PALS Foreign Language Assessment for Fairfax County Wistar

PALS Foreign Language Assessment for Fairfax County Wistar Craighill EDCI 560 11/30/04 Team: Matt Gelven and Wistar Craighill Proficiency Testing demonstration 1

PALS • • What is PALS? Who would use PALS? Why would PALS be used? When and Where would you use PALS? • How would you use PALS? 2

What is PALS? • PALS = Performance Assessment for Language Students • An assessment tool • Created at Fairfax County Public School system in 1995 • Developed by Foreign Language teachers • The program includes: – Formative and Summative assessment tasks – Accompanying rubrics – Conversion charts to transform the score into a corresponding grade 3

Who would use PALS? • Foreign Language teachers in Middle and High school • Can be used for language levels One and beyond 4

Why would PALS be used? • To assess student progress in the Target Language – – French will be the focus of this demonstration • To define performance standards – An essential part of instruction • Provides a measurable level of performance for teachers, students and parents 5

When would you use PALS? • Mandate in Fairfax County to use PALS assessments once per grading quarter • Some teachers use PALS more frequently: – As a chapter test – To provide extra practice in preparation for the next level’s requirements 6

Where would you use PALS? • PALS can be used in the classroom or language lab • Equipment needed for speaking and interactive sections: – Tape recorder, cassette tapes, videotape recorder, video tape 7

How would you use PALS? 8

PALS Assessment • Made up of Tasks for students to perform and Rubrics to assess those tasks • See PALS section of Fairfax County Public Schools website: http: //www. fcps. k 12. va. us/DIS/OHS ICS/forlang/PALS/ 9

Assessment Tasks • Level 1 = Speaking and Writing Tasks • Level 2 = Speaking and Writing Tasks • Level 3 = Interactive, Presentational, and Writing Tasks • Upper level = Presentational and Writing Tasks 10

Assessment Tasks • Tasks based on the Fairfax County Program of Studies (POS) Themes and Topics 11

PALS Rubrics • There are Levels 1, 2, 3 and Upper level rubrics • Each level contains an Analytic rubric, Holistic rubric, and Scoring instructions – Levels 1 -3 contain additional explanations of the rubrics to aid in scoring • Analytic rubric – a very detailed assessment – Breaks each task into focus areas for assessment – A possible score of 1 through 4 for each focus area – Each focus area is further broken down to give further detail • Holistic rubric – Used when a quicker, less detailed assessment is needed – Less detailed descriptions are provided of each focus area 12

Demonstration of PALS • This section is focusing on the use of PALs to evaluate French as the target language 13