Audio+Grammar+Test

=My first grade class was given a listening audio grammar test.= =** Need: **= =** Grammar is an important subject in first grade. It is part of the district curriculum and the state PASS objectives. Most of the grammar activities students do are on worksheets. They read directions and answer the questions. I want to assess them in a different way. I created an audio clip that is 5 minutes long. The students are handed a paper ahead of time that says Grammar Test at the top and has ten numbered lines. When the audio test begins, they hear me give them instructions. I ask them to find parts of speech in the sentences that I read aloud and write down the answers. At the end of the exam I give them a chance to use hints to answer questions that may have been hard for them. I take this time to remind them the definitions of some of these grammar terms. As part of my assessment I plan to take up completed tests before the hint portion of the audio clip. By giving this audio test I will be able to gauge which grammar skills are mastered in my classroom and which need more work. **= = = =** Objective: **= =** Students will be able to score a 70% or higher on the audio grammar test. 70% of the students will decline the need for the hint portion of the audio test. **= = = =** Results: **= =** I added a hint portion to this test. I paused the test before the hint portion played and took up all completed tests. There were only 4 students out of 18 done. I played the hint portion for the students not done. It didn’t help them complete anymore of the test. I played the whole test one more time. It helped a couple complete the test and get a good score but the ones that were struggling didn’t benefit from the reply. I asked for feedback and students told me that it was too fast. I decided to record a new test and let them try again from what I learned of their needs. **= = = = = =First try.....= =media type="file" key="Grammar Test.mp3" align="left" width="240" height="20"= = = = = =** Grammar Test Take 2: **= =** I took what I learned from the first attempt of giving the audio grammar test and tried to make it better. I got mixed results when grading the second attempt. Half of them did really well and half weren't successful. I did notice that there were less answer spaces left blank, almost none! They were more comfortable and told me that this one was much easier for them. I could tell while giving the first audio assessment that I spoke way too fast for them to keep up. On the second attempt I gave them just as much time as I would have if I was actually reading it line in person. I also repeated my instructions and sentence for each question. **= =Second attempt at an Audio Grammar Test= =media type="file" key="Jodie2.mp3" width="240" height="20"= = = =**Conclusion:**= =**This assessment proved to me that some of my students are still struggling with grammar terms, their meanings, and their application. I can see that everyone knows what a noun is, but some are confused when you ask for the proper noun. We did extensive and fun activities learning what an onomatopoeia and compound word is. We also read a book called Ollie the Apostrophe to learn about contractions and possessive nouns. This assessment made me realize how much those activities paid off and that it is time to work creatively with my students on ways to master the other grammar ideas.**= = = =**After presenting my project to my OU peers and instructor I got some much needed feedback and decided to tweek this assignment one last time. They suggested that I give them the sentences to look at while they hear the audio test. Below is the document I handed out to them.**= = = == = = =After this last grammar test, the results were split. I had half pass and half fail. This time I did have many more high A and 100 percent grades on the test. I was excited to see some 100s!!! I think overall, it was best to redo my audio clip and to adjust their test sheet. Looking at the sentence while they listened seemed to help them be more successful. I could hear some kids comments during the assessment. Several were sighing, shaking their head, and saying what is a ______? That clearly tells me that I need to revisit the idea because this test only had preciously covered grammar ideas.=