IPAs

I have a huge gap in my assessments because I am lacking in interpersonal assessments (transferring information with another person or people). This is probably the most important skill when acquiring another language. After all, if you cant interact with someone, then what's the point of the language?!

In world language, we have what are called IPAs (don't get excited; there's no alcohol involved). Basically this means that you do an interpretive assignment (reading, listening), which leads to an interpersonal and then a presentational (speaking or writing but not interacting). I figured it was time for me to get my act together and start making more of these kinds of assessments, but a huge question has been raised for me, and I am hoping that my world language educators can help me out with this!

Based on feedback from students, the IPAs drive them crazy in the sense that they don't like doing the interpretive, interpersonal and then presentational back-to-back. They say it's tiring and it's just too much. Is it ridiculous to do the interpretive, teach a little, do the interpersonal, teach a bit more, and then do the presentational? I'm really not sure. I am trying it both ways. What do you think?

Although these assessments are super time consuming, I think that they are so much better than a test with a bunch of questions on it, which I used to give last year. And just giving a quiz on one concept isn't enough. As teachers, it's easy to think "I don't have time to do all these things in the classroom." However, it's so important for us to do what is best for our students, and take the time necessary to do so. Even though I have had to take a lot of time developing new stuff, I actually feel like it has made my classroom move much faster and more smoothly than last year. And, these assessments take about the same time--if not less time--to evaluate than the tests I used to give. I hope that, years from now, I am still able to reflect on my teaching and am willing to improve or replace old materials.

These assessments have also made me reflect a lot more on my teaching. When I give quizzes on one concept, the students often do very well and it looks like they are "getting it." But that is not really an accurate evaluation of a student's language acquisition. It just isn't. Unless we are giving them the opportunity to speak/write using open-ended assignments, how can we truly say that they can communicate in the target language? And how can we truly reflect on our own teaching if we aren't seeing the students use the language realistically?

Please let me know what you think about all this!

Timothy