Assessment examples Source: Jefferson County Schools-Lexington, Kentucky (modified from) Source: AAPPL: The ACTFL Assessment of Performance

towards Proficiency in Languages As Laura Terrill states: Assessments must be something that would happen in real-life.

Interpersonal Speaking-spontaneous 2-way

Novice-Mid Play the roles of a student in a French class in the United States and a student in a school In Qubec. You both have been paired up together for the year in the USA-Qubec cyber exchange program. This weeks videoconference topic is sports and other leisure activities you like and dislike. After greeting each other, you both will ask and answer questions about: Activities you like or dont like to do; When and with whom you like to do them; How much you like to do them; Why you like them; Dont forget to say goodbye to each other at the end of the conversation! Novice-Mid Play the roles of a student traveling in France and a doctor in a clinic in France. The student, touring Mont St. Michel in France, didnt realize that climbing all the stairs and not drinking enough water might be a problem. Just before getting back on the bus the student suddenly passes out and hits her/his head on the way down. The student awakes and realizes that s/he is in the local clinic. The doctor arrives and starts asking several questions in order to determine the level of head injury the student may have. The doctor asks the student several questions in order to get the following information: Name and age Birthday Where the student is from How many people and pets are in the family Name of school The date and time Phone number The student wants to get back to vacation quickly so to impress the doctor add any other information about yourself. Novice-Mid Play the roles of a German-speaking teenager and an American teenager. Through a class Internet partnership both have decided to friend each other on Facebook. The American student would like to introduce herself/himself so both can get to know each other. Both have set up a time and date to have the first webcam conversation in German. Both are very excited to be friends. So here is the information both want to gather. Since both Facebook profile pages are fairly empty both are going to ask and answer questions to find out the following information: Age and birthday; Nationality; Personality characteristics; Likes and dislikes with sports, activities, music and films Information about each others family

Novice-Mid Play the roles of an employee at a fast-food restaurant and a Spanish-speaking customer. The employee is working when a customer comes in. After trying to unsuccessfully communicate her/his order, the employee comes to the register to help. Ask and answer these questions in order to: Find out what the customer likes to eat Find out what the customer likes to drink Employee make a recommendation from the menu based on the customers response Customer also shares other food preferences Employee ask if the customer would like anything else Employee places the order Customer asks price and then pays The employee thanks the customer and they both say good-bye.

Novice-High Play the roles of a student in German class in an American school and a student in a German school. The German class in the USA has been working with students in a high school class in Hannover, Germany. Its time to find out more about what students lives are like in Germany so American students are going to interview the German students to find out what daily life is like. The American student has prepared a series of questions about daily life and the German student is ready to respond to those questions about daily life at school, at home and one the weekends. Remember to meet and greet each other appropriately and say good-bye at the end.

Intermediate-Low Play the roles of an American student and a student from Peru. both students met this past summer during a travel exchange program. Both have decided to keep in contact via SKYPE in order to get to know each other better and to practice each others language. Today, the conversation is about relationships. Both describe relationships with some family members and some of your friends. Both decide to include: Whats going on in your relationships; How you feel about your relationships; A complaint about a problem you are having; Anything else you feel is important about the people and relationships you are describing.

Interpersonal writing-2-way
Novice-Mid You received the first letter from your French epal. Your epal shared information about her/his family, her/his friends, sports and activities likes/dislikes, favorite things to do on the weekends, school and classes and food likes/dislikes. You epal also asked some questions. S/he would like to know more about you and your family. Write an informal letter in response to your new friends questions telling her/him about your family. Describe yourself, your family, your friends, your activities, your likes/dislikes, etc. Make sure you ask two questions that will start the topics for the next communication Novice-High You and your partner in Germany hit it off so well after your conversation last month, you have been communicating regularly. Your friend is taking a health class in Germany and is learning about healthy eating habits. S/he has been asked to compare her/his eating habits with those of a student in the United States. You have agreed to help out your friend and by creating a written presentation about your own eating habits in response to the set of questions you got earlier from this person. Address these following questions your partner sent to you. What do you eat in a typical day/week? What are your favorites for each meal? What is your favorite meal and why? Is this a healthy or unhealthy dish? Why? What do you need to do to improve your eating habits (if anything)? Where and with whom you like to eat? What and where you eat for special occasions? You also thought that this was such a good idea you want to do the same to share with students in your class. Feel free to include anything else that deals with eating habits of teens in the United States that your friend might find interesting or helpful in his/her project. Intermediate-High

Intermediate-Low People in your school dont know how to mind their own business and keep eavesdropping on the conversation youre having with your best friend about a personal problem. Since you and your best friend both take French, you decide to continue the conversation using French by writing notes back and forth while sitting at the cafeteria table During your secret note chat you both decide to: Complain about a problem youre having in a relationship; Talk about who the relationship is with; Explain what happened to cause the problem; Discuss how you feel about the problem. If there is anything else you want to share with your friend while no one is following your conversation, now is your chance.

Presentational Speaking
Novice-Mid You and a friend are new volunteer tutors at the Community Center in Loveland. You have been assigned to Sylvie, a shy 7year old from Haiti. You want to make her feel comfortable since she is new to America and the city of Loveland. You decide to prepare a short presentation to tell her about yourself in French. Include some images to help Sylvie better understand. You will want to include the following: A greeting Your name Your age Your birthday Where you are from What you like to do Feel free to include anything else you can already say in French. Novice-High You have been asked to participate in a special event at the Latino Community Center to encourage good nutrition and healthy eating habits for immigrants new to the United States. Your job is to create a fun, informative presentation to teach children about healthy meals. You will want to be sure to include the following: Something for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks; Foods for each part of the MyPlate guidelines; An explanation of why its healthy to eat a balanced meal; How to eat for a special occasion; And, anything else you think is important. Since you will be presenting this to a community audience, you may also want to create a written presentation that is visually appealing and supports the points you are making in your spoken presentation. Intermediate-Low Your Spanish teacher is so passionate about learning Spanish that s/he would like more students at your school to learn a little Spanish and has convinced the principal that there should be a Spanish-language report for the school newscast. S/he has given each of you a topic for a video report and yours is high school relationships. Your video should include: You are going to present this to a partner first before you make your video. What makes someone a good friend What makes someone a bad friend What is the ideal relationship Novice-Mid Your Spanish class has started video-conferencing with an international partner school in Seville, Spain. This month everyone in class is giving presentations about the likes and dislikes of American and Spanish teenagers. Organize a presentation where you want to include the following: You introduce yourself Activities you like/dislike; Why you like/dislike the activities; When you do the activities; With whom you do the activities. Feel free to include any additional information you might already be able to say in Spanish. Novice-High You are on vacation in North Carolina and staying in a hotel. At the pool you meet a German-speaking family from Switzerland that is vacationing in the United States for the first time. They have lots of questions about going out to dinner that night. You decided to go back to your room to do some research on local restaurants and arranged a meeting with them later on. You try to help them by telling them about two (2) of local restaurants. You probably will want to include information such as: Names of the restaurants 3-4 things you like or prefer to eat there (meals, deserts, etc.) Some drinks that the restaurant offers Something that makes that restaurant special Anything else you want to share that explains why you like these restaurants and why your new Swiss friends should try it. Intermediate-Mid As an exchange student you often attend local events in the community. Today during one of the meetings the question is about charitable organizations. In your small group you are going to describe a charity that is important to you. You should talk: What the charity does. Why you are interested in this charity, How this charity raises money. How you are involved in the charity. Explain whether you think it is important for people to get involved in charity work

Presentational Writing
Novice-Mid You get on your school bus the first day of school and there is a very cute new student from Salzburg, Austria. You know Novice-High

You are on a Spanish-language blog and several students have

his/her English is pretty good, but you want to make a good impression and use your German skills. While you are not yet comfortable speaking in German to a stranger, you want to get his/her attention without embarrassing yourself. You decide to write him/her a note with some information about yourself. You will want to include: A greeting Your name Your age and your birthday Where you are from Your phone number A goodbye You can also include any other information you can already say about yourself in German. Intermediate-Low You are having a very bad day and need to tell your best friend all about it. Unfortunately, you are in your study skills class and the teacher wont let you talk to your friend, so you decide to write a note. Since your friend loses everything and you are in German class together, you decide to write the note in German so the whole school doesnt find out your business. You decide to tell your friend: Who upset you; What happened between you and the other person to upset you; What the person who upset you is like; Any other information you feel you need to share to feel better

made posts about their school cafeteria. You are planning to post a description of your school cafeteria in the next couple of days, sharing what your cafeteria has to offer. The following questions have been answered by others on their postings: What kind of food is offered? Are there different choices? What days certain foods are served. What foods you like and what foods you dont like Do your teachers eat in the cafeteria? Be sure to include any other information you may want to present to make your posting interesting.

Intermediate-Mid

Example #1
While working in a volunteer group in Africa, you have to deal with some health issues. The medical assistant for the organization is in Colorado, so you will need to explain your condition via e-mail in order to get the medical assistance you need. Explain your symptoms clearly and in detail so that you get appropriate medical care.

Example #2
Your Spanish teacher is so passionate about learning Spanish that she would like more students at your school to learn a little Spanish and has convinced the principal that there should be a Spanish-language report for the school newscast. He/she has given each of you a topic for a video report and yours is high school relationships. Create your script first. Your video report should include: What makes someone a good friend What makes someone a bad friend What is the ideal relationship You may decide to include relationships of people you know in school to show good friends and ideal relationships.

Your turn-Design a task; Task

indicate mode; indicate proficiency level Mode Proficiency level