Oral Assessments With Phones

A majority of technology infused lessons involve students consuming or creating content. Typically content creation with technology is text or image based. In world language courses we need students to speak. Writing is less of an instructional concern.  Exploring technologies that allow for speaking and listening are a priority for teachers of world language.

Our world language department has been experimenting with alternative tools to assess student oral proficiency. One tool that has stood out is Google Voice. Google Voice is a free phone service. Google allows for two options.

Option one allows you to keep your existing cell phone number. All calls to this number are forwarded to  your Google Voice mailbox. Google voice provides an online voice mailbox. Your voice mails are available online in the form of emails. Google uses its voice recognition technology to transcribe the message into text. From the online screen you can view the transcript of the message or listen to the message by clicking play. Google Voice also provides a mobile phone application that can access your account.

Option number two will provide you with your own personal Google phone number. This phone number can be set to forward to any other phone number that you have. A phone call to your Google number can be forwarded to your home, work or cell phone. Calls that go to voice mail are available in the same way as option one.

Our world language teachers are using option number 2. The teachers have established their own Google phone number. The teachers turn off the call forwarding features so that the calls do not ring on their cell phones. Students dial the number and provide their oral assignments/assessments on the Google Voice voice mail of the teacher. The teacher can then open up the Google Voice website and listen to each child's recording.

The use of Google Voice has simplified the process of oral assessment. It is no longer necessary to spend class time assessing individual students. Students do not require access to computers to take part in this activity. All of our students have access to telephones at home or personal cell phones.  The use of Google Voice has had a positive impact in our world language courses.

Enaged Students - Authentic Tasks - Disguised Learning

I had the opportunity this week to work with a middle school French class. The current curriculum was addressing occupations. The students were being introduced to the vocabulary associated with this topic. Students in the class were assigned the task of researching and presenting a final project that documents what they learned about their occupation. Of course, the entire projected needed to be written and presented in French.

I worked with the teacher, Mrs. Neuschatz,  to develop a project that the students would relate to. We wanted to move away from a traditional research based presentation where students develop PowerPoint slides of texts and images. These types of projects typically do not involve a high level of motivation nor do they result in significant learning or knowledge exchange in a classroom. We can be honest and refer to them as "death by PowerPoint". I think everyone can relate to this.

What we decided to assign is a "Fakebook" profile. Our district is a member of Google Apps for Education. A quick search of the templates in Google Docs returned a number of "Facebook Profile Templates". I selected one that utilizes Google Presentation. It is a four page presentation template that mirrors a typical Facebook profile.
We assigned the students the task of developing a Facebook Profile for a person who practices the occupation that they select. They must include daily events (postings to the wall), who would this person be friendly with (friends), education and other information (info), events that this person might take part in (videos). Although we assigned a rubric, the students have some flexibility as to the content they could provide.

We expect to have some finished projects in a couple of weeks. However, my initial observations in the classroom were very interesting. The students were motivated and excited about the project. They applied creativity and a level of higher order thinking to make connections between the research they uncovered and the sections of the profile that they must complete. It was not sufficient to mere list responsibilities of "A Doctor". They instead had to apply that knowledge by listing activities and events that a doctor might experience and post them on "the wall".  Rather than supply a listing of facts in a typical slide, they are applying what they learned to a task. Students were not only making connections and applying knowledge, but they were learning French through an authentic and engaging task!

The template for our PowerPoint "Fakebook Project" can be found here.

I will share some of our final products when they are ready.