How to Grade in World Language: The Best Categories & Weights

THE GRADING CATEGORIES AND WEIGHTS I USE VS. THE SBG SYSTEM

I have used traditional grading systems as well as Standards-Based Grading (SBG), even simultaneously, with my high school students. I know proponents of SBG grading (which I will explain later) will be horrified to find the results were — gasp — the same. There was no difference in student achievement and test scores.

Since I use the target language 90-100% of the time in my classroom, students automatically get the comprehensible input they need to improve their listening skills.

Since my approach is mostly communicative, students automatically get many opportunities to improve their speaking proficiency.

And, of course, there is no shortage of reading and writing practice in any foreign language classroom.

WHAT GRADING CATEGORIES AND WEIGHTS DO I USE?

Would you like to know how I set up my grade book? True confession: I tried new percentages every year with mixed results. I finally decided to go with the systems below, one for Spanish and French 1-4 and one for AP Spanish Language and Culture.

ACADEMIC GRADES

Categories

• Oral Participation: 20-25%
  
• Homework: 20% * (May be used on most tests.)
  
• Quizzes, tests (oral and written), notebook: 55-60%

* I allowed students to use the homework on most assessments. This incentive motivated them to complete the assignments. The result: Those who did the homework didn’t need to refer to it during the tests because the practice improved their proficiency (it depends on what type of homework you assign), and those who didn’t do it, underperformed.

Unsure about whether to assign homework? I deal with that issue in the following blog post: 9 Effective Ways to Motivate Students to Do Homework

WAIT! WHAT ABOUT CULTURE?

In the end, our PLC included culture to fulfill the cultural element of the ACFTL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages. The result looked like this:

Categories

• Oral Participation: 20%
  
• Homework and Classwork: 20%
  
• Quizzes, tests (oral and written), notebook: 55%
  
• Culture: 5%

The final grade is an average of all categories’ total points.

AP SPANISH LANGUAGE AND CULTURE GRADING CATEGORIES

I modeled my grading system for advanced students on the Advanced Placement framework, using a 4-point system and assessing the individual skills.

Categories:

• Speaking: 25% Includes interpersonal and presentational
  
• Writing: 30% Includes formal and informal (email and essay)
  
• Listening: 15% Interpretive
  
• Reading: 15% Interpretive
  
• Culture: 5%
  
• Homework: 10%

Oral Assessments: Based on exclusive use of Spanish and ease of use. [CR1] Speaking the language increases fluidity and accuracy. Risk-taking is rewarded. The goal is the communication, not the grammar. Use of English inhibits learning, weakens the process, and loses points.

This grade is based on participation points that students earn by answering questions by students and/or teacher, volunteering answers, speaking Spanish, performing skits, dialogs, presentations, and Google Voice. Points are recorded daily and posted bimonthly. 100 points.

HOW DO YOU GRADE PARTICIPATION?

Do you grade students’ engagement during class work, or only their speaking participation? That is the question, the question we asked in my department, anyway. We went back and forth. We ultimately decided that lack of participation in the class activities was a citizenship issue, not a skill to be graded. Therefore, the participation grade included only the number of times students volunteered answers and participated in daily speaking tasks and individual or group work.

The topic of how to grade student participation deserves its own blog post. If you would like to know how I grade speaking tasks, click on the following link: SPEAKING ASSESSMENTS: WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO TEST PROFICIENCY

WHAT IS STANDARDS-BASED GRADING AND HOW DO I DO IT?

SBG grading moves from grading individual tasks for practicing language to assessing the student’s mastery of skills: reading, writing, speaking, listening. For example, in a traditional grading system, students receive grades on their report card for homework, grammar practice, filling in worksheets, class participation. In SBG grading, the language practice is not graded, only the student’s performance in the four skill areas. What can they DO with the language? How well do they understand authentic language? How well do they speak?

It also uses a 4-point grading system rather than the traditional 100-point grading system.

This graph from Power School is a good visual representation of the different grading systems.

THE PROS AND CONS OF STANDARDS-BASED GRADING

PROS:

1. Students are focused on the skills they need to learn and not individual tasks. They can easily see which skill they need to improve.
   
2. Formative assessments don’t need to be graded— less grading for the teacher.
   
3. Since formative tests, quizzes, and activities are not graded, anxiety is lifted. Students take more risks and enjoy the learning process more. This system lowers the “affective filter” as Steven Krashen calls it.
   
4. The teacher evaluates the level of language acquisition on a proficiency scale, such as novice, intermediate, advanced, or superior, not the academic performance of tasks unrelated to the speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills (such as completing a homework task or a grammar worksheet).
   
5. Grading is consistent in all language levels. When students reach AP Spanish or French, they are already accustomed to skills-based performance assessments and the 4-point grading system.

CONS:

1. Throw out the homework. No one will do it if it isn’t graded. Can you guess the number one question students ask after I assign a task? That’s right: “Is this going to be graded?” Students care more about their grades than their proficiency. YOU care about their proficiency. It will be years before they value the second language they acquired in your class.
   
2. Categories overlap, so you never know in which category to place an assessment. Wait! Before doing this oral presentation (presentational speaking), the student had to read an article and/or the instructions in Spanish (Reading: Interpretive communication) and listen to their peers’ questions afterward (Interpretive Listening). It is MOSTLY speaking, but not all.
   
3. Here’s another example: Students read the story and answer the comprehension questions. (Interpretive: Reading) Then they rewrite the story, changing the ending. (Presentational Writing). Then, in pairs, they tell the new version of the story to the class. (Presentational Speaking)
   
4. In which category will you put this assignment? Yes, you could divide it up, giving separate grades for each part of the assignment, but that’s more work for you. I prefer simple.

WHY USE STANDARDS-BASED RUBRICS?

Why, for that matter, should you use rubrics at all?

How do you know if students have achieved mastery if you don’t have a standard upon which to grade that assessment? Even more important— How do students know they have achieved mastery?

When I was a novice teacher, I was crestfallen when the submitted assignments fell far below my expectations. I expected a coherent story using most of the vocabulary words. What I got was half a page of incomprehensible sentences.

When students don’t know exactly what is expected of them, they punt. Or vastly underperform. The result? The submissions will be all over the page, from excellent to, “Did she write this in the bathroom before class?”

HOW TO USE THE RUBRICS

Either create your own rubric, or use the ACTFL rubrics. I prefer to use my own, as each task is different; the ACTFL rubrics are broad. For example, if I assign a project on the clothing vocabulary, I provide students with the following rubric: Spanish Clothing Project Rubric.

First, I decide precisely what I want students to do. Then I explain the rubric to them, so they know EXACTLY what’s expected for an A grade.

Then, I pass around examples of what an A project looks like. After explaining the rubric and showing them exemplary work, no student will submit sub-par work because of lack of knowledge. Maybe because they are unmotivated, but not because they are uninformed.

FOR HIGHER LEVEL AND ADVANCED PLACEMENT STUDENTS

How to grade in world language for level four and Advanced Placement students: For my advanced students, I use the College Board AP Spanish rubrics.

I explain the rubrics to the students. Then I show them student samples of the task at hand and ask them to grade the sample based on the rubric.

When students turn in their assignments, I circle the areas on the rubric where they need to improve, staple the rubric to the paper, and return it to them. When students know which areas to target, they elevate their proficiency levels.

CHOOSING THE GRADING SYSTEM THAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU

Now that you have seen how I and other world language teachers grade our students, you have a few grading practices from which to choose.

It’s up to you.

I used a traditional approach with my lower-level students and a standards-based approach with my advanced students. My language learners became proficient with both systems. You decide. What works best for you? It’s okay to play around with your categories and weights until it feels right. If you don’t have a PLC (Professional Learning Community), you might ask your colleagues what works best for them, and cannibalize parts of their grading policies into your system.

HOW TO GRADE IN WORLD LANGUAGE: WHAT ABOUT SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENTS?

Yes, I give midterms for the progress report, and final exams, even in AP Spanish, at the end of the school year. Creating those assessments takes even longer than writing lesson plans. If you don’t want to write your own, why not use these ready-made midterms and finals? They are editable; it takes far less time to modify a test to meet your needs than to create your own. They are also printable and autocorrecting. That’s right— The Google Forms self-correct. You not only don’t have to create the test, but you also don’t even have to grade it!

These exams assess students in the reading, writing, and listening skills.

Below are the Spanish midterms and final exams by language level.

Spanish 1 Midterm

Spanish 1 Final Exam

Spanish 1 Midterm and Final Exam

Spanish 2 Midterm

Spanish 2 Final Exam

Spanish 2 Midterm and Final Exam

Spanish 3 Final Exam

AP Spanish Final Exam

All of the above tests are included in the following printable and digital bundle: SPANISH 1, 2, and 3 PRINTABLE AND DIGITAL TESTS

Happy teaching!

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