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

2 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?

3 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

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

5 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

6 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

7 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

8 How would you use PALS?

9 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: ICS/forlang/PALS/

10 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

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

12 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

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