Interpretive Reading Comprehension Rubric

Recently in my Latin 1 classes, I gave them a sight reading comprehension assessment and graded it using a proficiency-based rubric created by Martina Bex and the Comprehensible Classroom. Because Martina's interpretive rubrics are on TPT(they are free!), I will only post a link here to her blog page which discusses how she uses them - her blog post has the actual link to that TPT page. 

I already have a blog post from a few years ago written about my experience doing a sight reading comprehension assessment, so I will share that here. However, let me sum up/recap what I did and the whys:

I gave students a short level-appropriate passage which they had never seen before but primarily used vocabulary which we had been targeting. This way then the reading was at least already 95% comprehensible (that is key!). Also, the sentence structures/patterns needed to reflect what they had seen - now was not the time to spring on them a different writing style since that was not what I was assessing! I only used a few words which needed to be glossed and did not overdo it (if a passage has too many glossed words, then it is not really readable/comprehensible since that disrupts reading flow). Why did I create a sight passage?

• It needed to be a sight passage of primarily known vocabulary, because this way I could tell if they had acquired these target words and could understand them in a new context.
• It also needed to be a sight passage of primarily known vocabulary in order to assess their reading comprehension skills. If I were to use an already-seen/known passage, that would not give me a true understanding of their proficiency, i.e., many students could fake their proficiency skills, because they already knew the passage ahead of time and could just answer from memory without ever reading the passage on the assessment.

For the record, I had ChatGPT create a framework of a story using the prompt, "Create a short story in 4th grade Latin using the words ___________________________. Repeat these words as much as possible. Do you understand?" Once ChatGPT created the story, I heavily edited it to fit my needs.

The rubric does address various depth of knowledge (DOK) reading comprehension questions, such as basic information, finer details about the plot, and inferring about the conclusion. As a result, the sight passage needed to have a basic plot but with underlying details to address, and a conclusion where an inference could be made about characters' motivation, choices, etc. All of the questions and answers were in English (see Martina Bex's blog post why reading comprehension should be addressed in English). 

I hope you will consider creating a sight-reading assessment and using the proficiency-based interpretive rubrics by Martina Bex!

False Story Sentences using Google Forms

As it is now a year since I have begun some form of digital teaching, at this point, I feel like I am scraping the barrel for new, novel ways for students to review stories in an online setting. I have been dog paddling for a year with digital teaching, doing everything I can just to keep my head above water, and I am weary. I know that my students are weary too of this weird hybrid teaching situation. Because of this, I am trying to limit the web app tools which we are using in class so that there is familiarity for students in using them and that they do not have to learn a new tool on their own. I feel like I have been milking Google Forms to an extreme, trying to find different ways of using them for assignments and for students to demonstrate comprehension/mastery of material. 

My colleague John Foulk came up with a new way for students to review a reading: False Story Sentences. It is actually very simple and is a good way for them to demonstrate understanding and comprehension of a reading. If you are like me, one of the things which I hate about this hybrid teaching is that I really have NO CLUE if students are actually comprehending anything which we are doing. While they may be completing assignments, that does not tell me much per se, other than they completed the assignment. This use of false statements at least forces them to indicate meaning and understanding to me.

Directions

1. Take 10 sentences from a reading, and change just one word in that sentence. Do not change more than one.
2. Put those sentences in a Google Form, and put the answer setting as "Paragraph"
3. Give students a copy of the reading. They will use this to find the correct sentence.
4. Tell students that they are to figure out what is false in that sentence and then to write what is incorrect and what the sentence should say instead. Why in English? Because this is a comprehension activity. While students could tell me what the correct Latin word should be, e.g., the sentence should say "iratissimus" and not "laetissimus," that does not tell me whether students understood what they were actually reading. Considering that they have the actual reading as a resource, writing down the actual Latin word is nothing more than a copying exercise. 

Observations

1. This definitely was a novel way for students to demonstrate comprehension while truly showing me what students understood and did not understand from the reading.
2. Since I was able to print up students responses on a spreadsheet, it made grading very easy, because everything was in a grid. I was able to compare student answers against each other and to see where there were common student errors.
3. This was a new way for me to use Google Forms - euge!!

Read, Write, Draw, Pass

This is another awesome post-reading activity which I learned from Linda Li this past summer (Martina Bex also has a great post about this activity). It is loosely based on a party game called Paper Telephone/Telephone Pictionary, and it works great as a way to get students to review a known reading.

Directions

1. Every student needs paper, pen/pencil, and the reading passage which you want to review.
2. Divide students into groups of six. There may be groups of seven or as little as four, but try to avoid groups of three. Arrange students in a circle.
3. Have students fold paper vertically/hot-dog style. Tell students that they will only be drawing on one side of the paper.
4. Tell students to pick ONE sentence from the story and to write it at the top of their paper. Write it as it appears in the story, i.e. students are NOT to translate the sentence.
5. Have students PASS their paper to the person on their left. 
6. Now have students draw a visual representation of that sentence underneath it. Leave some space between the sentence and picture.
7. Stop students after 45 seconds, and have students FOLD the sentence over the back of the paper so that it cannot be seen. Only the picture should be showing.
8. Have students PASS their paper to the person to their left. It is important that students do NOT pass until you say so.
9. Now have students find the ONE sentence from the reading that matches the drawing. Students are to write the sentence underneath the picture. Leave some space between the picture and the sentence.
10. Stop students after 45 seconds, and have students FOLD the picture over to the back so that only the sentence is showing.
11. Have students PASS their paper to the person on their left. It is important that students do not pass until you say so.
12. Continue this pattern of drawing, passing, writing, and passing until students in a group of six have their original paper - it should be a total of six passes. For groups smaller than six, then they will continue to pass until the sixth pass. For groups larger than six, they will not get their original paper back so they will have to find theirs.
13. Tell students to unfold their papers to see how accurate others were with drawing pictures/writing sentences for their original sentence.

Observations

1. Having taken part in this activity myself when learning Mandarin from Linda Li, I can tell you that it is great activity for post-reading on so many different levels: re-reading of a known text (thus getting in more repetitions of language), comprehension of what is being read demonstrated non-verbally through a picture, comprehension of what is being communicated in a picture and writing that in the target language via the story/passage.
2. Depending on students' interpretation of the pictures/sentences given to them, this activity mimics the game Telephone, because the sentences and pictures can begin to change. It is always fun to hear some students at the end talk about how their original sentence changed. 

Support the Statement

On many occasions, I have been asked about ways to assess reading comprehension, outside of the traditional "What is X doing?","Where is X?","Who is X?" because that gets very boring and predictable for students (see previous post regarding why we should assess reading comprehension in L1, instead of L2). An easy way to assess reading comprehension is to give a statement to students, and they must find the sentence(s) from the reading passage which supports that statement.

Directions

1. Using a known-reading, create statements in English about something in the passage. The statements need to be in English so that when a student writes down an incorrect answer in the target language, then you as the teacher know that the student did not understand the target language in the reading. If the statement itself is written in the target language and the student writes down an incorrect answer in the target language, then too many questions exist as to why the student missed it: did the student not understand the target language in the reading? did the student not understand the target language in the statement? If the statement had been written in English, would the student have written down the correct answer in the target language? 
2. Give students both the reading and the statements. 
3. The statement should not contain the wording itself of the sentence which you are asking students to find. That makes it too easy; in addition students will look for those exact words instead of reading through the passage.  
4. The answer to the statement needs to be obvious to students. What may seem obvious to you as the teacher is not always obvious to students. 
5. It is okay if there are multiple sentences from the reading which support the statement. 

Observations

1. If students are familiar with the reading, this type of assessment should not take long at all.
2. This is a great way for students to re-read a passage with a purpose. 

Examples:

Latin Example - Dragonboy (based on a Movie Talk)

Puer florem facit. Puer picturam in flore ponit (puts). In picturā sunt puella et puer. Ecce puella in castellō! Puer et puella in fabulā sunt. Puer puellam valde amat. Ecce alius puer! Puer est dux in fabulā.

Puer valde tristis est, quod putat (he thinks) puellam amāre ducem. Puella in castellō ducem non amat, quod dux molestus est. Dux puerum pulsat, quod dux molestus est.

Subito dracō apparet! In fabulā est draco! Puer est dracō in fabulā. Puella in castello fingit sē valde timēre, quod est actor! Puer fingit sē esse draconem, quod est actor! Auditorium laetum est, et plaudit. Puella laeta est - non fingit sē esse laeta!

Subito dux apparet! Puella in castellō fingit sē amāre ducem, quod est actor! Puer valde iratus est, quod dux molestus est. Dux puerum petit. Dux puerum pulsat, et puer ducem pulsat! Puella in castellō valde timet! Quid accidet (will happen)?

1) The first boy is not a real dragon but acts like one in the play.

2) The first boy thinks that the girl does not like him.

3) A fight breaks out in the play.

4) The second boy is a pest and harasses the first boy.

English example - Dragonboy

:
The boy is making a flower. The boy puts a picture in the flower. In the picture are a boy and a girl. Behold - a girl in a castle. The boy and the girl are in a play. The boy loves the girl very much. Behold - another boy! The boy is a leader in the play.

The boy is very sad, because he thinks that the girl loves the leader. The girl in the castle does not love the leader, because the leader is annoying. The leader hits the boy, because the leader is annoying. 

Suddenly, a dragon appears! In the play is a dragon. The boy is a dragon in the play. The girl pretends that she is very scared, because she is an actor. The boy pretends that he is a dragon, because he is an actor. The audience is happy and applauds. The girl is happy - she does not pretend that she is happy.

Suddenly, the leader appears. The girl in the castle pretends that she loves the leader, because she is an actor. The boy is very angry, because the leader is annoying. The leader heads for the boy. The leader punches the boy, and the boy punches the leader. The girl in the castle is very scared. What will happen?

1) The first boy does not like how the second boy is treating the girl.

2) The audience likes the performance of the boy.

3) The second boy is a bully and harasses the first boy in the beginning.

4) The girl is pleased with the performance of the boy and is not acting.