Individually.
At the end of each and every unit.
Oh and you have 35 kids in each of 6 classes.
It's the stuff nightmares are made of.
Because while you're talking individually to each and every student - do you know what those other 34 kids are doing because you're not staring them down, so they're basically unsupervised?
*shudder* I don't even want to think about it.
But it doesn't have to be the most annoying thing you've ever done.
Here are 3 tips to make it easy and nightmare-free.
1. Make sure everyone knows when their turn is.
If your students sit in rows, then the kid at the front of the row closest to the door goes first. Then the kid behind him. And when that row is done, the next row starts.
Or snake through the classroom in whatever way makes the most sense for however your desks are arranged.
The only way you're going to get through every kid in 1-2 class periods is if no one interrupts and no one has any questions.
Students will also have less anxiety about the assessment if they know exactly when their turn will come.
This will guarantee they have enough time to prepare since they can watch their turn come closer and closer.
2. Give students the easiest work they've ever seen.
You do not want anyone to interrupt you for any reason because every second you're not giving an assessment means the whole thing takes longer.
Give your students work they could not possibly have any questions about.
If this means you're giving them work in English to learn about a Spanish-speaking country, do that. If they are thoroughly entertained and engaged with a word search for this unit's vocab, cool.
Whatever keeps them occupied (and doesn't feel like waste-of-time busy work) while you speak individually with their classmates.
3. Get another teacher to come in and stare kids down.
Most classes will understand how this works - they work quietly while their classmates take an assessment and they wait for their turn.
But sometimes you have a class that has an extreme number of ants in their pants and/or just cannot handle this task.
If you have a class that cannot sit quietly without being stared down every single second, then beg, barter, and plead with a colleague to help you out.
You just need someone to stand in the doorway or at the back of the room so you can get through the speaking assessments. They can even bring papers to grade.
You just need those extra eyeballs.
It'll make everything soooooo much easier.
Bonus Tip
Require students to stay after school to do their speaking assessment.
Schedule them in 5-minute increments over the course of a week or so.
This certainly won't work for every school, but it's super easy if you can do it this way.
Do you have any suggestions for successfully administering these types of speaking assessments?
Besides "make students do it in partners or small groups and it's a billion times easier". 😂
Share in the comments below!
I would be interested to see what others think of this - when I do individual assessments I have kids answer a question and talk for 30 seconds to one minute. The questions are built around our vocabulary and I use the same questions as prompts for a writing assessment. Kids have access to the questions up to two weeks in advance.
ReplyDeleteBecause I time the speaking assessments, I am able to get through them easily in our 90 minute block. On a traditional schedule it would take about a day and a half.
While kids are assessing my other students are doing work on their own, as stated in the blog.
Thanks for your comment! I love the idea of timing the assessments so you can be sure to get through all of them. I definitely struggle with the time management of it to get through all the assessments. Thanks for your input!
ReplyDelete¡Gracias a ti! I will say that I have taken Tina Hargaden's QNA game and adapted it into a speaking assessment. It still involves me assigning each one a turn, but they also have the very clear rubric and grade each other. In that way, everyone is busy: half are listening and half are speaking-then it switches. You collect the papers at the end of the hour and input the numbers! If you think there will be some foulplay and fudging of the numbers, you can certainly go and stand near those students and do your own. But typically, I ensure that I never put friends near each other so that they won't be tempted to boost each other's grades.
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