assessment

I just have to throw this out here. I just read this on the Best Practices list and it was written by BP:

I divide all assessments into formative and summative. Formative can
> > be anything from orally asking questions in Latin, to small group
> > work, to short contextual quizzes about a story (on paper). Summative
> > assessments ALWAYS center around a complete story and always have four
> > parts: comprehension (completely in Latin), grammar, culture and
> > derivatives. All questions hail back to the story. I give four
> > separate grades on such a test so that I can track performance in
> > those four areas over time.

All I can say is WOW.

I have not gotten gutsy enough to switch everything over to testing/answering all in Latin. Up until this year I've had students who just could NOT stretch themselves to going so far into the language. A couple could/would.

This year in my small Latin 1 class of 14 kids, the "worst" (which are still good students, it seems) are some of the freshman who fail to do the small bits of homework I assign. But this last week I did several things that usually throw my students. 1st was the micrologue/dictation. The micrologue is telling a story via 4 pictures or so (stick pictures) with simple sentences. You teach the story to one student by saying it repeatedly and dramatically while everyone else does dictation/writes it down. (Side note: this is a great way to check your own pronunciation, because if everyone writes down the same mistake, you are probably pronouncing the word wrong!) The one kid ultimately tells you the whole story back. This is a Rassias thing which I learned from Nancy Llewellyn who does the Rusticatio in the summer (which I need to go to).

I follow this with an oral substitution drill (I make the rows compete--makes it more fun for them.)

Then for homework they have to read the story on their own on which the micrologue was based and write a summary (not a translation) and I give them a quiz the next day. I was stunned--I only had one F; the majority of the grades were an A. I've never had such good grades.

ANYWAY, I was trying to get around to the Latin part mentioned in BP's assessment. I gave as an option to write up the summary in Latin. One senior did it and it was fine.

We ourselves have problems with these concepts because WE DID NOT DO THEM. This is where we go wrong with our own teaching--if WE have never done whatever someone is suggesting we do, then we are nervous about them or find reasons not to do them.

I gave a set of reading comp questions to the the bIniOnEs/trIniOnes the other day, giving the bIniOnEs questions in English, and the trIniOnEs questions in Latin. They didn't balk. I haven't graded them yet because I'm so behind on my English stuff--oh yeah, and I *left* what I need for English out at my school, some 30 miles away, so I need to go there today after my soccer game.

So why not, is all I'm trying to say?

Why not get the kids writing and thinking in Latin early on? I'm thinking about assigning for homework for the 1's that involve going back two chapters to easier stories to write summaries in Latin. I am so hesitant to assign homework because I have so much to grade already, but WHY THE HECK NOT??????

So what if I don't grade it all??? They could trade and read them and comment on them. WHY NOT?

And so, assessment according to BP has
*comprehension, all in Latin
*grammar, centered around the story
*culture, centered around the story
*derivatives, centered around the story

Yeah, why not?

I mean, my tests have, to a certain degree, met this. I have used comprehension questions in English, and have said that it was worth doing this in English because, hey, that's what AP tests and such would be like. A cop out; I know it, you know it.

I have had grammar questions based on the story to follow; but also some that focused on just concepts.

Culture always seemed separate, based on what was in the book, not applying it to the story.

And derivatives...well, in the past I've been a bit weak on this. I'm trying to be more formal about it this year, having a day where the kids bring in flashcards and we put derivs on them, etc. So I'm at least covering it more formally than before. I'm still not satisfied with it, admittedly.

And on tests/quizzes, I've always allowed for ANY derivative of ANY word on the quiz, not just the new vocabulary. Am I being a wimp? Maybe. I just don't want my course to become a word power course; I want to reward the student for making connections at ANY level. That's a cognitive level sort of thing, and some kids will be at a higher order of thinking just because of physical maturity and brain development with age. And if my class is mixed freshman through seniors, I can't in good conscience assign something that is easy for one group....oh listen to me, that's another cop out.

Well, I just want to keep the course about LATIN, not about word power. My emphasis is on READING the Latin.

The creativity of my Latin students, as I've said, overwhelms me and I'm getting very excited about doing some of my projects with them. The successes from this week make me think that my Aeneid project will be a big hit. I cannot wait!

Must grade something.