I am now in week 8 of school - I cannot believe that I have been with students for almost two months! One of my goals for this year has been to fully implement a proficiency-based grading system. While I have dabbled with the concept in the past few years, this year I wish to fully commit to it.
However, when discussing proficiency-based grading with others, I have come to realize that there are lots of different views about this, of which many are incorrect. Much of this comes down to one's understanding of performance vs. proficiency. I will admit that I did not learn about this concept until a few years ago, and now having an understanding of it has completely transformed the way I view grading.
So allow me this excursus to distinguish between the two in a language classroom - none of the following information is mine but comes from years of learning about the topic from Martina Bex, Elicia Cardenas, and many others:
Performance
- “spit back what you know," rehearsed
- should be formative in nature when employed, informs teacher of where the knowledge gaps are and what gaps need to be filled
- focuses on errors made
- results tend to be quantifiable in nature, follows the "start from 100 and deduct errors" model
- rubric/traditional number grading
- unrehearsed, real world
- "show me what you CAN do!"
- should be summative in nature
- holistic grading - "where do you fall on the rubric/continuum based on exemplars?"
- rubric (possibly based on ACTFL guidelines)
Reading (When assessing reading, always ask questions in commonly shared classroom language (probably English) and have students respond in that language. See Martina Bex’s blog post - “Reading Activity or Reading Assessment” for explanation).
- Performance
- formative
- answer questions about a KNOWN reading with which students are already familiar. Again, the "spit back what you know" model.
- Proficiency
- summative
- answer questions about a SIGHT reading but based on KNOWN vocabulary and structures. This will inform you as the teacher if/what students have acquired.
Listening
- Performance
- formative
- examples: which picture (A or B) am I describing?; draw what I say from a known story; which character from the story am I describing in the target language?
- Proficiency
- summative
- examples: based on KNOWN vocabulary, draw these unfamiliar sentences which I say; write the correct target language response to what I am saying.
Writing
- Performance
- formative
- example: timed write where students retell a KNOWN story in the target language, write a guided story using known vocabulary; write 4-5 sentences about what you see in the picture.
- Proficiency
- summative
- free write examples: change a detail in the story and write about it; write a sequel/prequel to the story; write about a parallel character; write a story about what you see in the picture.
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