Show What You Know!
Click on one of the areas below to read an example scenario from that context.
Ms. Uwimana teaches Kinyarwanda to middle school-aged students at a community-based cultural center. Her students’ parents have expressed some interest in the school having a summative assessment at the end of the course to demonstrate the objectives that have been achieved during the course. Ms. Uwimana knows a few assessments, mostly from textbooks, for Kinyarwanda. She has some concerns that they might not be age-appropriate, though, and she teaches alone and doesn’t have much time to write a new test, either.
In this situation, would you…
___ Select an existing assessment?
___ Modify an existing assessment?
___ Develop your own assessment?
Provide a few examples of what you might do that support your choice.
After considering your own responses, click here to view the sample responses.
Lukas teaches German in an evening class for adults at the local university. The class is made up of second language learners and heritage learners who want to improve their German and apply it in a professional context. The university has German assessments that would be appropriate for both the age and proficiency levels of his students, but the content isn’t professionally-oriented and he has some concerns that it won’t be informative or productive for his students.
In this situation, would you…
___ Select an existing assessment?
___ Modify an existing assessment?
___ Develop your own assessment?
Provide a few examples of what you might do that support your choice.
After considering your own responses, click here to view the sample responses.
Amare is designing a summer course for elementary heritage French learners at a local school, and wants to integrate assessment into the curriculum. He knows of a few French tests for a world language audience, but he has some concerns that the examples and situations provided might not be relevant or practical for his current heritage students.
In this situation, would you…
___ Select an existing assessment?
___ Modify an existing assessment?
___ Develop your own assessment?
Provide a few examples of what you might do to support your choice.
After considering your own responses, click here to view the sample responses.
Adele teaches several different Hebrew courses at a local university. As an increasing number of heritage students have been enrolling in her courses, Adele is considering administering an exam prior to the start of the academic year to ensure students are placed in the appropriate level. Although she knows about a widely-used placement exam, she has some concerns about the test being primarily designed for students studying Hebrew as a world language, making it less appropriate for the many heritage language learners that enroll in her courses.
In this situation, would you…
___ Select an existing assessment?
___ Modify an existing assessment?
___ Develop your own assessment?
Provide a few examples of what you might do that support your choice.
After considering your own responses, click here to view the sample responses.
The above example learning scenarios cover a variety of assessment situations in which educators must determine if they should select, modify, or develop assessments for their teaching contexts. Click on one of the boxes to read about and respond to these situations.
