Show What You Know!
The example learning scenarios on this page cover a variety of situations involving assessment plans for post-secondary world language programs. Click on the boxes to read about and respond to these situations.
Scenario A
Alejandra is a Spanish professor at a small private university. She teaches several courses at the Intermediate level and is required to use a textbook during instruction. She has recently decided to use more performance-based tasks in her evaluation of students’ progress throughout the year. When administering these new assessment tasks in her courses, Alejandra notices that students are not performing as she had hoped, but she isn’t sure why this is happening.
Imagine you were in Alejandra’s position. What would you do? How would you address the problem described in this situation? After considering your own response, click here to view the sample response.
Scenario B
Ming is a Chinese instructor working in a community college where he currently teaches only one course at the Novice level due to limited enrollment. He wants to motivate his students to continue learning the language beyond this level so that his school can offer more advanced courses that he would like to teach. He needs to build assessments into his instruction, but he is afraid that students may find the assessments stressful and will be discouraged from participating in future courses.
Imagine you were in Ming’s position. What would you do? How would you address the problem described in this situation? After considering your own response, click here to view the sample response.
Scenario C
Jamila is the head of an Arabic department at a large public university. The department offers a variety of Arabic courses across proficiency levels, including more advanced seminars on specialized topics in Arabic literature and culture. Each year, the department employs around 15 instructors, some of whom teach different sections of the same course. When discussing their assessment practices during a department meeting, Jamila notices that many instructors have different approaches to assessment and different understandings of what students should be able to do at each level.
