Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Unreal]

I just started my first day at a public high school and I have to give grades to my students for conversation and writing classes. I've never given grades before for conversation classes and I'm wondering how others do it. What kind of speaking scenarios do you use (oral presentations/mock conversations/etc.) and what factors (pronunciation/eye contact/etc.) do you base your marks on? The other teacher at my school just makes the students do presentations and I want to put more variety into my classes.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I would ask a series of ten questions and keep a checklist, marking each answer on a 1 to 5 basis. Then I'd total up answers out of 50, but give or take a bit depending on the over-all performance.

If they're getting you to grade speaking and writing this is probably a very good sign. Any time the students aren't paying attention you can just say that what you're about to talk about will probably come up on the test.

[ilovebdt]

[denverdeath]

You can do things many different ways. You may want to ask for some of the Korean teachers' input first. You could give a mid-term and final oral exam. Have the students do it in pairs and then give each a score for structure, pronunciation, and fluency or sth like that. Depending on class size, maybe three minutes per pair. Have the other students do a worksheet or study while you give the test to each pair in your office.

Maybe give a final grade out of 100 based upon 30% mid-term, 30% final, 20% in class participation, 10% homework, and 10% attendance.

[ddeubel]

I can send you a nice rubric regarding oral fluency testing.

If it is a pretest, I would do as one person suggested. A series of basic questions , checklist and mark. Also as a pre-test or with any oral test I ALWAYS have a picture with lots of detail { for example, for a pretest I have one with a clock, weather, people.....ask to check numbers etc....). Also judge their introduction to you, good way to gadge language level.

For other testing, get a picture and test for the vocab and verb usage you have been studying......for example, present continuous, apartment 1. What is the girl doing? 2. What is she sitting on? 3. How many cups do you see?

But pictures are the way to go when eliciting knowledge/language level unless you are lucky enough to test in the environment being discussed (ie. a dialogue about school....).....

I test in 3s and have 3 sets of questions, all of the same level. only 6-10 questions.

Also, pictures are great for testing listening skills. List multiple choice answers, 4 possible. 10 questions. Students look at the picture and circle the correct response.

I use the pictures in the Communication Games series a lot and have a bank of others. Many available on the net with lots of detail ....

Hope my rambling helps.

DD

DD