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Step 7: Plan Your Course Assessments
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In this step, you will plan multiple opportunities for your students to demonstrate competency on the learning outcomes and Proficiency Goal
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Developmental Stage or Competency Stage?
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While some outcomes may be demonstrated at any point during the semester, most students will need time to develop other language abilities. You should consider this notion as you plan your assessments. A guideline for you: The Competency Stage is the the time during the semester in which students are given opportunities to demonstrate the required minimum level of proficiency needed to be successful once your course is completed.
The Developmental Stage is the time in which students develop their proficiency through structured practice and output activities, natural chronological time, adequate exposure to comprehensible input and communicative language teaching strategies, formative (informal) assessments, meaningful cultural interactions with native or near-native speakers, and relevant corrective feedback. Students place into your course; therefore, no proficiency assessment is necessary until later in the course after proficiency levels have had time to develop. You may consider administering a summative (formal) proficiency assessment during the half-way point of your course as an opportunity to provide formal feedback. It is possible to summatively assess student proficiency during the Developmental Stage, but don't be surprised if many students still are underdeveloped in this abilities.
When exactly these two stages occur during the course are defined by the teacher or program, but in the Competency Tracker Form, by default, I propose a 3:1 ratio; the first 75% of the course duration is labeled Developmental Stage, and the latter 25% is the Competency Stage. If you are using the Competency Tracker Form, you can make the necessary adjustments to reflect the duration of these stages in Step 10.
Assessments involving course content may be demonstrated at any point; consequently, these may only have a Competency Stage.
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Plan Your Course Assessments (and Re-Assessments)
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While you can craft the details of specific assessments in any step after this one (explained in Step 13), you'll now draft a tentative course schedule (use the ProficiencyBuilder Sample Course Schedule Instructor Template and the Assessment Planner to guide you during this step to help) that indicates when (i.e. specific date or week) students will take which summative assessments (i.e. a presentation, an essay, an interview); that is, when you will assess the learning outcomes for your course. For example, perhaps you want to do a two-week unit on informational speeches, capped with students giving a presentation. Do this not unlike you would normally plan a course. Use backwards planning to assist you.
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When you complete your summative assessment planning, you should have a clear idea of when you will assess which learning outcomes during the course. Formative (informal) assessments on which students receive corrective feedback are also important to help them ready for their summative assessments.
Before committing to these dates and assessment types, however, ask yourself this critical question: How can I plan my assessment schedule so that all my students have multiple opportunities during the class to demonstrate that they are competent in each learning outcome? To answer this question, your re-assessment policy is paramount. Will I build in class time for re-assessment of outcomes (i.e. the class before or perhaps immediately after the next assessment)? Will I "recycle", that is, design my next assessment so I can measure deficient outcomes again? Will I include the same outcomes on each assessment? Check out the Re-Assessment Planner to help you here.
Let's look at an example of a sample assessment that measures new learning outcomes (since the last assessment) and gives students multiple attempts to demonstrate competency by "recycling" prior outcomes, click here.
To view a sample assessment that measures the same learning outcomes for each assessment, click here.
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I recommend students be provided between 2-4 formal, controlled attempts to demonstrate competency on each outcome during the course. Once you've established your re-assessment plan, you should head back to your syllabus policies that you drafted in Step 3 to embed your this language.
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Be sure to consider your phsical "infrastructure" while building your re-assessment plan. Will students re-take assessments in a Test Center? Outside your office? During class?
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Notes
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Assess all learning outcomes at least one time before the final exam, then have a comprehensive final exam on which students complete only the still-deficient learning outcomes (this drastically reduces the grading time for you).
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You may need to make adjustments to your plan after planning your curriculum, Step 8.