50 minutes.

2 prompts.

2 paragraphs.

200 words each.

Go.

This is how Upper School Spanish teacher Julia Garner’s Spanish 3 course conducted its first unit assessment on a set of vocabulary terms: not a test split into a vocabulary section, true or false section, sentence structure section, and writing section, as one would usually see. It was a composition which is what the Spanish department is steering towards moving forward.

After each future unit or chapter, students will write a composition where they must apply the vocabulary and grammar points covered in the unit. Even two years ago, students wrote compositions in Garner’s Spanish 3 course, but they were in addition to unit tests. Spanish 2 has always had compositions at the end of a test, but not as its own test. “I wouldn’t say it’s anything new,” Garner said, “but we are emphasizing skills that are required for students to apply the material. We are moving away from more of a fill-in-the blank kind of format.”

Spanish 4 and 5 have always done in-class compositions, so it’s nothing new to the upper levels of Spanish. It’s the lower levels, like Spanish 3, that are starting to write these compositions to show they can apply grammar into their own writing. Garner believes the students from Spanish 3 will be more prepared for the later levels of Spanish because of this.

For some students, learning vocabulary isn’t a problem, and it has become almost the norm to be assessed through fill-in-the blank style tests and quizzes. “For students who feel more comfortable with a highly structured kind of test,” Garner said, “there’s still quizzes to prepare the students for the more open ended assignment.”

Garner has noticed that there is a trend of students memorizing all the vocabulary the night before a quiz and spitting it out above a blank line to finish a sentence, only to forget the word after the test. “This is not for the goal of filling in the blank,” Garner said, “but to able to express something.”

“I really liked it because if you forgot a vocab word, it didn’t really affect you,” freshman Leila Sheridan, who is in Spanish 3, said. “I also think it’s more beneficial because, in life you’re never going to have to fill in the blank, but you’re going to have to construct sentences from your memory.”

That’s the kind of learning the Spanish department is trying to steer away from: less fill in the blank style learning. “We are not so focused on the grades so much as the skills that students are building,” Garner said. “I don’t anticipate big changes in the grading outcome.”

The Spanish department has been thinking of making the switch for some time now. “We were thinking, ‘what is the best way to help students develop the skills that we have defined as the skills they are building at this level,’” Garner said, “and we also think the compositions are a better way to assess a student’s mastery of those skills.”

Spanish teacher Liz Villagomez also uses compositions in her Spanish 2 class. “I’m using shorter versions of it,” Villagomez said, “because I am also trying to make sure they are mastering the grammar points we are learning and the vocabulary points we are learning.”

Similar to Spanish 3, the fill–in–the–blanks have not completely gone away in Spanish 2 exams. “They are still seeing a lot of the fill–in–the–blanks, writing sentences more thoroughly, especially with more detail because that’s what I’m pushing for,” Villagomez said, “and then at the end there is a short composition they have to write.”

Villagomez agrees with Garner on the importance of translating the material they learned into full complete sentences. “I like the composition at the end of the test because that shows me if they can really apply the material they have learned, and that’s what you want to do anyway.”

Filling in the blank is only a small part of mastering grammar. The level Garner wants her students to get at is speaking about a topic, such as the news, and being able to converse on the spot. “If you look at the way language instruction is moving, the emphasis on meaningful expression, whether that’s in writing or speech, actually communicating something is the direction it’s going.”