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EVIDENCE #1: Formative Assessment for 7th Grade French
DESCRIPTION: This journal was submitted for the final project at the end of the 4th Quarter of the academic year in my 7th Grade French I class at Edmunds Middle School in 2017. This summative assessment revealed an acute attention to detail and grasp of content covered. Students were offered several choices to demonstrate their learning to accommodate a variety of learning styles and strengths .
ANALYSIS/REFLECTION: In order to provide opportunities for students to display the full extent of their learning in an ethical way, minimizing bias, I gave learners in this French I course a choice of projects to choose from. One student made a "kahoot!," another made a collage with magazine images, words and phrases, another was a team project of a maze learners drew involving the discovery of French words.
This quiet, reserved, focused learner made a journal with both French, English translation and illustrations. I was moved by his attention to detail in terms of grammatical structure and his illustrations. He took the assessment opportunity to personalize and illustrate his learning of concepts covered such as possessive adjectives, subject pronouns, the irregular verb "etre," prepositions and accents. I know it is crucial to not underestimate the intellectual capacity of culturally and linguistically diverse students and that sometimes learning environments lean towards those more extroverted as well. In this article, Learning Styles of Introverts and Extroverts, from Our Lady of the Lake University, the author writes, "exclusion of certain learning types isn’t intentional and sometimes when teachers have a particular curriculum, they are working to make sure all of their students get the basics of each concept. However, as research has shown, there is a tendency for teachers to cater their teaching styles to extroverts."
In order to all move away from implicit biases, (based on how someone talks and looks, our preconceived subconscious beliefs), and reach a diversity of learners, it is crucial to provide multiple pathways for students to demonstrate their learning and own that there is bias. The theory of multiple intelligences, developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, advocates that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, is much too narrow. He came up with eight different intelligences to represent a diversity of potential in people of all ages. (Gardner, Howard. Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books, 2011).
The eight categories he devised:
- Linguistic intelligence (“word smart”)
- Logical-mathematical intelligence (“number/reasoning smart”)
- Spatial intelligence (“picture smart”)
- Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence (“body smart”)
- Musical intelligence (“music smart”)
- Interpersonal intelligence (“people smart”)
- Intrapersonal intelligence (“self smart”)
- Naturalist intelligence (“nature smart”)
Dr. Gardner notes that our schools and culture focus most of their attention on linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence valuing the highly articulate or logical people. However, he advocates that we should place equal attention on those who show traits in the other intelligences: the artists, architects, musicians, naturalists, designers, dancers, therapists, entrepreneurs, and others who enrich the world which we all make up. My knowledge of implementing assessments in an ethical manner and minimizing bias to enable learners to display the full extent of their learning, is revealed in allowing learner directed choices to show their knowledge.
Unfortunately, some children who have these intelligences do not receive much reinforcement for them in school. Many of these kids, in fact, end up being labeled “learning disabled,” “ADD (attention deficit disorder,” or simply underachievers, when their unique ways of thinking and learning are not addressed by a heavily linguistic or logical-mathematical classroom. I have observed some learning environments lack enough faculty to tend to the variety of intelligences depending on how they are manifested.
The theory of multiple intelligences proposes a major transformation in the way our schools are run, which is underway and is so exciting, the challenge is to spread that research and understanding. It suggests that teachers be trained to present their lessons in a wide variety of ways using music, cooperative learning, art activities, role play, multimedia, field trips, inner reflection, and much more (see Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, 4th ed.). I plan to further delve into this theory and would like to take a course on this to deepen my understanding and bring opportunities back to my learners to thrive in their own strengths.
EVIDENCE #2: Retake of 3rd Quarter Exam of 8th Grade French II Student, Edmunds Middle School, Burlington, Vermont
DESCRIPTION: This is the first take of a student's test. This student in an 8th grade French II Class, at Edmunds Middle School in Burlington, left a portion of the 3rd Quarter exam incomplete.
DESCRIPTION: This is the retake of the same test. As shown, this learner did much better on the retake.
ANALYSIS/REFLECTION: In order for students to demonstrate the full extent of their learning, it is important that there are opportunities for self assessment and safe mistake making. We all learn more if we are comfortable making mistakes, asking questions and valuing the thinking and questioning that contributes to understanding. These traits are very important in learning a foreign language, where a multitude of cognitive mechanisms are at play at various developmental levels. In this class, we had been doing a review of subject pronouns, studying verb conjugation in the present tense, and I had been introducing project based learning opportunities, instilling classroom routines and expectations.
Coupled with the value of continual self assessment for learners, as I was new to the position, I was still learning what skills students were bringing to class with them. I had no communication with their previous teacher so this was a challenge. I did find some work from the year before that gave me an idea of what they had been covering and in what ways. Thus, I was fine tuning my understanding of the students' past learning, getting to know them, and believed retakes to be a positive instructional strategy to minimize bias. We all have biases and accepting that is the first step in combating them.
According to Professor John A. Powell of the University of California at Berkeley, "only two percent of our emotional cognition is conscious; the remainder lives in our unconscious networks, where implicit racial and other biases reside. Biased messages can be framed to speak to the unconscious. As they stack up, the brain uses rapid cognition to assess the humanity, threat, and worth of other human beings. More concretely, the prefrontal cortex lights up when we see someone as "highly human," but it fails to activate when we dehumanize people." (Safir, Shane. 2016 March. 5 Keys to Challenging Implicit Bias, Edutopia, p 1.)
I have learned much in two different teaching internships and will reference some of that in relation to assessment implementation in an ethical and unbiased manner. One was with Mike Bradbury, French teacher for Hunt and Edmunds Middle Schools in Burlington, Vermont. He uses the Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) methodology and as I learn more about this approach realize it would entail less in the way of traditional assessments that I had been familiar with. It is a method based around storytelling In addition, most of his assessments and his final exam are "open notes." In light of this approach with much repetition and limited "vocabulary loading," (limiting new word introduction), I could have divided the verb ending types (er, ir, re) into categories. However, I am still "old school" and do find value in the memorization of some verb conjugations at more advanced levels.
From a teaching internship this winter at Middlebury High School with Michelle Steele, I gained valuable information regarding assessments and grading policies. Proficiency expectations were paramount and her school is moving toward the International Baccalaureate system. There are opportunities for student retakes, as I had permitted. If a student has not mastered the content, they retake that level French class before moving on. While each situation/class is different, it is important to have a policy in place and allow some flexibility. Here is an interesting view counter "retakes," and depending where my next French position will be, will have to re-examine my policy vis-a-vis the school's policy and pedagogy of the world language program.
In sum, I look forward to supporting learners in French language acquisition and believe this evidence points to my mastery of teaching standard to minimize bias and allow students the ability to display the full extent of their knowledge by allowing for multiple methods of output regarding summative assessments and the retake of tests.
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