IB Assessment Analysis

Topic: ​Negative Tu Commands

Rationale for Assessment Timeline: ​In my Spanish 2 class, I was working on negative tu
commands. Below, I have included a timeline of formative/summative assessments which I have
created for my Spanish 2 students in order to prepare them for the bigger summative assessment.
I had specifically designed my timeline of assessments for my students in a way that they would
learn in a gradual and progressive manner, so that they would reach authentic mastery of the
content.

Phases of Assessments
Criteria: ​This figure
illustrates how I
would’ve led my
Spanish 2 students in
order to prepare for
their summative
assessment.
In the ​red circle​, the
purpose of phase 1 is to
include formative
assessments, or
activities which would
help students visualize
the existence of the
content.
After exploring the
basic structures of the
content, it is important
to transition to
formative, and sometimes summative assessments within the ​yellow circle​, which serves to help
students understand the “inner-workings” or mechanics of the content.
Finally, once students had the chance to peer inside the system of the content, we must zoom
outward to the ​grey circle, ​where students will have the chance to connect how the inner
mechanics of the content logically fit with the basic fundamentals of the content. This would also
contain a combination of both formative, and summative assessments.
After completing all of the phases of the content, it is important to seek out evidence of authentic
mastery of the content. In order to assess for mastery, I would follow Bloom’s taxonomy where
the student is required to create original work which encompasses a combination of their ideas
with the overarching ideas of the content. In other words, the ​green circle​ labeled as phase 4. (see
figure below.)

Examples of Formative and Summative Assessments Based on Phases Illustration

In this portion of the project, I will provide examples of formative, or summative assessments I
used according to the illustrations showcased above.

Phase 1: Big Picture Formative Assessment

In the image below is my mentor teacher’s first note handout about Spanish commands. As I
have indicated in ​phase 1​, it is important to help students visualize the big picture of the content.
This note sheet was not taught as a mere fill in, but a class-based discussion on what exactly is
the negative tu command, and how it is utilized in both the Spanish and English language. By
having the students help me fill in the blanks without me providing them the answers, this acted
as a formative assessment to see if they were grasping the purpose of the existence of negative tu
commands.

Phase 2 Inner-Mechanics of the Content

Once we have explored the big picture of negative tu commands, it is important to have students
understand the mechanics of the content by analyzing the patterns of the uses of the negative tu
command. To do this, a formative
assessment I had my students
engage were task cards. Students
had to move around the room to
find all of these task cards. The
task cards were hidden around the
room and numbered, so the students
were required to move their bodies
while scavenging the room from
numbers 1-30 to fill out their
handouts. This type of activity was
great as it required them to
physically move around the space
instead of being immobile. It also
required the students to practice
conjugating the verbs into negative
tu command forms, which basically
helped them solidify their
understanding of the pattern of
negative tu commands.

Phase 3: The Bigger Picture

Once we have explored the mechanics of the content by analyzing the patterns of the uses of the
negative tu command, it is important to logically combine the two phases in order create a bigger
picture of the content, or ​phase 3​. A useful formative assessment was to use the connection
competency, or have students practice using the negative tu command in a practical context. In
this activity, there were two parts. In the first part, the students were required to watch a video
(in Spanish) which informed them of 10 things which foreigners should never do in Peru. They
were to write down all of the 10 negative commands as well as the things mentioned in the
video. ( the 10 things were visually written, and part of the video, so students did not struggle
writing them down.)
Next, they were to write 10 things which foreigners should never do in the United States using
the negative tu command. The
students found this engaging and
relevant, and I was able to
collect all of their papers to
evaluate their progress with the
content.

Phase 4: Intellectual Property

of Students
After students had gone through
all three phases of the timeline, I
would then evaluate the students
using a summative assessment.
Within this summative
assessment, I would first
evaluate the student’s mastery of
the three phases by having them
conjugate verbs into the negative
tu command within written text
such as a paragraph, or spoken
text such as listening to a video
(like we did in phase 3).

Afterwards, I would have students write a

creative piece based on a prompt with verb
requirements such as the irregular verbs. In
the creative portion of the summative
assessment, I would ask students to write as
if they were journalists in an advice column.
I would require them to write a piece to a
wider audience giving ten tips (consejos) on
how to be happy. The students would have
already read several authentic articles from
the advice column, and they would’ve
analyzed how the authors would use the
negative and affirmative tu command within
an authentic context.
Differentiation
As you have observed, each phase tackles a different part of the content, but strives for the same
goal. In order to successfully unite these phases of learning, differentiation is key as students are
required to perceive the content through a different lens as they progress through these stages of
learning. For instance, in phase 1, we may have students understand the content by connecting it
with their own lives and native language. We could also visually present the content such as
showing a “to-do list” as well as “not-to-do list” which contain the targeted material. Every way
we present the material in the phases is unique, but serves one purpose-- to help equip students to
use their own lens (snapshots of moments or experiences within their own lives) to explore and
understand the content.

Grading Criteria
For grading, it really depends on the type of assessment.
For formative assessments, I provide feedback by correcting the errors, and explaining the reason
why it is incorrect in the assignment. Nevertheless, they are still given full credit as long as they
attempt the assignment.
For summative assessments, I evaluate their mastery of the three phases of the learning by
evaluating their accuracy of using the content, and their creativity of utilizing the content. A
good creative piece would showcase a student’s original take on how they would use negative tu
commands in an authentic setting.

How They Did On Their Last Assessment, and Feedback

As the graph shows, the students made the most mistakes with “escoger” when conjugating it
into the negative tu command. The day after the assessment, I showed the students this graph,
and asked them for feedback such as, “What happened?” “How did we get this wrong?” I
believe visuals like this graph are important to show to the students so that they know exactly
where they and their peers made mistakes, and will know which verb they should better prepare
themselves for on the next summative assessment.