As I continue my journey towards proficiency, I wanted to share a concrete example of “Old World” (textbook-not-real-life-not-meaningful tasks) versus “New World” (proficiency-based-authentic-meaningful) assessment.

This is the “Old World” Level 1 quiz I have been giving on Food for the past 2 years: using the test generator from my textbook, I created a bunch of disconnected, not authentic, accuracy-based vocabulary and grammar tasks.

This is the first part of the  “New World” Level 1 quiz I am giving on Food this year: an authentic text describing what the ideal breakfast should contain. Students rely on various reading strategies we practiced in class to decipher the meaning (but heavily geared toward words they know/cognates since this is for Novice readers). Once we have reviewed their understanding and everyone is on the same page, they engage in a conversation with their classmates about whether or not they eat the “ideal breakfast” every morning.

What I particularly like about the interpersonal task is that we practiced in class talking about what we eat/drink for breakfast but not in the context of having an ideal breakfast. So now students have to reflect on what they eat/drink, making connections with Health and bringing them up the critical thinking ladder.

Finally, this also prepares them for an Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA).