Google voice for finals
February 6, 2010 — lmurrellWe just had our semester finals. This year I struggled with how to give an exam that would be meaningful and at the same time manageable for me to grade. The current culture at my school is to give a longer exam that is mostly if not all multiple choice. I didn’t want to do this because in my experience, the performance on theses tests mirrors how the students are already performing in the class and the results don’t really provide me or the students with meaningful information. Also I am struggling with making my classes communication based. I want my students to leave my class with skills that will allow them to survive and thrive in a Spanish Speaking environment. How many of us have had to fill in the blank or bubble in the correct answer in a target language environment?
I decided to try an oral final. I teach 2 classes of 4th year Honors Spanish, 2 classes of 3rd year Spanish and 1 class of AP Spanish. In total I have 150 students. Google Voice has provided me and my students an amazing opportunity to give an oral final and eliminate the pressure of an oral final and having all eyes and ears on you. As well as eliminate student boredom as all 40 students in a class perform their final.
For my 3rd year class I gave the 4 grammar goals and a vocabulary goal: Use preterite and imperfect in context, use por/para in context, use present perfect in context, use future in context, Use vocabulary studied this semester in context. I also gave them 10 questions they could use as a guide.
I gave them this scenario: For this midterm you will be presented with a picture. You will be given 3 min. to plan how you will respond to that picture. Your response should be 60 seconds in length and it should be as if you are talking about the person in the picture. All that you have learned this Semester (grammar and vocabulary). You should use a wide variety of vocabulary and your presentation should be cohesive and flow naturally.
You will be working in pairs. Partner A will receive their picture card and will have 3 min. to plan and take notes. Partner A will then dial my google voice number xxx-xxx-xxxx. When Partner A is connected to the voicemail they will begin by identifying themselves: “Soy Ana”. At that point Partner B will begin timing. Partner A will talk for 60 seconds. When the 60 seconds are up Partner B will let Partner A know. At this point the roles will switch and Partner B will receive their situation card and the process will begin again.
We practiced this in class with a variety of pictures. For the final I choose 6 different pictures and I made sure that partners had different pictures.
For my 4th year class, we have been working on the Subjunctive. Their final was structured the same was in partners with 3 min. to plan and a minute to perform. Their goal was to show their knowledge of the subjunctive by using it in context as well as using the vocabulary studied. The directions they were given was: ” Your response should be 60 seconds in length and it should be as if you are talking to the person about their situation. You will be using the subjunctive to respond to their situation. You should use a wide variety of vocabulary and “key” subjunctive phrases in your communication. Please refer to your notes on the subjunctive and your subjunctive packets. Your presentation should be cohesive and flow naturally.” Their task was they were presented with a situation card with something like: It is Cecilia’s first day of school at our High School. Do you have any recommendations for her? or Billy is concerned about pollution. What can you recommend he do to combat pollution?
My students were very excited to be done with their final in under 10 min. They also loved having an oral where they didn’t have to have everyone looking at them. They were so focused and the quality that I received was amazing.
