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Implementing Integrated Performance Assessment
A follow-up to the ACTFL Integrated Performance Assessment Manual published in 2003. This book provides readers with expanded guidelines for how to design IPA tasks to inform the backward design of a unit. Suggestions on how to provide effective feedback and how to improve learner performance are shared. Also included is a re-conceptualized rubric for the interpretive mode and the addition of IPA rubrics for Advanced-level language performance.
299 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 22, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 19, 2017
This book does a good job of introducing the IPA model and its three modes of communication. All of the basics are covered, and there are many sample lesson plans. There are, however, large oversights in the book, namely:
1) A lack of specificity in the rubrics. The Intermediate Interpersonal Mode Rubric, for example, has as its "Exceeds Expectations" criterion "Is generally understood by those unaccustomed to interacting with non-natives..." How would that even be assessed by a teacher? Does it matter whether the teacher is a native speaker or not? Some of the standards seem very vague, and little to no guidance is given on how to make these very subjective categories more standard.
2) A strange adherence to modeling the language of the standards in the classroom. Clear expectations are always good, but the sample feedback dialogs with students seem stilted and almost impenetrably obtuse with their incessant references to "meets expectations" and so forth. Actual quotation:
I remain unimpressed, especially since this conversation happened in English and this was mere a couple lines of a page-long conversation (how much time would that take?)
3) Too much English throughout the assessments, especially the interpretive.
4) No student work. I would think that a book discussing implementation of a model would include the outcomes of the model. It would be especially nice to see student work paired with the rubric (e.g. the following is an example of a "meets expectations" intermediate presentational task). The rigor of the IPA model is difficult to confirm without seeing the products thereof and how good the rubrics think those products are. This would also help with 1).
5) No discussion of assessment of dead language, especially Latin and Greek. The entire list of authentic text examples includes exactly zero that can be used by those languages, and there are actually no authentic texts grammatically comprehensible to novice learners. The washback effect of the implementation in South Carolina apparently included Latin teachers frustrated "at not having a manual and sample." The book includes a weak intermediate-level Latin IPA that includes only six lines of Martial. The feedback of a Latin Intructor in a virtual school program asserts that the IPA does work for Latin and that conversational and written Latin were successfully implemented, but, frankly, I have yet to see very compelling levels at the high school level or below with an acceptable level of grammatical accuracy. Again, without student work, I cannot assess the success of such implementations.
6) In the interpretive task, very little attention is given to detailed understanding of the grammatical constructions in the text. The tasks often include leading questions, so the students are not actually required to fully understand a passage. As someone who values knowledge and precision, this is a problem.
1) A lack of specificity in the rubrics. The Intermediate Interpersonal Mode Rubric, for example, has as its "Exceeds Expectations" criterion "Is generally understood by those unaccustomed to interacting with non-natives..." How would that even be assessed by a teacher? Does it matter whether the teacher is a native speaker or not? Some of the standards seem very vague, and little to no guidance is given on how to make these very subjective categories more standard.
2) A strange adherence to modeling the language of the standards in the classroom. Clear expectations are always good, but the sample feedback dialogs with students seem stilted and almost impenetrably obtuse with their incessant references to "meets expectations" and so forth. Actual quotation:
"...you're still working in the strong meets um...things where maybe that there just weren't oppportunities to clarify by paraphrasing...but you definitely clarified by asking questions...and uh...that's claer. Umm...and I mean...definitely understood by someone accustomed to working with language learners, if not beyond that.
I remain unimpressed, especially since this conversation happened in English and this was mere a couple lines of a page-long conversation (how much time would that take?)
3) Too much English throughout the assessments, especially the interpretive.
4) No student work. I would think that a book discussing implementation of a model would include the outcomes of the model. It would be especially nice to see student work paired with the rubric (e.g. the following is an example of a "meets expectations" intermediate presentational task). The rigor of the IPA model is difficult to confirm without seeing the products thereof and how good the rubrics think those products are. This would also help with 1).
5) No discussion of assessment of dead language, especially Latin and Greek. The entire list of authentic text examples includes exactly zero that can be used by those languages, and there are actually no authentic texts grammatically comprehensible to novice learners. The washback effect of the implementation in South Carolina apparently included Latin teachers frustrated "at not having a manual and sample." The book includes a weak intermediate-level Latin IPA that includes only six lines of Martial. The feedback of a Latin Intructor in a virtual school program asserts that the IPA does work for Latin and that conversational and written Latin were successfully implemented, but, frankly, I have yet to see very compelling levels at the high school level or below with an acceptable level of grammatical accuracy. Again, without student work, I cannot assess the success of such implementations.
6) In the interpretive task, very little attention is given to detailed understanding of the grammatical constructions in the text. The tasks often include leading questions, so the students are not actually required to fully understand a passage. As someone who values knowledge and precision, this is a problem.
November 13, 2019
There is a lot of information in this book. Well worth reading if you are an L2 teacher looking to implement IPAs in the classroom.
July 28, 2020
Great book for World Language Teachers!
April 20, 2021
An all inclusive text about the IPA. Worthwhile for all WL teachers!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews