Administering the Checkpoint B

Speaking Exam!

Bill HellerMethods Instructor - SUNY GeneseoSpanish Teacher - Perry High School (retired)thinchalkline@gmail.com

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Objectives:

• Review the SED protocols for the Checkpoint B Speaking Exam.

• Suggest helpful hints for interlocutor’s role in the speaking test.

• Identify preparation strategies to help students be successful.

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Important Links:

http://www.p12.nysed.gov/assessment/fl/archive/555m-regents.pdf

http://www.p12.nysed.gov/assessment/lotegre/loterearch/lotesam.pdf

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

What is “Checkpoint B?”

“Can initiate and sustain a conversation, but limited vocabulary range necessitates hesitation and circumlocution. Can use the more common verb tense forms, but still makes many errors in formation and selection. Can use word order correctly in simple sentences, but still makes errors in more complex patterns. Can sustain coherent structures in short and familiar communication situations. Can employ selectively basic cohesive features such as pronouns and verb inflections. Extended communication is largely a series of short, discrete utterances. Can articulate comprehensibly but has difficulty in pronouncing certain sounds in certain positions or combinations. Speech is usually labored. Has to repeat to be understood by the general public.”

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

What is “Checkpoint B?”

ACTFL Intermediate Speakers can:

• Create with the language (beyond memorized expressions).• Ask questions (in addition to responding to questions).

• Consistently use sentence level discourse (beyond single word responses).

When in doubt ask yourself: Would a Checkpoint A student be able to produce that utterance?

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Scoring Tasks:

(Test Changes and Sampler Draft, p 8)

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Preparing for the Test

Select 60 Tasks of the 600 in the Sourcebook of Speaking Tasks for Part I.

• Photocopy, cut and mount each selected task on index cards for students to draw.

• Number selected tasks 1 – 60 and have students draw from a set of number cards 1 – 60.

• Take time to select tasks which balance the syllabus topics (based on relative importance) and of roughly the same level of difficulty.

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Administering the Test• Student selects a task from the sixty tasks.

• The teacher reads the task in English to make sure the student understands.

• The task will tell the student who will start the conversation.

• The teacher always plays the role; the student always plays himself or herself.

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Scoring Tasks:

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Scoring Tasks:

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Scoring Tasks:

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Preparing the Students

• Initiate or end the conversation.

• React to what the other person said

• Answer a question or add some information (Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? With whom? )

• When in doubt what to say, ask a question.

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Advice to Students

• Disagreement is the essence of getting six conversational exchanges.

• If you can’t say one thing, say something else.

• Practice ways to agree and disagree without saying “yes” or “no.”

• Don’t tell all of the details in one utterance. Draw it out.

• First determine whether this is a polite or familiar conversation.

• Don’t make up words or invent cognates.

• Don’t used English EVER.

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Acting as Conversation Partner

• Say as little as possible to keep the conversation moving.

• Wait. Nod. Wait.

• If a students asks you to repeat and you repeat exactly what you said, that doesn’t count as an attempt. If the student asks you to repeat and you have to rephrase what you said because they didn’t understand, then that should be counted as a second attempt.

• Administer one task to all students and then do the second task on another day.

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Brainstorming assignment:

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Reactions

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Agree / Disagree

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Starting / Ending

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Useful Questions

Ch Speaking Exam – Checkpoint B

Let’s Review:

• Review the SED protocols for the Checkpoint B Speaking Exam.

• Suggest helpful hints for interlocutor’s role in the speaking test.

• Identify preparation strategies to help students be successful.

Questions?