Quantitative Evidence
"Academic gains are the ultimate door opener – they are the foundation of a truly transformational teacher. Students make dramatic levels of academic growth (that is measurable and rigorous). Families know the level of rigor necessary for college and career readiness in the 21st century." (Johns Hopkins, n.d.).
Introduction
Part of ensuring student growth is a holistic assessment that gives me an idea on what the students know and where they can continue to improve. I have five classes — three Neighborhood Spanish Level One classes, one Magnet Spanish Level One class and one Spanish Level Two class. Starting the school year, most of my classes were around the same level, even though one of my classes was Level Two. In all classes, I had a few Heritage speakers, whose Spanish abilities varied drastically. Some were able to understand Spanish but could not speak, read or write. Others could read and write, and others could speak. At the beginning of the year, I assessed the students abilities and found that few could even write a single sentence in Spanish, with exception to a few Heritage speakers. However, many of those Heritage speakers were pushed up to higher levels, leaving most students with little Spanish abilities. To demonstrate my students' recent progress in the class, I gave them a summative assessment based on what we had learned so far this year. The summative assessment aligned with a diagnostic assessment that I gave to the students earlier in the school year when I began teaching through stories, videos and songs. Since I teach my class using the TPRS Storytelling method, I included three stories that we used previously in class as the foundation. The students were tasked with completing numerous sections related to the stories that included reading, listening and writing. The students showed quite a lot of growth, as they went from being unable to write, read or understand any Spanish just at the beginning of the semester.
Presentational Writing
ACTFL Writing Standards
The picture above shows the ACTFL Standards on Presentational Writing. My goal is for my Spanish 1 and 2 students to achieve dramatic growth in their writing skills. That means that I would like my students to move past a Novice level of writing "short messages and notes on familiar topics related to everyday life" to writing "briefly" or "on a wide variety of familiar topics using connected sentences" (ACTFL, n.d.). In my recent assessment, the students had three writing sections: two speed writes and a relaxed write. The speed writes involved the students writing as much as they could in five minutes about a prompt. The first prompt was to write about their friends and family. The second prompt was to write about animals. They were graded on how many correct words they could produce. The benchmark was to reach fifty words. If a student reached fifty words, they received a 5/5. If they reached forty words, they received a 4/5 and etc. The goal of these speed writes is for the students to demonstrate what they can recall quickly, as in the real world, they will most likely not have much time to respond or act in many situations. The relaxed writing was similar; however, the students had 20 minutes to describe a photo that included ten different people. This gave students more time to think about their responses and demonstrate more of what they know. The goal was 100 words and was graded out of ten points. One hundred words received a 10/10, ninety a 9/10, and etc.
Speed Write Prompt
Student Speed Write Summative Sample
My family lives here in Bridgeport. We have a cat and a dog.
We have parties and are happy. My cat's name is Ricky.
We like to watch TV. I live with my brother, my sister and my mom.
I have a very big family. I sleep in my bed.
In section above, the students wrote as much as they could about family and friends in five minutes before handing in their papers. The student — like many of my students — uses descriptors for people and animals, talks about possession, uses verbs when talking about people and can talk about basic facts about herself and others. The student above makes a few grammatical errors. However, overall she demonstrates a high level for a Spanish 1 student at this point in the year. My goal with these speed writes is to see how much the students can produce without focusing too heavily on grammatical errors. (I address these in later lessons). I want students to experiment with the language. That is how we learn our first language as children. As Ray and Seely (2015) mention, “Some people claim that to function adequately in a language we need 1,800 words. Certainly vocabulary is important. Others suggest only 300 to 600 words may be needed for fluency in a second language” (p. 30). I want students to continually build on the vocabulary they know and apply it as much as they can. I then address common errors in later lessons. This student's response would fall under a Novice High or Intermediate Mid level, as she writes briefly on a familiar topic.
Speed Write Diagnostic Scores
Speed Write Mid-term Scores
I have two sets of grades above — one set for the diagnostic speed write #1 assessment and one set for the summative speed write #1 assessment. In the diagnostic assessment (the first picture), the mean score of all five of my classes was 0.862 out of 5 points or 17.2%, meaning that the students could write an average of eight words in five minutes. Most students were unable to write a single word, and only a few students could write a single sentence. In the summative assessment (the second photo), the mean score of all my students was a 3.9111 out of 5 points or a 78.2%, averaging around 39 words in five minutes. This means that in a matter of five months, the students went from writing an average of 8 words in five minutes to 39 words. That is nearly five times as many words! While ideally this score would be higher, averaging 39 words in five minutes is a big accomplishment considering the majority of my students were unable to write a single word in Spanish at the beginning of the year. This summative score is also a significant improvement from previous years before I implemented speed writes and teaching through stories, videos and songs. In my past years of teaching, my students in Level One would continue to struggle to write 39 words at the end of the school year. As this school year continues, I aim to boost the average of 39 words to 50 words — or ten words per minute.
Speed Write Prompt #2
Student Speed Write #2 Summative Sample
Translation:
1. I have 4 animals: two dogs - a Chihuahua and a Shih Tzu, and I have two cats: a white one with green eyes and the other is grey with dark, green eyes.
2. I have fish, as well, in my room and they are very cute.
3. I want more animals, but my mom says that we have a lot of animals in the house.
4. I want another dog, but bigger because my Chihuahua and Shih Tzu are very small.
In the sample above, the student writes briefly about a familiar topic — animals, placing her around an Intermediate Low on the ACTFL chart above. She writes 66 words about animals in five minutes — much more than most of my students could achieve in my previous years teaching. My goal is for all my students to write as well as her, reaching 66 words in five minutes. She uses words like "I have" and "I want," while also using descriptors to describe her animals. This involves using colors and sizes. She is able to use possessive adjectives, such as "my." Many of these words that she uses are from stories, videos and songs we learned in class. Many of my students — like this student — have benefited from my story, video and song lessons. We practice writing every class, whether that is through gallery walks, mini whiteboard activities, free writes, retelling stories/videos, etc. As Ray and Seely (2015) mention, “We must teach to achieve long-term memory” (p. 31). I give my students as many opportunities as possible, so that they are able to retain the material and build off of it. This way, when they leave my class, they can continue to apply it and grow in their Spanish abilities.
Speed Write #2 Diagnostic Scores
Speed Write #2 Mid-Term Scores
In the diagnostic assessment (the first picture), the mean score of my 130 students was 0.69 out of 5 points or 13.8%, meaning that students could write an average of 7 words in five minutes. Like the first speed write, most of the students struggled to write a single word, and only a few students were able to write a full sentence or two. In the summative assessment (the second picture), the mean score of all my students was a 3.798 out of 5 points or a 75.96%, or an average of around 38 words in five minutes. This means that the students went from writing 7 words to 38 words in a matter of five months — an increase of five-fold! Overall, my class outcome leaped from a 13.8% average to a 75.96%. This does not take into account the students who wrote over 50 words, as I capped the score at 5 points in Powerschool, so the true growth would be much higher. Like the first speed write, ideally this class average would be higher. However, averaging 39 words in five minutes is a big accomplishment considering that the majority of my students were unable to write a single word in Spanish at the beginning of the year. In previous years, my students still struggled writing at this level of Spanish at the end of the school year. By talking about possession, describing animals, and using verbs to talk about animals, the students wrote at a Novice Mid to Novice High level on the ACTFL Writing Standards, as they "[wrote] short messages about familiar topics" (ACTFL, n.d.). Some students moved to an Intermediate Level, writing more complicated sentences and paragraphs versus short, simple sentences.
Relaxed Write Prompt
Relaxed Write Student Summative Sample and Translation
In the Relaxed Writing above, the students had twenty minutes to write at least one hundred words describing the picture (with the ten people with numbers above their heads). Many of the students — like the sample above — used vocabulary and structures that we learned throughout the year. In the sample above, the student described each of the ten people on the PowerPoint prompt, using simple sentences. Therefore, she would fall under an Intermediate Low level on the ACTFL Written Standards. She used "is" and "has" to describe looks and possessions. She used colors, clothes, numbers and talked about family members. All of these are topics that we have covered in class in many of the stories, videos and songs we learn. The majority of my students were able to write around one hundred words; however, the complexity of the sentences varied by student. The majority of the students wrote at an Novice High to Intermediate Low, either using simple sentences or making mistakes on more-complicated sentences. This is a significant improvement for most of my students who were unable to write anything at the beginning of the year. My goal is for all of my students to write as well as this student did before the end of the school year. To accomplish this, I will continue to give written activities in the target language that are practical and applicable outside our classroom and constantly build off each other. As stated by ACTFL, “The more learners use the target language in meaningful situations, the more rapidly they achieve competency … As language educators, we owe it to our students to provide these opportunities” (ACTFL, n.d.). I will make sure to give my students as much practice in Spanish as possible throughout the rest of the year.
Relaxed Writing Diagnostic Scores
Relaxed Writing Mid-Term Scores
Above I have two sets of scores — one set of scores for the diagnostic relaxed writing section, and one set of scores for the summative relaxed writing section. In the diagnostic assessment (the first picture), the mean score of all five of my classes was 2.862 out of 10 points, or 28.62%, meaning that the students wrote an average of 29 words in the twenty minutes provided. Similar to the two speed writes above, most of my students had difficulties writing much for this section. In the summative assessment (the second picture), the mean score of all my students was a 8.147 out of 10 points, or an 81.47%, meaning that they wrote an average of 81 words in twenty minutes. This is dramatic growth since the beginning of the year — the students improved from writing an average of 29 words to 81 words in a matter of five months! Like the speed writes, ideally this score would be a little higher. However, averaging 81 words in twenty minutes is a big accomplishment considering the majority of my students were unable to write a single sentence in Spanish at the beginning of the year. In my previous years, many of my students still struggled to write more than a few sentences by the end of the school year. I attribute the students being more-comfortable writing to the amount of writing we do in every class. I have the students participate in Speed Writes, Relaxed Writings, mini whiteboard activities, and story retells throughout the year, so that they become more confident in their writing skills.
Interpretive Listening
ACTFL Listening Standards
Listening is an important skill to have in any language and necessary when interacting with others, listening to music, news, TV, announcements, etc. In my classroom, I work to provide as many opportunities for the students to practice their listening skills. When I assess their progress, I do so in a way that is more authentic and practical to the outside world. On this exam, I read a story to the students and asked them ten questions in Spanish related to the story. As Shrum and Glisan (2010) mention, “It has been well documented that students who listen to authentic oral segments, such as radio broadcasts, demonstrate significantly greater listening comprehension than do students who do not interact with authentic segments" (p. 195). My goal is for the students to be able to understand longer messages and presentations in context and begin to understand more details included in the messages. Below are the PowerPoint slides for the story that I read, as well as the script and questions translated into English. While telling the story, I made use of the PowerPoint and asked each question two times. The students then wrote down their answers on a sheet of paper on their desks. On top of the PowerPoint, I included relevant characters from popular culture to make the material interesting and more-engaging to the students. At the end of the story and ten questions, I had the students submit their answers right away to avoid cheating.
Listening Section Prompt
Listening Section PowerPoint and Script #1
Script (Translated in English):
"The three boyfriends"
Listening Section PowerPoint and Script #2
Script (Translated in English):
"There is a girl named Zendaya. Zendaya is an attractive girl, but she is also crazy. Zendaya does not have many friends, but she has a boyfriend.
Question #1: What is the girl's name?"
Listening Section PowerPoint and Script #3
Script (Translated in English):
"Her boyfriend's name is Noah. On Monday, Noah has two chocolates for Zendaya. Noah says to her, 'two chocolates for my princess.' Zendaya is upset and says, 'Ew. I don't like chocolates!' Noah is very sad and cries. Zendaya wants a new boyfriend . She does not like Noah anymore.
Question #2: What is her boyfriend's name?
Question #3: What does he have for Zendaya?"
Listening Section PowerPoint and Script #4
Script (Translated in English):
"On Tuesday, Zendaya has a new boyfriend. His name is Jimin. Jimin is a romantic guy. He has three forks for Zendaya.Jimin says to her, 'Three romantic forks for my special girl.'Zendaya is upset and says, 'I don't like forks!' Jimin is very sad and cries. Zendaya wants a new boyfriend. She does not like Jimin anymore.
Question #4: What is the new boyfriend's name?
Question #5: How does Zendaya feel about him at the end?"
Listening Section PowerPoint and Script #5
Script (Translated in English):
"On Wednesday, Zendaya has a new boyfriend. Her boyfriend's name is Michael. Michael really likes Zendaya. Michael has a song for her. He sings 'Feliz Navidad!' Zendaya responds, 'Michael, I love that song.' Zendaya is happy because Michael has the voice of an angel.
Question #6: What is the third boyfriend's name?
Question #7: Does he sing well?"
Listening Section PowerPoint and Script #7
Script (Translated in English):
"Zendaya does not want another boyfriend. Zendaya and Michael are very happy. They walk to a romantic restaurant. Noah and Jimin are very sad and go to Taco Bell.
Question 8: How does Zendaya feel about Michael?
Question 9: Where do Zendaya and Michael end up going?
Question 10: Where do Noah and Jimin end up going?"
Student Listening Section Summative Sample
Translation:
1. The girl's name is Zendaya. 2. The boyfriend's name is Noah.
3. Noah has chocolates for Zendaya. 4. The boyfriend's name is Jimin.
5. Zendaya is upset with Jimin. 6. The boyfriend's name is Michael.
7. Michael sings well. 8. Zendaya likes Michael.
9. Michael and Zendaya are in a romantic restaurant. 10. Noah and Jimin are in Taco Bell.
In the story above, there is a girl who ends up dating three different boys over the course of the story. My questions centered around being able to name the characters, as well as describing how they feel, where they are, what happened in the story and what they have (possession). I used many high-frequency words and questions in the listening section to assess how well the students understood the target language in spoken form. The students generally did well on most of the questions, especially answering about names and feelings. There were a few questions that confused many of the students, such as the last two questions that asked about location. In the sample above, the student responded to the questions that I asked while telling the story. He was able to answer all of the questions without making any errors. Listening is an important skill to gain when learning a new language, as it often will be the first skill needed when interacting with native speakers, music, shows, etc. ACTFL World Language Standards show contrast between Novice and Intermediate Learners in regard to listening skills by whether the learner can understand words, phrases and pieces of messages in the language or if he/she can understand the main point of messages. This student's listening comprehension would fall under Novice High or Intermediate Low, as he can "understand the main idea in short, simple messages and presentations on familiar topics" (ACTFL, n.d.).
Listening Section Diagnostic Scores
Listening Section Mid-Term Scores
I have two sets of scores above — one set of scores shows the diagnostic listening section, and the other shows the summative listening section. In the diagnostic assessment (the first picture), the mean score of all of my five classes was 2.621 out of 10 points, or 26.21%, meaning that the students were able to answer 2.6 questions out of the 10 questions I asked during the story. The questions are not multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blanks, so the students cannot simply guess the answers correctly — they have to understand the story, as well as the questions. In the summative assessment (the second picture), the mean score of all my students was a 7.9/10 or a 79%, meaning that the students answered an average of eight questions correctly. That is significant progress from the beginning of the year when most of my students could not understand spoken Spanish at all, with exception of the Heritage speakers in my classes. The mean scores from the diagnostic assessment to the summative went from 2.6 questions to 7.9 questions! Out of the ten questions on the listening section, most students were able to answer correctly. By making the listening section open-ended as opposed to multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blanks, I was able to get a better picture of whether the students understood the material or not. As the year continues on, my goal is for the students to understand more of the language in spoken form and bring that average up higher. I want them to leave school and be able to understand music and shows in Spanish, as well as be able to understand native speakers. As Shrum and Glisan (2010) state, it is important that “the teacher provides maximum use of the [target language] that is both comprehensible and contributes to a larger topic or goal-directed agenda (p. 257). To achieve this, I will continue to teach lessons in the target language, using stories, songs and videos.
Interpretive Reading
ACTFL Reading Skills
Reading is another important skill when learning a new language and working towards proficiency. I have found with my personal language-learning experience that spending plenty of time reading in the target language leads to dramatic gains in overall comprehension and acquisition. I have also noticed this in my classes this year, as well. I teach through stories, videos and songs. After I tell a story, I always make sure the students spend time reading it in pairs and groups. The same applies to videos and songs. I always give students the scripts or lyrics to read before we move onto other activities. Our activities include gallery walks and mini whiteboard activities, which require reading. At the beginning of the year, most of my students did not understand any Spanish and were overwhelmed when I gave them readings in Spanish. However, as we worked through the readings, the students gained confidence and their pronunciation and comprehension improved. In my previous years, I did not assign enough reading assignments, and as a result, the students were overwhelmed with basic readings at the end of the school year. When looking at reading level, the ACTFL World Language Standards (above) describe Novice learners as those that can "recognize a few letters or characters" as Novice Low, those that can recognize "some letters or characters" as Novice Mid, and those that can "understand familiar words, phrases and sentences within short and simple texts related to everyday life." Intermediate Low learners "can understand the main idea of short and simple texts when the topic is familiar," while Intermediate Mid learners "can understand the main idea of texts related to everyday life and personal interests or studies" (ACTFL, n.d.). In this assessment, I gave the students two different stories to read and answer comprehension questions in Spanish. The readings are both a few paragraphs long, with high-frequency words that we have covered throughout the year. My goal for the assessment was for students to not only understand the readings and the questions but to also be able to respond to the questions in full, Spanish sentences. This helped me see if the students actually understood the reading versus multiple-choice questions which can be easy to guess and paint an inaccurate picture of what the students understand.
Reading Section Prompt
Reading Section and Translation
Student Reading Section Summative Sample
1. Coqui is sad in the beginning. 2. Coqui is happy in the story.
3. Their names are Coqui, Pedro and Monica. 4. Three people.
5. Two animals in the story. 6. It is a cat.
7. It is big. 8. Pedro is bad.
9. The cat escapes and Pedro is sad (should be happy). 10. Monica gives her cat to Coqui.
1. In the story there are two animals. 2. The monkey is poor, a little fat, and tall.
3. The cow is rich, has a house and is very happy. 4. The cow has a house.
5. The monkey sleeps on the street. 6. The cow throws water on the monkey.
7. The monkey is angry when he is wet. 8. The cow looks for a house for the monkey.
9. The cow is very happy because she found a house. 10. The monkey is happy because he will not sleep on the street anymore and can be a normal monkey.
In the reading section (above), there are two short stories: one about two girls, a boy and two cats, and one about a cow and a monkey. In each one, the students read target vocabulary related to describing people, animals and objects. They read about possession, as well as encounter many simple verbs. In the sample above, the student responded pretty well to all of the questions. She scored around a Novice High or an Intermediate Low on the ACTFL Reading Standards, as she was able to understand the meaning of the two stories and respond to twenty questions about them. She responded in sentences versus single-word answers, showing a deeper understanding of the reading and questions. Many of my students were able to answer most of the questions, with most being at least able to answer one or two words for each question. Only a few students left answers completely blank. As we continue to read stories containing high-frequency words and phrases, I hope for students to achieve better proficiency in their reading abilities. The better understanding they have of highly-used words, the easier it will be for them to use context clues to understand more-difficult readings. As Sandrock (2008) mentions, students need to “begin with the gist, move to deeper levels of details, use context clues, predict, guess, use structures to aid meaning, [and] authentic materials." By constantly practicing, the students will build a solid foundation of Spanish words. As the semester continues, I will increasingly include more difficult stories, so that the students increase the number of words that they understand, as well as improve in their fluency and speed reading in Spanish.
Reading Section Diagnostic Scores
Reading Section Mid-Term Scores
I have two sets of scores above — one set of scores shows the diagnostic reading section, and the other shows the summative reading section. In the diagnostic assessment (the first picture), the mean score for all five of my classes is 3.586 out of 20 points, or 17.93%, meaning the students were able to answer an average of 3.6 questions out of the 20 questions (10 questions for each of the 2 stories). In the summative assessment (the second picture), the mean score of all my students on the reading section was a 16.183 out of 20 points, or an 80.92%, meaning the students were able to answer 16 questions correctly out of the 20 total questions. This is dramatic improvement, as the students went from 3.6 correct answers to 16! The students as a whole did very well on the questions that asked about feelings, names, quantity and describing the characters. Some of the students struggled more answering the questions that asked what the characters did, as these were slightly higher-level questions. My students showed a lot of improvement since the beginning of the year, where many of my students (including Heritage speakers) were unable to read anything in Spanish. I was very happy with my students' growth from being unable to understand any Spanish to reading short stories and responding to questions about them. As the year continues, I want to keep boosting the students' reading comprehension, having them read numerous more stories, song lyrics and video scripts.
Conclusion
In the writing, listening and reading sections above, my students showed significant growth since the beginning of the school year. As I mentioned before, most of my students came into my class with little or no knowledge of Spanish, especially in reading and writing skills. This included the Heritage speakers, as many had varying levels of speaking but were unable to read or write in Spanish. This is evident in the sections above, as the students showed dramatic growth in their writing, listening and reading skills. Going from not being able to read, write or understand any Spanish to reading full short stories, writing paragraphs and understanding full stories is a major accomplishment for my students. My students started the school year below a Novice Low level on the ACTFL World Language Standards, and many of them have reached or surpassed an Intermediate Low/Mid level in their listening, reading and writing skills within seven months. As the school year continues, I must continue to boost my students' listening, reading and writing skills. In order to "ensure that [my] instructional tools remain fine-tuned and calibrated to effectively serve the needs of [my] students (Teach for America, 2011, p. 73), I must assess their progress and make adjustments where necessary. As I am aiming to achieve dramatic academic growth, I need to constantly look for ways to boost their exposure to Spanish, whether that is through stories, music, videos or other forms. All five of my classes' summative results are shown below. (I was unable to use a graph from Power School for the diagnostic assessment).
Three Spanish Level One Classes' Summative Results
Spanish Level One Magnet's Summative Results
Spanish Level Two Class's Summative Results
This assessment was significantly more difficult than my summative assessments in previous years. Overall, nearly 100% of all of my students showed significant growth, and 76% showed mastery of the content. In previous year, I used too many multiple-choice questions, and I found them ineffective in assessing my students' language proficiency. I started making my assessments more holistic, so I could get an accurate picture of the students' listening, reading and writing skills. As seen above in the results, my Magnet Spanish Level One class performed the best, with most students receiving a 90% or above. My Spanish Level Two followed with 70% students receiving a score of 80% or higher, and 18.5% failing the exam. My three other Spanish Level One classes followed with 56% of students receiving a score of 80% or higher, and 31% of students failing the overall exam. Many of the students who failed still showed significant improvement from the beginning of the year. What this tells me is that my strategy of teaching through stories, videos and songs has worked extremely well for many of my students; however, I need to think of ways of ensuring that there are no students that are left behind. As a result of this assessment, I will continue to pair my students based on their strengths and weaknesses, work one-on-one with failing students, and offer time outside of class to further practice with any student that needs additional help. All these strategies will help me on my path of achieving dramatic academic growth.
References:
ACTFL. (2012). ACTFL PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES 2012. Retrieved October 5, 2019, from https://www.actfl.org/publications/guidelines-and-manuals/actfl-proficiency-guidelines-2012.
Ray, B., & Seely, C. (2015). Fluency through TPR storytelling: Achieving real language acquisition in school (7th ed.). Berkeley, CA: Command Performance Language Institute.
Sandrock, P. (2008). Integrated performance assessment [Handout]. Retrieved from http://depts.washington.edu/mellwa/Events/20081105/sandrock_ipa_handout.pdf
Shrum, J. L., & Glisan, E. W. (2010). Teacher’s handbook: Contextualized language instruction (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Heinle, Cengage.
Teach For America. (2011). Instructional planning & delivery. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9aKdxaTnscyZmZ4aVh5Wnd4aG8/view?pli=1
Teach for America. (2016). Teaching as Leadership Student Outcomes Wheel and Rubric. Retrieved March 15, 2020.