1. Best Practices in Chinese Assessment
K-8 Formative and Summative Assessments
Lynn Thompson
Na Liu

2. 1
Workshop Goals
 To share CAL formative and summative K-8 oral
proficiency assessments
 To inspire you to use and create formative and
summative assessments!

3. 2
Discussion: Chinese Classroom
What do you do in your class to help students understand
Chinese?
What do you do in your class to help students speak
Chinese?

4. 3
What is Oral Language Proficiency?
Traditional language learning focused on: Learning
vocabulary lists, grammatical accuracy,
memorized dialogues
Language as communication focuses on: The
functions of language, comprehensibility of learner
output, gestures, words, short phrases, memorized
chunks of language, creating at sentence level,
paragraph-level speech, extended paragraphs

5. 4
Sample Language Functions:

6. 5
Language Functions and Levels
 How do language functions relate to levels of
oral proficiency?
 It is quite easy to learn a greeting and use it
effectively in another language, but it is far more
difficult to tell a story or persuade another person
to support your point of view.
 Some functions can span a number of proficiency
levels. The same function becomes more
complex, nuanced, and elaborated as student oral
proficiency increases.

7. Function: Sharing information
Jr. Novice Student speech at this level ranges from
producing words, phrases, and memorized
responses to some successful attempts to create
sentences.
Jr. Intermediate Student speech at this level ranges
successful attempts to create sentences to
providing paragraph-like descriptions of self, family
members, and activities.
Jr. Advanced Students at this level are able to
share personal information in great detail. They
can tell stories about experiences they have had
and defend or explain their actions.

8. Assessment and Levels
How do we measure proficiency?
We use assessments
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9. What is Assessment?
Assessment is an ongoing process of
setting clear goals for student learning and
measuring progress toward those goals.
Assessment = the opportunity to enhance,
empower, and celebrate students’ learning
while giving guidance to instructors.

10. Assessment versus Tests
Achievement Test: Checks student language
knowledge of specific content, language
structures.
Language Proficiency Assessment: Checks
what students CAN DO with the language
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11. Why Assess?

12. Types of Assessment
−Formative Assessment: monitor
students' daily progress
−Summative Assessment: check in on
student progress at key points in the
school year
Formative
assessment
Summative
Assessment

13. 12

14. Assessment and Instruction
What do you want your
students to be able to do at the
end?
= Assessment
Plan your
lessons
What will you have
to teach them so
they can reach the
end goal?

15. Begin with the End
To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear
understanding of destination
It means to know where you’re going so that you better
understand where you are now
That way the steps you take are always in the right
direction.
-Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, 1989, p.
98
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16. What are the SOPA and ELLOPA?
SOPA (Student Oral Proficiency Assessment)
ELLOPA (Early Language Listening and Oral
Proficiency Assessment)
--- Summative assessments (end of year, end of
program)
--- Formative (administered annually over a period
of years)
--- Sometimes used for placement (student
heritage learner or coming from another program)

17. 16
SOPA and ELLOPA
Purpose: Assess students' ability to understand and
speak a second language
Level: Grades K-8
Format: Two students assessed together in a
friendly, non-stressful environment
Time: 20 minutes for each pair of students
Scoring: COPE-SOPA Rating Scale (9 Junior
levels based on the ACTFL
Proficiency Guidelines)

18. How do the SOPA and ELLOPA work?
Both are administered by an “interviewer.” A rater
is also present at the interview to take notes and
rate students at the conclusion of the interview.
Two students are presented with a series of tasks
(SOPA) or games (ELLOPA) that range from easy
to more challenging
The interviewer winds down the interview when
students have reached their “ceiling”

19. ICE BREAKER
 Take a moment to think about a
memorable interview experience that
you had.
 What made it a good/bad experience?

20. Interview Techniques Checklist

21. View clips from Sample Interviews
As you watch each interview, identify the
tasks that the interviewer uses with the
students.
Observe techniques that she uses:
---What techniques encouraged students to
respond?
---What could you suggest to improve the
interview?

22. Sample Interviews
ELLOPA
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23. Sample Interviews
SOPA
What is different about these interviews?
What is the same?
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24. 24
How are ELLOPA and SOPA the same?
1. Two students are assessed at the same
time.
2. Students are given progressively difficult
tasks until they reach their ‘ceiling’.
3. The same rating rubric is used for all
assessments.

25. How are they different?
The ELLOPA uses a puppet, visual
organizers, and songs
The ELLOPA is designed for children in
preK to Grade 2
The SOPA is designed for students in
Grades 2-8, but is sometimes used with
younger students.
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26. 26
How do I decide which to use K-2?
Consider how you teach: For example, if you use
visual organizers, puppets, or songs with students
you should include these elements in your
assessment.
Consider your curriculum: The assessment tasks
and props that you use should reflect the topics
your students have covered in their language
classes, their developmental level, and the second
language proficiency range of your students.

27. Brainstorming tasks for your students
Working with a partner, brainstorm at least 3 tasks
that you could use with your students
A warm up task
Answering personal questions
Description
Story-telling
Other?
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28. Rating the SOPA and ELLOPA
As the interviewer conducts the SOPA and
ELLOPA, a rater writes down what they
students say and notes how well they
understand.
These notes are then used to assign ratings
to each student at the end of the interview.

30. Three Main Levels of Proficiency
Junior Novice
Junior Intermediate
Junior Advanced
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31. COPE/SOPA Rating Scale
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Figure
1 COPE/SOPA
Rating Scale

32. Junior Novice Level
Oral
Fluency
-Isolated Words
-Memorized phrases
-Attempt s sentences with
some success
-Basic objects, people, and
places, predictable topics
-Long pauses

33. Speech Sample: Junior Novice
 Interviewer: I’m going to ask you some questions now. How old are you?
 Jana: Six
 Interviewer: Do you know when your birthday is?
 Jana: No
 Interviewer: What do you like to do on your birthday?
 Jana: Play
 Interviewer: Do you eat any special food on your birthday?
 Jana: Sandwiches
 Interviewer: Can you think of any presents you got on your birthday one time?
 Jana: Ball
 Interviewer: Okay.

34. Junior Intermediate Level
Oral Fluency -Simple conversation at
sentence level
-Uses language creatively
-Everyday topics and some
academic topics
-Describes successfully

35. Speech Sample: Junior Intermediate
Interviewer: Can you tell me what you see in this picture?
What is it?
Joseph: Yes. The food chain. The plant produce
photosynthesis. It make its own food in the leaves
and solar energy. How you say “lobo”? Wolf needs
rabbit to eat. Rabbit need plants to eat. The plants
need sun to grow.

36. Junior Advanced Level
Oral
Fluency
-Paragraph-level discourse
-Topics of personal and general
interest, and academic topics
-Narrates successfully
-Organizes and connects
speech smoothly
-Emerging ability to hypothesize
on abstract topics

37. Speech Sample: Junior Advanced
 Interviewer: I hear you want to tell me about my new rules.
 Melissa: I totally disagree, with all due respect to the principal, with the
very first rule about no calculators in math class.
 Interviewer: And why is that?
 Melissa: Well, one of the reasons is because if you were in the fifth grade
and you’re doing this problem and you didn’t get it; you try to do
everything that you knew to figure it out and you still can’t get it. Then you
wanted to use the calculator, but that’s against the rules, so you wouldn’t
be able to. That wouldn’t be fair and that wouldn’t be good because then
they wouldn’t know the answer and that leads to bigger problems.
 Interviewer: What would happen?
 Melissa: The person would be stuck there forever, and maybe not forever,
but the person would be stuck there for a while, and maybe the person
would probably end up just failing.

38. COPE/SOPA Rating Rubric
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39. Next Steps
Complete SOPA and ELLOPA training
Online training course – (April-June)
Live 2 day workshops
When you have completed training:
Select pairs
Administer and rate interviews
Record ratings for data entry
 Report results for different audiences

40. Formative Assessment -- SSA
Student Self Assessment (SSA)
Developed by CAL for Grades 3-8
Series of statements based on language functions
assessed in the SOPA
Students are asked to indicate to what extent the
statements describe what they can do by selecting
YES, ALMOST, A LITTLE, or NOT YET
 Students are then asked:
Can you think of anything else you can do in
CHINESE that is not in this assessment?
What can you do best in CHINESE?
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41. Brainstorm Self-Assessment Statements
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Take a moment and write down some of the
language functions that you teach in class.
Turn to the person next to you and share your
ideas.

42. Purpose of The SSA
Used for periodically (beginning of year, end of
year or more often)
Teacher gets feedback from students on their
learning
Students become more aware of proficiency
expectations and what they CAN DO in the
Chinese
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43. Background of TOM-SOPA
Since the 1980s, CAL has been developing
assessments for young learners, including
ELLOPA, SOPA, and COPE
As part of the field-testing of ELLOPA/SOPA,
teachers rated their students’ oral proficiency as
seen in the classroom.
This adaptation of rating rubrics resulted in the
TOM-SOPA.
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44. Purpose of TOM-SOPA
Used for periodic, classroom based assessment of a
student’s oral and listening proficiency in a second
language
Ratings are assigned in four skill areas
−Oral fluency
−Grammar
−Vocabulary
−Listening comprehension
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45. Components of the TOM-SOPA Toolkit
TOM-SOPA Observation Checklist
Sublevels with Rating Instructions
TOM-SOPA
TOM-SOPA Rating Summary Sheet
Sample of a Completed Set of Tools
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46. TOM-SOPA Observation Checklist
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47. TOM-SOPA
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48. TOM-SOPA Rating Summary Sheet
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49. Thank you!
Please take a moment to complete the workshop
evaluation form!
For more information about the SOPA and
ELLOPA and training options please contact
Lynn Thompson lthompson@cal.org
Na Liu nliu@cal.org
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