World Language Beliefs & Practices
Belief: Language proficiency is a measure of a student’s competencies in communicating with others in another language: how well they speak, listen, read, and write, as well as control language functions and structures within cultural contexts.
Practice: We measure a student’s language performance on their path to proficiency by administering in each unit a variety of formative and summative assessments, each one a snapshot of their growth in knowledge and skills at that particular time.
Belief: Student language performance is evaluated through assessments that serve as snapshots of their growth.
Practice: Each unit, we administer assessments and provide feedback that both celebrates what students can do and signals areas for continued practice and growth. We record grades to communicate student performance.
Belief: A growth mindset allows students to value the journey of learning, not just the grade.
Practice: Our grading practices honor the process of building skills as well as the student’s competencies at particular moments in time. We design units to include opportunities for growth, feedback, revisions, and reflections.
Belief: Language learning is cumulative.
Practice: Each new evaluation covers increasingly more — and more challenging — content and skills. Later marking periods are weighted more heavily, which acknowledges that the expectations increase throughout the year for what students can do, while also giving students time to develop competency.
Belief: The timing of evaluations is important: they show what a student knows & can do after targeted learning occurs and before moving on to the next topic.
Practice: We establish & enforce clear due dates* and deadlines** for assignments. We encourage students to prioritize due dates and in-class assessment days.
*Due Date: When an assignment is due. Handing in work on time will allow for prompt feedback and aid in academic success. Work handed in after the due date may be accepted but may not always receive the same amount or quality of feedback as punctual submissions.†
**Deadline: A non-negotiable end date or an essential deadline due to an authentic audience, course related timeline, or school year timeline. After the deadline an assessment will no longer be accepted. If not submitted, the assignment is entered as No Evidence. Deadlines are determined by teachers.†
†Language borrowed from Colchester High School (Colchester, VT).
Document created by Amy Moran, Ryan Casey, Beckie Rankin, Rina Mazor, Carolina Gonzalez, Paola Dorfmann, Paola Rossi.