Can You Teach It? Harnessing Authentic Assessment for Language Learning (Part 1)

“Soccer Speaks Many Languages” by Diana Geers on CommonLit 

• What is a refugee?
• How do you pronounce this person’s name?
• Why did Burundi have Hutus and Tutsis in it if they were fighting?

I have never seen this many questions or curiosity this persistent in my 8th grade EFL students. Why? Because they are working on an authentic assessment task—they are going to teach the 4th and 5th grade EFL class.  

When I introduced the project, the energy in the room immediately ratcheted up. “Eeeeh?!” Students sat up straighter. Their eyes opened wider. 

What exactly is the project? Eighth grade EFL students will teach a lesson to the 4/5 EFL class on the article “Soccer Speaks Many Languages” (see photo above). 8th graders will determine lesson objectives (big idea, content, and language), how students will show they have mastered the objectives, and what activities will prepare students to show that mastery. But first, of course, 8th graders will have to thoroughly understand the content and language of the text the lesson will be based on. I am at their service to answer any questions they have, teach them anything they decide they need to know in order to accomplish the task, point them to resources, and mentor them through the project.

“You’ll have to understand every word and be able to explain it if an elementary student asks you.” The 8th graders nodded solemnly. 

“This is a big responsibility!” one responded.

Briefly, the article is about Innocent Ndayizeye, whose family fled civil war in Burundi when he was 4. It demonstrates how in spite of difficulties in the refugee camp and as a new immigrant to the US, soccer always helped him build relationships wherever he went.

So at the students’ request, we’ve been doing things like... 

• Practicing how to say Ndayizeye, playing this clip and repeating it together over and over.  
• Checking the world map on the wall for locations of Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania.
• Learning words like and phrases like refugee, relocate, scrunch, form, competition, and at every chance.
• Discussing the impact of colonialization on the ethnic tensions in some African countries today.

I really can’t wait to see what the 8th graders will want to know on Monday, and how this project will shape up. I can’t believe it took me over 3 decades of teaching to tap into this powerful motivator for learning. 

How did it happen now? I’ve seen “reading buddy” relationships across grades help both older and younger students flourish. (My daughters, now grown with their own children, still remember their reading buddies from elementary school!) My EFL class knows that being able to teach others is one characteristic of an effective language learner. And I was recently in a book discussion of The ELL Teacher’s Toolbox where I had to choose an implementation experiment. One of the strategies we’d discussed was peer teaching. It was just the push I needed. 

When I asked if any of the other teachers had an elementary English class the same period I had my 8th grade EFL class and would be open to my students coming to read to theirs, I got a taker. It’s a 4th and 5th grade EFL class. I asked the teacher if she had any stories to recommend that my students could prepare. She said, “Anything about soccer.” Perfect for me, because my students love soccer, too. In fact, I’d just come across this article and thought it would be an excellent study for my students. I showed it to the 4/5 teacher, and she agreed. 

"Did last year's students do this?" a student asked at the end of class Thursday. Nope--it's a grand experiment all the way around! We'll all take some risks together, and we'll all learn something. Hooray for experiments! 

How about you? What’s your experience with project-based learning? Authentic assessment? Peer teaching?