The new year is fast upon us, and having a little break gives me some time to reflect and think about goals for the coming year. I think that it's important to focus on only 1-3 goals, otherwise it just gets to be too much and none of them get done. So, when I think about if there's only one change that I can make, what would that change be?
I've been learning a lot from other teachers around me, and particularly from Ben Slavic's TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) and CI (Comprehensible Input) Professional Learning Community. One of the gems that I've culled is assigning a student to be the quiz writer for the day. He or she then writes 10-12 True/False statements during the course of the class based on whatever our discussion may be. The nice thing about this is that it keeps students accountable to the content of our discussions, while also allowing the class to be flexible and not entirely tied down to any preconceived plan if so desired. Also, it's a great way to review content at the end of the class, and if it's done on a daily (or at least close to daily) basis it keeps both the students and me aware of how much they're understanding.
So, how will it actually work in practice? First of all, I will explain to my class the purpose of this. Secondly, I will explain what the Quiz Writer will do and then pick a student to be the quiz writer for the day. The last 10 minutes or so of class I will collect the quiz from the Quiz Writer and do one of two things. Option number one is to have students get out a blank sheet of paper and write their names and the numbers 1-10 (or 1-8 if you want it to be a bit shorter) on it. Option number two is to use GradeCam. For this you need to set up an account (for quizzes of up to 10 questions it's entirely free, and their's a free trial period as well) for yourself, and create a class with your students' names. You can then print out multiple choice sheets (A through D) of 8-10 questions each. I will assign 2-3 students to pass out the sheets because their is one sheet for each student with their names on it. (You can print multiple sheets per page so that it uses less paper.) I would probably go with option number one as more of an informal assessment on Mondays and Tuesdays, and option number two for more formal assessments during block (Wed./Thur.) and Fridays.
Once students have either a sheet of paper or the GradeCam sheets I will read aloud the 8-10 questions that the Quiz Writer has written. That way I can quickly correct any grammatical errors, and it also assures that students are paying attention to spoken French. I will read through each phrase three times. Once they are complete I will either have them trade with a partner, who will grade them, or just have them hand them in. I will then go through each phrase one at a time and ask the class whether it is true or false, and have them respond together. If it seems like they are unclear or if I hear some students who respond incorrectly I can either explain it to them or ask a student from the class to explain it and/or translate it.
If I chose to use GradeCam then all I have to do is take the Quiz Writer's quiz and quickly enter in the answers into a new quiz in GradeCam. I can then take each of their sheets and, using my computer webcam I can put the sheet in front of the camera and it will instantly tabulate their grade! And, it doesn't end there. If you are using an electronic gradebook (as we do) you can then open up your electronic gradebook, create the new assignment, click on the first student, and then hit the F8 key. It will then instantly enter in the grades for you! It's a beautiful sight to see! Not only does this help take away some of the really boring and repetitive parts of teaching, but it also gives students (as well as myself and their parents) some very quick feedback on how they're doing. It's a fantastic idea that I am actually looking forward to implementing in the new year!
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