Speaker:We have to be able to
Speaker:say, "Well, that didn't work.
Speaker:We're going to pivot now
Speaker:and do something else."
Speaker:That's so good for you for
Speaker:trying out different things.
Speaker:And Lynn, I mean, my gosh, you are trying
Speaker:out so many different
Speaker:things right now and
Speaker:I eat it when the hammer comes down.
Speaker:And Scott, you're 100
Speaker:million percent correct.
Speaker:Math class is not the same as history
Speaker:class, is not the same
Speaker:as music class, is not the
Speaker:same as art class.
Speaker:We should not have to
Speaker:assess the same way.
Speaker:The students are
Speaker:learning in a different way.
Speaker:We in language, we
Speaker:are a progressive skill.
Speaker:We have to have some kind of homework.
Speaker:We need to have the students looking at
Speaker:something outside of class.
Speaker:It's not like, "Oh, guys, today we're
Speaker:going to get in a
Speaker:Socratic seminar and discuss."
Speaker:You come to a consensus on
Speaker:what you think this means.
Speaker:No, I'm sorry.
Speaker:There needs to be a little bit of
Speaker:memorization here and we're fighting
Speaker:Ebbinghaus' forgetting
Speaker:curve.
Speaker:So, yeah, let me cross that off.
Speaker:You hit that point perfectly.
Speaker:Your culminating assessment
Speaker:sounds really fascinating.
Speaker:We had an episode last week where we were
Speaker:talking about project-based learning.
Speaker:For me, my assessments are I'm walking
Speaker:around the class and
Speaker:listening to the students apply
Speaker:everything for a project.
Speaker:So migrating for that is much easier
Speaker:because of just the
Speaker:way I chose to assess.
Speaker:The pass with a D, wow,
Speaker:that's really got in our crawling.
Speaker:Because we used to have
Speaker:it in our school catalog.
Speaker:You need a C or higher to
Speaker:progress to the next level.
Speaker:We did too.
Speaker:New principal came in and took that out.
Speaker:I feel like I'm really good with
Speaker:differentiating because I often get
Speaker:students second year French
Speaker:too, they transfer from another school
Speaker:and they only know how
Speaker:to fill in the blank and
Speaker:so they don't know how to
Speaker:have an actual conversation.
Speaker:Or maybe I'll get a heritage
Speaker:speaker in my Spanish class.
Speaker:A Spanish one, I only
Speaker:ever teach Spanish one.
Speaker:I feel like I'm pretty good at
Speaker:differentiating but my
Speaker:colleagues are like, oh my gosh, I
Speaker:have this student who can only say, el
Speaker:perro comé and that's all they can say.
Speaker:This is Spanish three that they're in now
Speaker:and so they're kind of
Speaker:panicking about that.
Speaker:That's really difficult because then the
Speaker:other thing is the
Speaker:previous principal we had, for
Speaker:six months I argued with her because she
Speaker:kept wanting me to
Speaker:write out the standards and
Speaker:I wrote it out and I gave it to her and
Speaker:she's like, no, these
Speaker:aren't the standards and I
Speaker:wrote it out again and
Speaker:did it a different way.
Speaker:And I'm like, well, we
Speaker:don't really have standards.
Speaker:I kept hammering this in.
Speaker:We have descriptors.
Speaker:This is what the student can do with the
Speaker:amount of language that they have.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Novice low, they know
Speaker:some isolated words.
Speaker:Intermediate mid,
Speaker:finally they're conjugating.
Speaker:And I kept trying to explain that to her
Speaker:and she's like, no, no,
Speaker:these aren't standards.
Speaker:And then after six months I looked at her
Speaker:and I'm like, are you
Speaker:asking for a scope and
Speaker:sequence?
Speaker:And she's like, no, no, no standards.
Speaker:I'm like, no, you are
Speaker:describing to me a scope and sequence.
Speaker:So we've been arguing because she didn't
Speaker:understand the
Speaker:terminology and the difference
Speaker:between standards
Speaker:descriptors and scope and sequence.
Speaker:So Lynn, I feel your pain.
Speaker:I know this is so frustrating to have,
Speaker:like Scott knows,
Speaker:because I've been complaining
Speaker:about this for like several weeks now, we
Speaker:have to do common formative assessments.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And like, first of all, if you're doing
Speaker:common formative
Speaker:assessments, if everyone's doing
Speaker:the same assessment on the same day at
Speaker:the same time, it's no
Speaker:longer a formative assessment.
Speaker:Formative assessments need to be on the
Speaker:fly so that you can tell
Speaker:where your students are
Speaker:at that moment.
Speaker:Now I have two Spanish one classes.
Speaker:They are not on the same level.
Speaker:The class dynamics and you were, you were
Speaker:complaining about having 24 students in a
Speaker:class, 35, 39 students per class.
Speaker:These two Spanish one classes are not on
Speaker:the same level for me to
Speaker:give them the same formative
Speaker:assessment on the same
Speaker:day at the same time.
Speaker:When I already know where they're
Speaker:struggling because I give formative
Speaker:assessments or language
Speaker:teachers, we are constantly
Speaker:formatively assessing, right?
Speaker:Every 10 minutes.
Speaker:So the, we're having a lot of pain with
Speaker:the district right now
Speaker:because they're like, you
Speaker:need to have your common formative
Speaker:assessments and then sit
Speaker:down and compare the data.
Speaker:We do that all the time.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:But it's not the common formative
Speaker:assessment we're comparing.
Speaker:So we're just using blue kit and saying,
Speaker:Hey, look, my students had 75% on this.
Speaker:Um, you're, what your students get.
Speaker:Okay, great.
Speaker:Yeah, we know what we're doing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We're supposed to have
Speaker:common assessments too.
Speaker:And I'm like, common assessments.
Speaker:I'm the only one
Speaker:teaching this in my high school.
Speaker:Who am I comparing it to?
Speaker:I'm so thankful.
Speaker:I'm the only French teacher.
Speaker:I'm the only Japanese teacher.
Speaker:I can do whatever the heck I want, but
Speaker:I'm one of four Spanish teachers.
Speaker:And so I'm sorry, it's
Speaker:the first week of school.
Speaker:I have to teach weather expressions this
Speaker:week and everybody in
Speaker:case you decide to change
Speaker:your schedule and go to the other
Speaker:colleague, you have to know
Speaker:the same things that you're
Speaker:going to go there.
Speaker:And I'm like, but I want to make it
Speaker:relevant to the students.
Speaker:I want to put in the stuff
Speaker:that they want to talk about.
Speaker:They're not going to hear
Speaker:that from my colleagues.
Speaker:And so, yeah, it's been a real headache.
Speaker:And I was going to say
Speaker:something back to Lynn.
Speaker:I know it's not the perfect scenario and
Speaker:I know it's extra work,
Speaker:but in your situation,
Speaker:what I would do, I would have the
Speaker:district facing grade book
Speaker:compliant, but I would keep
Speaker:a separate grade book that
Speaker:gave me the data that I wanted.
Speaker:And then I would go to my principal and
Speaker:show them the difference
Speaker:and the amount of information.
Speaker:Again, do what you have to do to keep
Speaker:your job, keep the
Speaker:district one, but I need to
Speaker:advocate for my students and show why
Speaker:this is a better way and
Speaker:what information because
Speaker:what they really want us to do cannot be
Speaker:done from a traditional
Speaker:grade book, at least in
Speaker:a language class.
Speaker:Maybe it works in English, maybe it works
Speaker:in math or science,
Speaker:but it doesn't work in
Speaker:a language class because we
Speaker:are less like math or English.
Speaker:We are more like dance and band and PE,
Speaker:which I never understood
Speaker:that till I was halfway
Speaker:through teaching.
Speaker:And I'm like, yeah, we aren't really an
Speaker:academic course where you
Speaker:are sitting there and you're
Speaker:memorizing facts and
Speaker:regurgitating those facts.
Speaker:You're memorizing things and you're
Speaker:practicing skills that you can
Speaker:demonstrate that you have
Speaker:a proficiency in those skills, not unlike
Speaker:dance or music or sports.
Speaker:It's very similar in that way.
Speaker:And I would show them an advocate.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Because it's not saying, it's not always
Speaker:saying, can they do this
Speaker:and just checking it off
Speaker:yes or no.
Speaker:It's how well can they do this?
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:And so it's a lot different.
Speaker:That's a lot of work.
Speaker:I mean, that would be great, Scott.
Speaker:That's a ton of work for you, Lynn, if
Speaker:you choose to go that route.
Speaker:So I like to game the system.
Speaker:So for example, we are using Synergy too.
Speaker:And I really like Synergy because we were
Speaker:using a horrible thing
Speaker:last year and the year
Speaker:like we've been through so many grade
Speaker:books now that are really horrible.
Speaker:The problem with Synergy is the district
Speaker:locked it so we can't give extra credit.
Speaker:Now this is one of the ways that I
Speaker:differentiate is the students who are
Speaker:going for extra credit,
Speaker:they're not competing
Speaker:with the other students.
Speaker:They're not ruining the
Speaker:other students' grades.
Speaker:They're competing with themselves.
Speaker:And so my high flyers, if they
Speaker:have 101%, I'm fine with that.
Speaker:But because I can't give extra credit, I
Speaker:have to figure out, OK, I
Speaker:can give one point extra
Speaker:and Synergy is OK with that.
Speaker:If I put in the assignment as five
Speaker:points, I can up to double the thing.
Speaker:So I'm figuring out all these sneaky ways
Speaker:that I can give my extra credit.
Speaker:And I'm still supporting the students who
Speaker:are struggling, who
Speaker:need the scaffolding and
Speaker:everything.
Speaker:But I'm rewarding the
Speaker:students who are the high flyers.
Speaker:And so we'll keep brainstorming.
Speaker:We'll come up with some clever way for me to get what we need.
Speaker:I was going to say, the other thing you
Speaker:could do in Synergy is
Speaker:actually just put in a new
Speaker:assignment and exempt the kids from it
Speaker:that it doesn't affect.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:The kids who have earned.
Speaker:Yeah, right.
Speaker:Mm hmm.
Speaker:So I do that.
Speaker:You use the comment field at all.
Speaker:I use the comment field some, but not a
Speaker:lot because Canvas talks
Speaker:with Synergy in our district.
Speaker:And so to go in and put comments in, I
Speaker:have to go through so many steps.
Speaker:I put comments in Canvas.
Speaker:And the interesting thing
Speaker:is, no, they don't copy over.
Speaker:But I do give them feedback from Canvas.
Speaker:Yeah, the interesting thing is that
Speaker:because their parents
Speaker:reference Synergy, the students
Speaker:very rarely pay attention to the grades
Speaker:in Canvas and they
Speaker:only really pay attention
Speaker:to Synergy.
Speaker:And I'm like, but y'all, this is not like
Speaker:Synergy only updates every so often.
Speaker:Your actual current grades and what I
Speaker:have graded is in Canvas.
Speaker:And if you're missing something and you
Speaker:look at it in Canvas, it's a
Speaker:live link to the assignment.
Speaker:And then you can do it.
Speaker:But if you're in Synergy, now
Speaker:you have to go back to Canvas.
Speaker:You have to locate where it is.
Speaker:You have to find the assignment.
Speaker:You have to then complete the assignment.
Speaker:And then you have to wait for me to grade
Speaker:it and for it to
Speaker:transfer over to Synergy.
Speaker:I'm like, if you just start in Canvas,
Speaker:that's the most common thing to look.
Speaker:That defeats the
Speaker:purpose of an LMS, right?
Speaker:If they're going to the student
Speaker:management system and not the LMS.
Speaker:Oh, wow.
Speaker:It's crazy.
Speaker:It's crazy.
Speaker:But yeah, so I'm finding like you are
Speaker:finding ways to kind of game the system.
Speaker:I'm finding ways to do it.
Speaker:It just it's, you know, it's.
Speaker:And I think there's a lot of teachers
Speaker:that feel very defeated
Speaker:by the grading system in
Speaker:place by like most of the teachers in my
Speaker:department feel extremely
Speaker:defeated by the grading system
Speaker:that we have.
Speaker:And so they just don't they don't even
Speaker:try because it's too
Speaker:much work and it's too much
Speaker:time.
Speaker:And and I was going to say, I think the
Speaker:other problem with, you
Speaker:know, this the whole idea
Speaker:of standards and proficiency and all of
Speaker:that is there are still
Speaker:so many teachers who are
Speaker:relying on that old system of gain a
Speaker:skill, check it off, teach
Speaker:about the language versus
Speaker:teaching for
Speaker:proficiency and for acquisition.
Speaker:And it's so hard when you're in a system
Speaker:where most of the
Speaker:teachers are teaching about the
Speaker:language.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Well, it's not the way we
Speaker:learned in our teacher programs.
Speaker:You know, we in our teacher programs, it
Speaker:was here are your
Speaker:choices, audio, lingual grammar
Speaker:translation,
Speaker:communicative language learning.
Speaker:We never ever talked about gradebook.
Speaker:Never.
Speaker:And and Scott, you talk about coming in
Speaker:as an emergency sub for a year.
Speaker:That's how I fell into teaching.
Speaker:I was a professional translator.
Speaker:The Japanese teacher quit and I have been
Speaker:her substitute and she
Speaker:made me stand outside
Speaker:the classroom while she threw everything
Speaker:away because she did
Speaker:not want to share anything
Speaker:with me.
Speaker:Don't know why.
Speaker:And so I was inventing things on the fly,
Speaker:learning how to teach as I was, you know,
Speaker:I don't know a gradebook.
Speaker:And I you know, I had a participation
Speaker:grade too, because that's
Speaker:what all the the Spanish
Speaker:colleagues had participation grade.
Speaker:And that's where I ran into problems,
Speaker:because after a year, I realized, oh, I'm
Speaker:sorry, participation
Speaker:in my classroom has to be a given.
Speaker:If you're not participating, you can't do
Speaker:anything in my classroom.
Speaker:For me to put that
Speaker:grade in the gradebook.
Speaker:That's ridiculous, because you should be
Speaker:like you should come in
Speaker:and sit down in class.
Speaker:That's a given.
Speaker:You need to be physically present.
Speaker:That's a given.
Speaker:Participation is part of
Speaker:that physical presence, right?
Speaker:And if they're participating, it's going
Speaker:to show up elsewhere,
Speaker:because if they're not
Speaker:participating, it's going to show up in
Speaker:their assessments and other things.
Speaker:So it's not something that way.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like if you're grading handwriting,
Speaker:you're not grading them
Speaker:on whether they can make
Speaker:a loop or not.
Speaker:You know, you're great.
Speaker:It's whether they can make a loop or not
Speaker:is going to be whether
Speaker:they can actually hand
Speaker:write.
Speaker:It's the little pieces
Speaker:instead of the whole thing.
Speaker:The idea is can they hand write?
Speaker:So you don't have to measure all the
Speaker:little things, because if
Speaker:they can hand write, obviously
Speaker:they can do all the little pieces that
Speaker:are required to hand write.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I think the other thing that happens
Speaker:when you're constrained
Speaker:into such a narrow grading
Speaker:system, like I have completely changed
Speaker:what I grade and how I
Speaker:grade it and what category
Speaker:I put it in.
Speaker:You know, when we were practicing
Speaker:writing, a lot of times I
Speaker:would never even grade it
Speaker:or we become a practice grade, right?
Speaker:Because that's what we were doing.
Speaker:But like I can't possibly, especially in
Speaker:lower level classes,
Speaker:teach enough material
Speaker:to do two assessments, two quizzes and a
Speaker:culminating assessment
Speaker:in four and a half weeks.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Like you just can't teach enough.
Speaker:I always tell the kids.
Speaker:To make that valid assessment.
Speaker:I always tell the kids and the parents
Speaker:that like the first three
Speaker:weeks of school, especially
Speaker:in level one, I will not have any grades
Speaker:in there because I
Speaker:have nothing to assess.
Speaker:If I assess them too early,
Speaker:they're going to be bad grades.
Speaker:And if I do it in level two or three, I'm
Speaker:not assessing what
Speaker:they learned this time.
Speaker:I'm assessing what they
Speaker:remember from last year.
Speaker:So I said, you wait three or four weeks
Speaker:at the beginning of
Speaker:the year or beginning of
Speaker:a semester.
Speaker:If you teach off a semester system, then
Speaker:they're not going to have
Speaker:grades right away because
Speaker:if I were to actually grade, the grades
Speaker:are going to be lower
Speaker:and you're going to have
Speaker:a heart attack.
Speaker:So because they haven't had enough time
Speaker:to build the skill
Speaker:that I'm trying to assess
Speaker:yet.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh huh.
Speaker:And I don't have that option.
Speaker:If I end a four and a half week period
Speaker:with no grades in the
Speaker:grade book, then I get a
Speaker:conversation with the principal, right?
Speaker:Because I've got to have
Speaker:a grade for that quarter.
Speaker:And so, you know, things that had been
Speaker:practiced, if they're
Speaker:harder, they become quizzes.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It's like it's kind of the only fair way
Speaker:that I can figure out
Speaker:how to grade these kids and
Speaker:not get myself, you know, in a situation
Speaker:where my contract is
Speaker:becoming negotiable, you know,
Speaker:and how about things that
Speaker:were quizzes become assessments?
Speaker:You know, it's the only
Speaker:way I can figure it out.
Speaker:How about let me let me just because I'm
Speaker:thinking about how I
Speaker:would probably try to game the
Speaker:system.
Speaker:Um, if you focus on the
Speaker:descriptor levels, all right.
Speaker:So instead of saying culminating
Speaker:assessment one, what if
Speaker:you just called it novice low
Speaker:or novice mid, wherever you expect your
Speaker:students to be, and then you
Speaker:have them produce a writing
Speaker:or speak to you or, you know, whatever it
Speaker:is you would normally do.
Speaker:And then you say, OK,
Speaker:they're at the words stage.
Speaker:So they got they know some words.
Speaker:The words aren't connected.
Speaker:Novice mid.
Speaker:Oh, they're at the, you
Speaker:know, they're connecting.
Speaker:There's a word,
Speaker:there's a noun and a verb.
Speaker:The verb isn't conjugated.
Speaker:The verbs in the wrong tense, whatever.
Speaker:But there's a noun and the verb goes with
Speaker:the noun and the student
Speaker:just kind of communicate
Speaker:that.
Speaker:Oh, the novice high, your culminating
Speaker:thing is going to be
Speaker:at novice high, guys.
Speaker:So make sure that you can say a subject
Speaker:and a verb and a
Speaker:direct object or subject and
Speaker:a verb and an adverb or subject and a
Speaker:verb in a preposition of location.
Speaker:So maybe just just that.
Speaker:And then your district will say, oh,
Speaker:you've got a culminating
Speaker:assessment, but actually
Speaker:you know exactly where your students are
Speaker:in the proficiency
Speaker:levels and the descriptors.
Speaker:And maybe I think
Speaker:that's the way I would do it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I think I think I've kind of
Speaker:designed, especially in my
Speaker:level one class, I've kind
Speaker:of designed the culminating assessments
Speaker:so they almost progress that way.
Speaker:Like in my level one class, the first
Speaker:culminating assessment
Speaker:is a station rotation.
Speaker:And so one of the rotations is with me.
Speaker:Can you listen to the
Speaker:commands I'm giving you and do them?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:That's perfect.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then another station is, you know,
Speaker:here's some simple math problems.
Speaker:Can you match the math
Speaker:problem to the answer?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And the answer is
Speaker:written out in your form.
Speaker:So that's matching.
Speaker:And then another station is a short
Speaker:reading that uses the
Speaker:vocab that we've been working
Speaker:on.
Speaker:Can you read this and show me in one of
Speaker:these ways that you understand it?
Speaker:And then are students working
Speaker:independently or are
Speaker:they working in partners?
Speaker:So with that first one, we do it.
Speaker:I do it twice.
Speaker:And the first time they can work with
Speaker:their group that they're
Speaker:traveling with and they
Speaker:can talk and confer.
Speaker:And then the next day we do it for a
Speaker:grade and they are
Speaker:working silently on the run.
Speaker:Oh, I love it because they
Speaker:get they need that practice.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So that's kind of how I've solved that.
Speaker:And I'm like, okay, that's nice.
Speaker:Novice low four and a
Speaker:half weeks of German.
Speaker:We should be able to, you know, and then
Speaker:I can see the
Speaker:stratifying of the kids and their
Speaker:who's who can go a little bit beyond and
Speaker:who can who was
Speaker:struggling and those things.
Speaker:So I've kind of tried to see a CAs so
Speaker:that they can follow.
Speaker:I did not mean to.
Speaker:I think I'm lagging a bit.
Speaker:Do they work through the stations at
Speaker:their own pace or do you
Speaker:have a timer saying you
Speaker:have to be at the station for a minute
Speaker:and then the station for a minute?
Speaker:So just because there's that one there
Speaker:that they're working with
Speaker:me, I do put it to timer.
Speaker:But then I'm like, okay, so
Speaker:you didn't finish the reading.
Speaker:You're going to finish with me quicker.
Speaker:So work on your reading or, you know, if
Speaker:you didn't finish
Speaker:that, that math, you can go
Speaker:back and take a look at that when you're
Speaker:done with wherever you're at.
Speaker:Oh, the last one I have is a box of stuff
Speaker:that we've been using
Speaker:in class that we use
Speaker:a lot and they should know the names of
Speaker:and they have to take
Speaker:it out and tell me what's
Speaker:in the box.
Speaker:And so that's just making the list.
Speaker:I love the kinesthetics things.
Speaker:I mean, I think that's
Speaker:so important for the kids.
Speaker:Language is communication and I think I
Speaker:feel like you have to
Speaker:be applying it, you know?
Speaker:So just fill in the
Speaker:blank multiple choice.
Speaker:You're not going to
Speaker:learn a language that way.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you can see like if they're taking
Speaker:stuff out of a box and
Speaker:writing it down, you can
Speaker:see did they know the German or did they
Speaker:give me the English?
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's very straightforward.
Speaker:Now, I remember you were, I was very
Speaker:impressed because I often
Speaker:help out in the special ed
Speaker:room on like the summertime.
Speaker:You have a class of
Speaker:special ed students, right?
Speaker:I do.
Speaker:How is, do you have to do, I was very
Speaker:impressed with
Speaker:everything you said for that.
Speaker:That's what I
Speaker:remember about you from this.
Speaker:It must have been practical and
Speaker:comprehensible that I saw you at.
Speaker:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So are you doing that again this year?
Speaker:I am.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I didn't look through the list to see.
Speaker:I was so busy.
Speaker:I was like, okay, well,
Speaker:I'll see you there again.
Speaker:So are you, how do you
Speaker:adapt things for that class?
Speaker:So the beauty of that class is that every
Speaker:child who's in there
Speaker:is earning what Virginia
Speaker:calls an applied studies diploma.
Speaker:And it is a non-academic diploma.
Speaker:And they just decided to call it that
Speaker:instead of a diploma of attendance.
Speaker:And so when they come to
Speaker:me, it is 100% enrichment.
Speaker:And I don't, there's not an expectation
Speaker:that I get them to a certain level.
Speaker:There's not an expectation that every kid
Speaker:in the room is even
Speaker:going to be able to master
Speaker:things.
Speaker:And the phrase as developmentally
Speaker:appropriate, that phrase
Speaker:takes you to the atmosphere, up
Speaker:into the atmosphere with that group,
Speaker:because everybody's
Speaker:developmentally appropriate is
Speaker:different.
Speaker:And so a lot of what I do,
Speaker:like I still, God help us.
Speaker:My grade book still has to be set up the
Speaker:same and I still have
Speaker:to have it all has to
Speaker:be there.
Speaker:But if we're playing bingo to practice
Speaker:our numbers, I will use
Speaker:that as a practice grade
Speaker:or I will use that as a quiz grade or
Speaker:something like that.
Speaker:If we have learned one of my favorite
Speaker:things that I do, depending on the
Speaker:semester I'm teaching
Speaker:is we learn about a
Speaker:holiday that's not a common one.
Speaker:And then they put together a display for
Speaker:the hallway to teach
Speaker:other kids about this holiday
Speaker:is not a real popular one or whatnot one
Speaker:that a lot of people know.
Speaker:And so that becomes their assessment, you
Speaker:know, and we're
Speaker:working together and I put
Speaker:my hands behind my back with every sheet
Speaker:of paper that's put up
Speaker:crooked or backwards or
Speaker:upside down because it's theirs, right?
Speaker:It's there.
Speaker:I try to make sure the
Speaker:words are right side.
Speaker:Like if we want people to read that guys,
Speaker:which way does it need to go?
Speaker:But it's still, you know,
Speaker:asking them to show their skill.
Speaker:Which way does that mean?
Speaker:We want people to read it, but you know,
Speaker:pictures, whatever, those
Speaker:can be wherever they want
Speaker:them.
Speaker:So with that class, it truly is at their
Speaker:level, on their pace.
Speaker:You know, we are three quarters of the
Speaker:way through the semester
Speaker:and the group I'm working
Speaker:with now, we are still working on one to
Speaker:20 because two out of
Speaker:the four of them are still
Speaker:having trouble with numeracy and, you
Speaker:know, counting physical objects in
Speaker:English to associate
Speaker:it with the proper numbers.
Speaker:So that's going to come slow in German
Speaker:too, you know, so, but
Speaker:it's that course I love
Speaker:because it is such pure
Speaker:learning for the sake of learning.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But you still have to pretend to have a
Speaker:culminating assessment
Speaker:for them and everything.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:And we do it together.
Speaker:It is a group effort in the class.
Speaker:Yeah, culminating.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If the group is high enough functioning,
Speaker:I put together a
Speaker:world tour book for them.
Speaker:And they, I found an elementary package
Speaker:on teachers pay
Speaker:teachers that has like a little
Speaker:info sheet on different countries.
Speaker:And so we'll go back to the countries
Speaker:that we visited through
Speaker:celebrations and culture.
Speaker:And we fill out the information sheet and
Speaker:that becomes their culminating assessment
Speaker:and it becomes something that they can
Speaker:take home with them.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:Yeah, it depends.
Speaker:It all depends on the group and the
Speaker:function, the function of
Speaker:the group and the dynamics
Speaker:and yeah, but it's my favorite class
Speaker:because it is such pure learning.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Love it.
Speaker:That's what learning
Speaker:should look like actually.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We are coming to the end.
Speaker:I can't believe already we haven't even
Speaker:barely touched this topic.
Speaker:But I want to give some
Speaker:people some concrete things.
Speaker:So what actually counts as input based
Speaker:assessment for each of you?
Speaker:And I'm going to give mine really simply
Speaker:and then you guys can go.
Speaker:Mine is if it doesn't measure what a
Speaker:student can do in the
Speaker:language, whether it be speaking,
Speaker:writing, listening or
Speaker:reading, it doesn't count for grade.
Speaker:It may go in the grade book for tracking,
Speaker:but it doesn't count for grade.
Speaker:I've got to look at it.
Speaker:Does this tell me how much the student
Speaker:can speak at their level
Speaker:and the target language
Speaker:or not?
Speaker:If it's not that, if that assessment,
Speaker:number one, doesn't
Speaker:demonstrate that, then it's not
Speaker:a proper input based assessment for me.
Speaker:If it doesn't tell me how well they can
Speaker:do that skill that we're looking at.
Speaker:And so if we do culture
Speaker:things, those are great.
Speaker:I'm going to track those.
Speaker:But if it doesn't result in something
Speaker:where they talk about
Speaker:the culture in the target
Speaker:language or they write about the culture
Speaker:in the target language or
Speaker:I give them a new component
Speaker:of that piece of culture that they've
Speaker:never learned before in
Speaker:the target language and
Speaker:they have to understand it, then it's not
Speaker:going to go in the grade book that counts
Speaker:for a grade because it's not
Speaker:demonstrating a language skill.
Speaker:It's demonstrating knowledge necessarily.
Speaker:And that's not the actual
Speaker:skill that I want to do.
Speaker:So for me, that's my filter
Speaker:that I filter everything through.
Speaker:And I've got tons of webinars.
Speaker:I've got my assessment course.
Speaker:So if you want to know specific
Speaker:assessments that I do,
Speaker:those are the places to look at
Speaker:for mine.
Speaker:Now I'm going to let Pamela and Lynn take
Speaker:it away with that
Speaker:because they're going to
Speaker:give you different
Speaker:ideas than what I have.
Speaker:Pamela, you go first.
Speaker:Well, okay.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:I think I'm lagging.
Speaker:I apologize if my video's been bad, but
Speaker:out in the Pacific
Speaker:Northwest, no internet.
Speaker:The one thing we didn't talk about,
Speaker:because we run out of
Speaker:time now, is how not to drown
Speaker:in the paperwork.
Speaker:So I'm going to finish by saying the
Speaker:easiest thing, focus on
Speaker:your one skill and just look
Speaker:at that.
Speaker:If you are doing verb conjugations, don't
Speaker:stress about the fact
Speaker:that your student used
Speaker:the wrong preposition.
Speaker:Just focus on the verb conjugations.
Speaker:So for my class of, let's say I've got 35
Speaker:students in the class, I had them write a
Speaker:quick write something.
Speaker:I'm just looking, did they get a
Speaker:subject-verb combination, the verb
Speaker:correctly matching the
Speaker:subject at least one time
Speaker:in this little quick write?
Speaker:I'm just going eyeballs, blank, blank,
Speaker:put it down, put it
Speaker:down, put it down, put it
Speaker:down, oh no, this one didn't, put it in
Speaker:that stack, put it down,
Speaker:put it down, oh this one
Speaker:didn't, put it in that stack.
Speaker:There, my grading's done.
Speaker:These guys all get full points.
Speaker:These guys I'm going to have to look at
Speaker:again and decide do they
Speaker:get one point off or two
Speaker:points off or whatever.
Speaker:But it takes me less
Speaker:than five minutes per class.
Speaker:So that's my, I think I'll end with that,
Speaker:that focus on what it
Speaker:is you want to assess
Speaker:and keep your eyes on the prize.
Speaker:Don't forget, don't get distracted by all
Speaker:the other shiny stuff,
Speaker:just focus on the one
Speaker:thing you want to assess.
Speaker:Yep, that's a really good one as well.
Speaker:And I would say that Scott drove that
Speaker:point home in the
Speaker:seminar course that I took with
Speaker:him and that is the mantra that runs
Speaker:through my mind too.
Speaker:Scott is what is this showing me about
Speaker:their ability to use the language?
Speaker:And I will add that Anne Marie Chase's
Speaker:quick quizzes for
Speaker:listening and reading are amazing
Speaker:and they really do show
Speaker:what the child can understand.
Speaker:There's three parts to them.
Speaker:The first part is words or phrases,
Speaker:translation, straight
Speaker:target language to English.
Speaker:The second part is a short
Speaker:summary that they do in English.
Speaker:So if they can tell you a short summary
Speaker:in English, you can
Speaker:really see how much of that
Speaker:reading they understood
Speaker:in the target language.
Speaker:And the last section is details that they
Speaker:learned from the story.
Speaker:So not translating, if they just
Speaker:translate, I don't give
Speaker:them full credit because a lot
Speaker:of times the translation is not a detail,
Speaker:but a detail that they learned.
Speaker:And I tell my students, if you want to
Speaker:show me that you really
Speaker:understood it, then an
Speaker:assumption or an insinuation that you can
Speaker:make because of what you learned can be a
Speaker:detail because it shows
Speaker:me that you can go deeper.
Speaker:And I tell them what they show me on that
Speaker:form should be the
Speaker:most that they understood
Speaker:and should try and show me by the end of
Speaker:those details, a complete
Speaker:picture of what they read
Speaker:because that's what I'm looking for.
Speaker:And those are quick and
Speaker:easy to grade as well.
Speaker:And another activity that I picked up
Speaker:from JJ Morgan on her
Speaker:blog was cutting up the text.
Speaker:I was trying to think of the name,
Speaker:cutting up the text.
Speaker:You give them a text, they read it, they
Speaker:draw a picture of what
Speaker:they understood from the
Speaker:text. And then they literally have to cut the
Speaker:text up and put in
Speaker:pieces of that text onto their
Speaker:drawing that they created to prove to you
Speaker:that their drawing is correct.
Speaker:And again, it shows you the depth of what
Speaker:they can understand.
Speaker:And you really do have to emphasize that
Speaker:in your direction
Speaker:giving, that they need to show
Speaker:you their depth of understanding and not
Speaker:just do it fast because
Speaker:they'll just do it fast
Speaker:and it won't show you a whole lot.
Speaker:So both of those you can
Speaker:find on their websites.
Speaker:Anne-Marie Chase is,
Speaker:she's Signora Chase, right?
Speaker:Yep, Signora Chase.
Speaker:And then JJ Morgan is Signorita who?
Speaker:Signorita, gosh, if you just do JJ Morgan
Speaker:into a Google search,
Speaker:cutting up the text,
Speaker:it'll come up.
Speaker:But those are two of
Speaker:my favorite activities.
Speaker:That's a great idea.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:And I will say something I've been
Speaker:experimenting with is, and
Speaker:I'll put both those websites
Speaker:in the show notes for everybody, Signora
Speaker:Chase's and JJ Morgan's.
Speaker:But what I've been experimenting with,
Speaker:and I got this idea not
Speaker:from anybody, but from
Speaker:Chat GPT, I'm sorry, but it
Speaker:gave me some ideas of assessing.
Speaker:And I love it.
Speaker:It's the one sentence summary.
Speaker:So they do a listening, they write one
Speaker:sentence in English
Speaker:telling me they demonstrate, but
Speaker:then I add to it like the
Speaker:details you were talking about.
Speaker:You have to give me one detail from the
Speaker:beginning, one detail from
Speaker:the middle, and one detail
Speaker:from the end.
Speaker:So they're writing four sentences in
Speaker:English instead of answering questions.
Speaker:And I get a better comprehension because
Speaker:my colleagues always want to do
Speaker:open-ended questions.
Speaker:They take forever to grade.
Speaker:And there are so many nuances because you
Speaker:need a rubric to grade
Speaker:that now because they
Speaker:got kind of the answer, but they didn't
Speaker:really hit it on the
Speaker:head because it's not always
Speaker:simple quick and easy answers.
Speaker:And it takes a lot more time to assess,
Speaker:even if you put it in
Speaker:informative, where it will
Speaker:assess those.
Speaker:But they didn't capitalize
Speaker:yes, so it marks it wrong.
Speaker:So you have to add that as an answer.
Speaker:They misspelled yes,
Speaker:and they spelled it yes.
Speaker:Y-A-S instead.
Speaker:And then you've got to
Speaker:mark that as a right answer.
Speaker:So it takes so much more time.
Speaker:But it's really quick for me to look at
Speaker:whether they do it
Speaker:digitally and type it in a text
Speaker:box or if they do it on a piece of paper.
Speaker:For four sentences, it takes me less than
Speaker:four seconds to read
Speaker:that, and I get an idea
Speaker:really quickly on whether or not they
Speaker:understood what they read.
Speaker:Because in real life, guess what?
Speaker:There ain't any
Speaker:multiple choice questions.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:So what we always tell them is you have
Speaker:to understand the gist
Speaker:of the conversation enough
Speaker:to be able to continue that conversation.
Speaker:So if they're listening and they can
Speaker:summarize it in one
Speaker:sentence, and they don't have that
Speaker:skill in English, so you're actually
Speaker:teaching what a summary
Speaker:is because their summary is
Speaker:just rewriting what they heard.
Speaker:That's the way they figure is a summary.
Speaker:That's not what a summary is.
Speaker:And then writing three details, then you
Speaker:know that they did it.
Speaker:They might have gotten a summary, which
Speaker:means they got the big
Speaker:picture, but they're not
Speaker:getting the details.
Speaker:So that may be a C type grade because
Speaker:they don't have those details in there.
Speaker:Getting all three details, that gets you
Speaker:that A. Getting one or
Speaker:two details is that B there.
Speaker:But we really are
Speaker:shooting for that main idea.
Speaker:Are they getting that main idea?
Speaker:But that's the approaching because it's
Speaker:not enough because it
Speaker:could be you got a main
Speaker:idea that we're talking about an
Speaker:appointment that
Speaker:you're going to be making.
Speaker:But if you didn't catch the detail of the
Speaker:time and the date, then the understanding
Speaker:is not really there.
Speaker:So you're missing a key component.
Speaker:So you're almost there.
Speaker:You're in the right, at
Speaker:least you're in the right sport.
Speaker:You're not expecting a baseball game and
Speaker:show up at a football stadium.
Speaker:You know, you're in
Speaker:the right ballpark there.
Speaker:So you give them that C there, but then
Speaker:they got to work on those details.
Speaker:And then you can give them the feedback
Speaker:that they need to know
Speaker:that says, you've got the
Speaker:main idea.
Speaker:You're in the right place.
Speaker:But now you need to focus on the details
Speaker:there, trying to get more information.
Speaker:Well, you can say, give me one detail.
Speaker:Can you now focus on getting on the next
Speaker:one, getting one detail.
Speaker:And then when you've got that one detail,
Speaker:next time let's go for two details.
Speaker:Even though I'm asking for three, you
Speaker:might not be able to
Speaker:go from zero to three.
Speaker:So just take those baby
Speaker:steps and go to the one.
Speaker:Well, Scott, if you're really hooked on
Speaker:questions and answers,
Speaker:why does the teacher have to
Speaker:write them?
Speaker:Why can't the students write questions
Speaker:and answers for the
Speaker:reading or the listening based
Speaker:on what they understood?
Speaker:And again, if they can write good
Speaker:questions with correct
Speaker:answers, they understand it,
Speaker:you know.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And I've got to take my
Speaker:time writing those questions.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:That's a great idea.
Speaker:God, I would like to remind you that if
Speaker:you don't know who wrote
Speaker:it, but you went to chat
Speaker:GPT, somebody wrote it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Chat GPT did not write it.
Speaker:No, I understood that.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I used chat GPT last time to brainstorm,
Speaker:to brainstorm ideas.
Speaker:I want a different way to assess this.
Speaker:I've already assessed it this way.
Speaker:I want something new.
Speaker:I want something so it gives me some
Speaker:ideas and I can go back
Speaker:and you can go back and
Speaker:you can tell chat to
Speaker:you, where did you get this?
Speaker:It will cite the information and you can
Speaker:go and get that information.
Speaker:So, but I use it as a brainstorm.
Speaker:It is my teacher's assistant and it,
Speaker:that's how I use it.
Speaker:But I brainstorm and I can't think of
Speaker:something or if I've got a
Speaker:kid who has got this, like
Speaker:I had a kid last semester in a class I
Speaker:don't teach, it's not a
Speaker:language class, but they
Speaker:put this class in me.
Speaker:I had no idea what I was
Speaker:doing teaching this class.
Speaker:And it was when they got college credit
Speaker:for, so I had to follow
Speaker:this, you know, very strictly
Speaker:all this stuff.
Speaker:But he had, I've never seen an IEP that
Speaker:literally was six
Speaker:pages of accommodations.
Speaker:Just the accommodation
Speaker:pages were six pages.
Speaker:So I uploaded his, I took off his name
Speaker:and covered that up, but I
Speaker:uploaded the accommodations
Speaker:part of it because
Speaker:Chatcheby can read pictures.
Speaker:So I put that in there and I said, this
Speaker:is what I have to teach.
Speaker:Can you give me some ways that I can
Speaker:teach to this kid while still
Speaker:following the accommodations?
Speaker:And it gave me some creative ways that I
Speaker:would never have
Speaker:thought of before because
Speaker:I would have thought this, but then I go,
Speaker:oh, this one works for
Speaker:this company, but violates
Speaker:that accommodation.
Speaker:And it was really complicated.
Speaker:It was a really good kid.
Speaker:I love the kid, but I did, I took the
Speaker:names off, as I said, any
Speaker:identifying, I took that
Speaker:information, uploaded it
Speaker:and it can read the pictures.
Speaker:So I didn't have to copy
Speaker:and paste and stuff like that.
Speaker:I can just screenshot the
Speaker:pictures, put them up there.
Speaker:Bingo, wim bam, thank you, ma'am.
Speaker:It is done.
Speaker:And I got all that information.
Speaker:And I'll tell you another way I use it,
Speaker:because I'm taking, some
Speaker:of you heard from the last
Speaker:couple of episodes, I'm taking a new
Speaker:language called Maltese,
Speaker:which is my heritage language.
Speaker:And it's not always easy.
Speaker:And I'm going through live tutors and
Speaker:they'll have slides or
Speaker:something up on the screen.
Speaker:And I'll take a screenshot of those
Speaker:because I want to be in the
Speaker:moment when I'm listening.
Speaker:I don't want to be taking writing notes.
Speaker:It's just like I tell my kids, I don't
Speaker:want you writing notes while I'm talking.
Speaker:So they can screenshot these.
Speaker:And then I put these screenshots into
Speaker:chat GPT and I say chat GPT.
Speaker:I need a list of all this vocabulary that
Speaker:we talked about, pull
Speaker:it from the stories,
Speaker:pull it from all these things, give it to
Speaker:me in Maltese, next to
Speaker:the Maltese in parentheses,
Speaker:put the pronunciation using
Speaker:English letters and sounds.
Speaker:Even though I know the international
Speaker:phonetic system that was
Speaker:so long ago when I learned
Speaker:it, I don't want to think that hard.
Speaker:And then give me the English translation
Speaker:and give it to me in
Speaker:the Anki flashcard format.
Speaker:Because Anki is a free flashcard program.
Speaker:And then it gives me a text file.
Speaker:And all I do is upload to Anki and I save
Speaker:me all this time from
Speaker:typing all of that out
Speaker:into vocab.
Speaker:And I can have it, you know, week one,
Speaker:week two, week three and
Speaker:going through and studying
Speaker:my vocabulary that way to
Speaker:help build my vocabulary.
Speaker:And I start with the passive vocabulary,
Speaker:learning it from Maltese to English.
Speaker:And when I feel confident, then I flip it
Speaker:and add it the other way.
Speaker:And when I feel I've done
Speaker:that way, then I mix it.
Speaker:So some are English to Maltese and some
Speaker:are Maltese to English.
Speaker:But it gives you the practice and Anki
Speaker:automatically does space
Speaker:repetition based on your answers
Speaker:and how fast you answer them.
Speaker:So it works really, really well.
Speaker:But that saved me
Speaker:hours and hours and hours.
Speaker:I have over a thousand
Speaker:vocab words in there already.
Speaker:And thinking about how long that would
Speaker:have taken me either to
Speaker:write it on an actual index
Speaker:card or to type it out into Anki, you
Speaker:know, word by word by
Speaker:word, this saved me time.
Speaker:So I use it as an assistant and it
Speaker:really, really does help.
Speaker:And for like your special needs kids,
Speaker:Lynn, or any kid, really,
Speaker:I will do the same thing
Speaker:with my vocabulary in Spanish.
Speaker:Similar, and I don't make
Speaker:the flashcards for them.
Speaker:But what I'll do is I'll put it in
Speaker:notebook LM, which is a free Google app.
Speaker:You get you hit limitations if you don't
Speaker:have a paid Google account.
Speaker:I have a paid one because
Speaker:I pay for my Gmail account.
Speaker:I pay for extra storage.
Speaker:So it comes along for free.
Speaker:I get more usage of it.
Speaker:You put you copy and paste your vocab
Speaker:list and tell it to
Speaker:make a cartoon infographic
Speaker:using all of the vocabulary.
Speaker:And they show me those last time.
Speaker:They give you one page with all the
Speaker:vocabulary along with a
Speaker:graphical element that helps
Speaker:it in there.
Speaker:So it helps everybody.
Speaker:You got your visual, your textual, all
Speaker:those things are right there.
Speaker:And it's a one sheet.
Speaker:And I can't publish these legally, but in
Speaker:my classroom, I will
Speaker:do them in themes like
Speaker:South Park, Batman, Spiderman.
Speaker:So I'll go, okay, you need
Speaker:your Spiderman sheet today.
Speaker:Get your Spiderman sheet out.
Speaker:And then they know which one to find
Speaker:instead of me saying, let's
Speaker:go to unit four vocabulary
Speaker:A and B. They're not going to find that.
Speaker:If I go, go to your Spiderman, go to your
Speaker:Felix the cat, go to your Tom and Jerry.
Speaker:I love Felix the cat.
Speaker:I remember that from the seventies.
Speaker:Students remember, do they know Felix?
Speaker:No, they learned it from my graphic.
Speaker:And then they look it up.
Speaker:The kids who are like cartoonists, they
Speaker:like to look that stuff
Speaker:up or underdog, Ollie,
Speaker:Bullwinkle.
Speaker:So I make all these ones.
Speaker:So I can't publish them because it's
Speaker:copyrighted, but I can use it for my
Speaker:classroom and it helps
Speaker:them to understand.
Speaker:So you know, Family Guy and South Park
Speaker:are really big for my kids.
Speaker:So they're going to pay more attention to
Speaker:the stuff, especially
Speaker:when I do like the family
Speaker:tree using Family Guy,
Speaker:you know, shows all that.
Speaker:So you can do that and it's free and it's
Speaker:really a great thing
Speaker:for them to be able to
Speaker:do.
Speaker:And I make that for every vocabulary.
Speaker:So those are the things I kind of use the
Speaker:AI for because it
Speaker:really helps my kids learning
Speaker:and comprehension and understanding.
Speaker:And they have something back to refer to.
Speaker:And that part of the IP that says you
Speaker:need to give them a copy of the notes.
Speaker:I don't really do notes, but guess what?
Speaker:This is the notes.
Speaker:This is it.
Speaker:I mean, I have my kids write the
Speaker:vocabulary down because there is
Speaker:something about actually
Speaker:writing the letters down.
Speaker:And writing.
Speaker:So I do that and I don't give them the
Speaker:colored sheet till
Speaker:after they wrote those down.
Speaker:But I also make these infographics about
Speaker:a grammatical aspect.
Speaker:So it helps them to to understand about
Speaker:gender or that because I
Speaker:don't really talk about
Speaker:that in class, you know, but we have to
Speaker:learn in the textbook.
Speaker:So I go I look at all the grammar points
Speaker:for the chapter I've got
Speaker:to teach and I make these
Speaker:little infographics and
Speaker:I also make a slide deck.
Speaker:It'll make a nice up
Speaker:to 15 slide slide deck.
Speaker:And I'll use that to kind of explain it
Speaker:to kids and then give
Speaker:them the summary in an
Speaker:infographic.
Speaker:And I state it together for the chapter.
Speaker:They have everything that they need.
Speaker:Bingo and everything is perfect for them.
Speaker:So those are the ways I help to use to
Speaker:supplement what you're talking about.
Speaker:I don't use it to teach my kids, but I
Speaker:give it information
Speaker:because it would take me hours
Speaker:or lots of money to pay someone to make a
Speaker:infographic and draw it out by hand.
Speaker:So it's a way that I can use to help my
Speaker:kids in differentia and
Speaker:scaffold and support, especially
Speaker:my special needs students.
Speaker:So it is a really great, great thing.
Speaker:But we have gone way over.
Speaker:We are at 915 this morning,
Speaker:at least on the Pacific Coast.
Speaker:So I hope everybody
Speaker:learned a lot about assessments.
Speaker:And if you want to know more, you can
Speaker:look all of us up and
Speaker:check out what we have to
Speaker:offer.
Speaker:Any last words before we say goodbye?
Speaker:Just so enjoyable being
Speaker:here, connecting with people.
Speaker:You've been great, Pamela.
Speaker:She's been with us straight
Speaker:for like six or seven weeks.
Speaker:I can't remember.
Speaker:Most of season three has been with Pamela
Speaker:and I love her to death.
Speaker:She's got such great...
Speaker:Because I'm having a bowl.
Speaker:She has such great insights.
Speaker:Well, I would say to anybody who watches
Speaker:these, if you think it
Speaker:would be fun to be on one,
Speaker:just reach out to Scott because we all
Speaker:have things that we're good at.
Speaker:And teacher voices need to be stronger
Speaker:voices in our PDs, in
Speaker:our curriculum development
Speaker:and everything.
Speaker:Absolutely. Teacher voices need to be there.
Speaker:And that's what I like here about not
Speaker:having superstars that
Speaker:everybody knows, like Maestro...
Speaker:Even though I'm inviting Maestro Loca, if
Speaker:she wants to come on, she's welcome to or
Speaker:any other one.
Speaker:But to have everyday teachers is
Speaker:important because we all
Speaker:have something to share.
Speaker:We all do something that is worthy for
Speaker:other people to know about.
Speaker:And we don't necessarily think that
Speaker:because we're in our
Speaker:little classrooms with our doors
Speaker:shut, but I think it's
Speaker:really important to share ideas.
Speaker:I have gotten tons of ideas.
Speaker:I've gotten ideas from Lynn.
Speaker:I've gotten ideas from Pamela.
Speaker:I write them down.
Speaker:The sink or swim game that Pamela talked
Speaker:about, I'd never heard of it before.
Speaker:And my kids are loving that game.
Speaker:And they're now
Speaker:strategizing and figuring it out.
Speaker:And we were doing it
Speaker:during testing last week.
Speaker:That's a fun show.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They were doing it
Speaker:during testing last week.
Speaker:And the teacher next door,
Speaker:she's like, "I'm not used...
Speaker:She's not used to me being loud because
Speaker:I'm not used to being
Speaker:right next door to her.
Speaker:And I'm not used to having to worry about
Speaker:people being next door
Speaker:because where I'm at."
Speaker:And she called me, she
Speaker:goes, "I'm next door."
Speaker:I'm like, "Oh, got it.
Speaker:Sorry."
Speaker:Because we're being too loud because they
Speaker:were getting excited about that.
Speaker:They're like sinking so and so.
Speaker:I'm saving so and so.
Speaker:It was just a fun little game
Speaker:and I never had heard of it.
Speaker:I'm always looking for other
Speaker:games to practice with them.
Speaker:And that was a really fun one.
Speaker:They liked that one.
Speaker:They liked the unfair game.
Speaker:But I never would have heard about that
Speaker:one except for Pamela.
Speaker:And then she talked about apples and...
Speaker:Is it apples and oranges?
Speaker:Apples to apples?
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:Oh, apples to apples.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So I haven't integrated that one yet, but
Speaker:that's another one in
Speaker:there that we talked
Speaker:about in a previous episode.
Speaker:So if you want to go
Speaker:back and check those out.
Speaker:But we're always
Speaker:learning from each other.
Speaker:And no matter whether you're new as a
Speaker:teacher or you've been
Speaker:doing it for a while, we all
Speaker:have experiences and things that we do in
Speaker:our classrooms that
Speaker:can help each other out.
Speaker:And we need to share more.
Speaker:Not like that Japanese teacher that
Speaker:Pamela had to cover, take
Speaker:over for who shut the door
Speaker:so she could hide and burn everything
Speaker:else that she had created.
Speaker:So she could share.
Speaker:And I've worked with
Speaker:teachers like that too.
Speaker:I said, don't share this.
Speaker:You can't have that.
Speaker:That's mine.
Speaker:I made it.
Speaker:It's mine.
Speaker:And I'm glad that we have moved more to a
Speaker:more sharing society
Speaker:with teachers because
Speaker:we have such things.
Speaker:So thank you, Lynn,
Speaker:for pointing that out.
Speaker:And yes, we're always looking.
Speaker:We've got two more episodes this season
Speaker:and then we're going to
Speaker:take a couple of weeks
Speaker:break and then we'll be starting.
Speaker:I can't believe already season four will
Speaker:be starting pretty soon
Speaker:because we just started
Speaker:this podcast in July.
Speaker:So it's almost been a year and we'll take
Speaker:a couple of weeks off
Speaker:when our next two weeks,
Speaker:I think our last one is May 10th.
Speaker:And then after that, we'll take a couple
Speaker:of weeks off, probably
Speaker:the rest of May off and
Speaker:we'll come back in June.
Speaker:So if you're interested, you can always
Speaker:go and put the link up
Speaker:here before we say our
Speaker:final goodbyes and US podcast.
Speaker:And when I have the new season ready,
Speaker:it'll be updated on there as well.
Speaker:So it's mm.us podcast for those who are
Speaker:listening and it's on the screen for
Speaker:those who are watching
Speaker:to sign up.
Speaker:And as the new season comes out, I put
Speaker:the topics out in
Speaker:advance so you can kind of see
Speaker:what's going on.
Speaker:We record on Sundays at 8 a.m.
Speaker:Pacific 11 a.m.
Speaker:Eastern.
Speaker:And with that, I want to thank my
Speaker:wonderful teachers today
Speaker:who joined me because that
Speaker:is a wrap on episode 28.
Speaker:And if you're walking away with even one
Speaker:thing you can try on
Speaker:Monday, tomorrow, then Pamela
Speaker:and Lynn did their jobs and so did you
Speaker:for sticking around.
Speaker:Pamela, thank you for bringing the
Speaker:translator brain to the
Speaker:assessment conversation.
Speaker:I love that she knows all of the science
Speaker:behind the learning.
Speaker:She quotes these theories and these
Speaker:practices and such and I
Speaker:have not heard of them before,
Speaker:but I'm grateful to learn that out.
Speaker:It turns out the skill required to decode
Speaker:meeting across
Speaker:languages for film and TV are
Speaker:not totally unrelated to figuring out
Speaker:what student actually understands.
Speaker:Who knew?
Speaker:And Lynn, thank you for 22 years of
Speaker:wisdom delivered without
Speaker:any of the pretension that
Speaker:sometimes comes with 22 years of wisdom.
Speaker:And I love hearing from lesser taught
Speaker:languages because
Speaker:German is the love of mine.
Speaker:It's my first.
Speaker:Well, it's my second language I learned,
Speaker:but it's the one I
Speaker:actually graduated from college
Speaker:with.
Speaker:So it's one I always have
Speaker:hoped to be able to teach.
Speaker:But on the West Coast,
Speaker:it is extremely rare.
Speaker:And also, if anyone is listening, has a
Speaker:good rom com recommendation.
Speaker:She is accepting submissions.
Speaker:If this episode was useful, do us a
Speaker:favor, subscribe, leave
Speaker:a review and send this to
Speaker:one teacher who's currently drowning in a
Speaker:stack of papers they
Speaker:don't want to look at.
Speaker:They'll thank you later.
Speaker:Catch us live every Sunday on YouTube or
Speaker:find us wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker:Ditch the drills, trust the process and
Speaker:I'll see you next
Speaker:time on Comprehend This.
Speaker:Bye bye everybody.
