Passport to Success - Assessment
Presenters: Anna Crocker, Debbie Cody, and Toni Theisen

What you test is what you get. Want students to communicate better in the language? The proof will be in the pudding and the pudding is performance-based assessments. Learn how to design performance-based assessments both formative and summative. Learn how to motivate students and get them to produce in the language.

This session will answer the questions:

How can assessments be used to provide evidence of student learning and proficiency?
How can the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and Performance Guidelines be embedded in assessments?
How can assessments inform instructional plans and sequences?

Handouts will include:

Planning for Performance
Planning for Learning
Designing a Rubric
Examples of performance-based assessments

This session is based on backward design from Understanding by Design (by Wiggens and McTighe) and will address the various aspects of assessment: determining appropriate standards-based evidence, designing authentic language tasks and accompanying rubrics, and using performance assessments to engage learners and focus instruction. We will explore how to assess for learning and suggest practical ways in which formative assessmentscan inform teaching and learning.