Year 10
Languages Support Materials
Overview
The central purpose of assessment is to understand where students are in their learning. Assessment refers to the broad range of strategies teachers employ to obtain information about their students’ skills and understandings, and ranges from asking students questions during a lesson to giving students a formal standardised assessment.
The assessments need to provide information about the depth of students’ conceptual understandings as well as their accumulation of knowledge. They should support teachers in identifying students’ strengths and weaknesses, and provide detailed diagnostic information about how students are thinking, so that the teacher is well placed to know what students have mastered and what they need to learn next.
Year 10 Languages
Assessment Principle Number 3 Assessment should be fair
French: Second Language De bonnes raisons d’apprendre le français (Good reasons to learn French)
Languages/French: Second Language/Communicating/Socialising/Creating/Understanding/Systems of language/Role of language and culture/Language variation and change
| Content Description |
|---|
Initiate and participate in sustained interactions, using descriptive and expressive language in formal and informal exchanges to discuss young people’s experiences and interest in contemporary culture and social issues, for example, apprendre les langues
Create and present a range of imaginative texts on themes of personal or social relevance, to express ideas or that reflect cultural values, social issues or experience Reflect on the experience of learning and using French, considering how intercultural communication involves taking responsibility for contributing to mutual understanding, by modifying language and behaviours in relation to cultural perspectives Increase control of context-related vocabulary and analyse how grammatical elements impact on the making of meaning, including:
Explain how French language and culture have evolved and how they continue to change over time and understand that language use has the power to influence social and cultural relationships and practices Understand that French language and culture are interrelated and that they shape and are shaped by each other in a given moment and over time. |
Nature of the assessment
Written response to a statement in the form of an info poster.
Purposes of the assessment
To evaluate students’ ability to comprehend written text and collate and convey that information. Also to establish information on their ability to write descriptive and expressive text to share and compare personal opinions on a given topic.
Stage in the Teaching sequence
At the end of the learning sequence as a summative assessment.
Background learning
Students have been:
- exposed to context-related vocabulary
- exposed to a variety of texts related to young people’s experiences, interests and social issues
- taught grammatical items, including the present, perfect and future tenses and the imperative
- taught how to write a persuasive text
- taught the conventions of an info poster, and provided with opportunities to practise them.
Assessment task
The teacher provided the task sheet to students and explained that the task involved students designing and creating an info poster that informed of the benefits of learning a language and attempted to persuade Year 10 students with four reasons as to why they should continue to study French in Years 11 and 12. The students were advised to write approximately 100–150 words in French, basing their reasons on some of the following benefits of learning a language:
- enjoyment
- brain training
- profession
- travel
- culture
- entertainment
- international relations
- intercultural understanding
- world peace.
Assessment process
Students had previously engaged with texts and classroom discussion about the benefits of learning a language. The teacher explained that the purpose of the assessment was to design an info poster with information that would persuade students in Year 10 to continue to study French. Students were able to either hand write and draw, or create with the use of computer applications, their info poster. The teacher observed the students as they completed the task. On completion of the task, the teacher collected the task and used the marking key to assess the writing and provide detailed feedback to students.
Using the information
The teacher used the info poster to determine the students’ ability to write in French. The teacher’s observations were used to guide further lesson planning and to inform end-of-semester reporting.
As the writing activity with illustrations/graphics was open ended there was the opportunity for all students to demonstrate their French language learning. Some students designed an info poster with simple phrases and words, others provided detailed information and used persuasive language in their design.