DIY Reading Practice for the AAPPL Test
Studies suggest that students do better on tests with familiar formats. I’m afraid I was remiss in preparing my students for the AAPPL test, for even though I have been kind of obsessed with AAPPL rubrics for the past couple of years, and my kiddos know their scoring criteria better than normal kids their age, I was really doing my own thing with the format up until last week.
I figured out a way to set up IPAs that were easy for me to make and easy for me to score, so when they tried the demo AAPPL tests last week–days before they would take the real thing for the first time–it was a little stressful. All of the time I had spent encouraging them to focus only on what they knew and skipping what they didn’t, it made them panic a little when they had specific questions to answer, regardless of how much they understood.
Don’t get me wrong: 81% still met North Carolina’s expectations for Spanish II in reading. (Which makes me feel kind of smug about hitting the Camp Musicuentos target!)
But since not everyone was willing to bet $5 that they could hit intermediate on all 4 tests for the Global Language Diploma Seal, I ended up making my own version based on the topics listed on the AAPPL site using Google Drawings.
Here’s how you can make your own!
1. Create a Google Drawing for each level
- NM – describing your school’s floor plan
- NH – chores you are expected to do
- IL – a letter from your teacher that is about this week’s activities
- IM – texts about news headlines
2. Create and find appropriate texts to interpret
- NM – (fake) descriptions of exams teachers would be giving where
- NH – lists of chores appropriate for ages 2-3 and 4-5
- IL – an actual letter from me to them
- IM – blurbs about Brangelina, electric cars, Venezuela, and obesity
3. Design the tasks
AAPPL is not exactly multiple choice. There are multiple choices, but it’s never just multiple choice. It’s matching, but not matching. You always have to move something–hence the Google Drawing vs Google Docs. But even then, there are always wrong answers.
So I put the texts on the Drawings and made some things that could be matched based on the texts, wrote the instructions in English at the top.
For floorplans, you matched teachers’ names and subjects to rooms in our school floorplan:
After scoring these, I was actually pretty shocked to find how clearly the separate assessments distinguished levels! There were one or two who did better on the Intermediate Low example I made simply because of the vocabulary used (I suspect), but several did the Novice Mid and Novice High examples just fine, then floundered on the Intermediate Low and mid with longer texts.
In other words, I think I have a pretty solid practice test to get kiddos familiar with the format for next year now!
2 Comments
melanie thomas · May 9, 2017 at 1:29 pm
I struggle so much with planning appropriate tasks per level. I want to take PD through ACTFL “Developing Interpretive Reading and Listening Proficiency” to get that training! https://www.actfl.org/assessment-professional-development/professional-development-workshops/proficiency-assessment-workshops-opi-wpt
melanie thomas · May 9, 2017 at 9:29 am
I struggle so much with planning appropriate tasks per level. I want to take PD through ACTFL "Developing Interpretive Reading and Listening Proficiency" to get that training! https://www.actfl.org/assessment-professional-development/professional-development-workshops/proficiency-assessment-workshops-opi-wpt
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