Frequent Feedback #2

Proficiency level goals

• We have goals set up for our levels.  I teach levels 3, 4 and 5 (though this year I'm taking a break from 4 and it's only my second year with 3 after a loooong hiatus).  We've set goals.  They *must* be performance goals although we use the word proficiency.  None of us are trained nor do we have any assessments that are independent of the curriculum.  

https://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/ACTFLPerformance_Descriptors.pdf

So, we share with our students the year-long goals.  

Level 3:  Intermediate Low (knowing some students are stepping into IM characteristics but not consistently)

Level 4:  Intermediate Mid

Level 5:  Intermediate High

And many of the teachers in my department have proficiency walls. With this, I can pause (when appropriate) to share out how a student's output met certain characteristics.  Or when I give directions for an activity and share the goals, I can refer to the goals meeting those characteristics.  

I have shared this before..but I wanted it to be prettier and after a few years working with it, I wanted to make some tweaks.  So feel free to use!  (Please know that my descriptor strength is at Intermediate and not Novice)  

• Weekly written assignment:  This is not new.  There are multiple schools of thought on homework, but I've received enough feedback from students to keep doing this.  They have weekly homework and must respond to a prompt that can vary from generic communicative practice (introduce yourself, you family, etc) to topic relevant to interpretive based.  Some weeks require oral response (flipgrid) and some are written.  They complete it and it's a 100% (that goes in the administrivia category which is only 10%!)  I then give feedback in the form of stars and steps based on the proficiency level goal.