This is not a lesson, but a scoring guide for performing oral examination, stolen from this site.

It impressed my co-teacher who has not developed Googling skills.

My school is currently doing a speaking test with the theme: People who overcame their hardships (ex. Helen Keller). The students had to find information about that person and do a one minute speech.  If they didn't have it memorized, they could look at their papers for a reduced score.  The time limit was one minute and it was graded on contents, fluency, accuracy, attitude, and time. 1-10 points total.  I didn't choose to do the speaking test this way, as I have just gotten here, but it seemed to be effective.  Also, my co-teachers all had different ways they wanted it done like in the classroom in front of everyone or in the English office with no one around.  The biggest thing was limiting it to one minute because otherwise you run out of time.  Good luck with whatever you decide to do~!

I did a speaking 'test' last term, and will be doing one again this term.

I just had it as an interview format - the class sat inside the english room practicing in groups of 2 with a sample questions/answers sheet i gave them while I sat outside on our 'cosy zone' sofas talking to each student one-on-one for 3 minutes. With 30 kids in a class this took up 2 periods, so i got it over with in a week. It worked very well, and I structured the questions to reflect the topics we had covered in class through the term as well as the sample dialogues in their textbooks. The students worked very hard practicing the sample questions, as they knew it was going to effect their grade (10% of their term english grade).

I think mixing an interview up with a presentation is a great idea - you could have the kids in the room working on their presentations while you give the interviews outside. some of the most successful classes i've had have been ones that included an element of presentations. they seem to enjoy having their classmates listen to them in this way.

I'll attach my sample interview sheet and grading sheet for one of my classes. The interview sheet was double-sided, so they could ask questions of eachother and then if they get stuck check for sample answers. Underlined parts needed to be changed.

I graded them on Fluency, Sentence Structure and Originality.

They're the three things i've noticed with Korean high schoolers - a lot of them can chat away for hours (probably more minutes..) once you get them going but their sentence structure is non-existent. I have a couple of students who have really bad english, but are great communicators, and i can have great conversations with them in broken english. Thus I added originality for them. And fluency was for the high fliers. I marked each section out of 10, and then gave them percentages.

Hope that helps.

Was on my way to finishing the speaking tests and now I've been informed that the test must be the students being given a picture, and having to describe it, eek.

I'll go over present continuous and prepositions etc but unsure how to grade this kind of test. Does anyone have any rubrics that would assess a student describing a picture? Would appreciate any advice on this kind of test.

Cheers.

this might help....


http://www.roobrix.com/

The way my co-teachers liked doing this, was doing a 2 minute interview, based on 3-5 questions from a list given to the students. It was accessed on fluency and accuracy, amongst other things. This was middle school though, so perhaps don't give them the question list or just give them very general topics.

Speaking tests seem difficult, with so little time and so many students. It's also difficult to grade them accurately.

It is about that time for speech tests. When I first started I was really confused as to how I wanted to run my speech tests. Attached is the speech test proposal I gave my co teachers, the speech test guidelines I gave to my students, and the grading rubric that will be given to students after the tests are completed.

Does anyone have advice on how to set a rubric/marking criteria for a high school speaking test?

In my case, students can get a maximum of 15 points for the test.  It will be individual interviews lasting approx 3 mins, the questions will be based on the lessons from the textbook we have covered so far. I'm grading the students based on the content of their answers as well as fluency/clarity/accuracy, but unsure how to balance this....

Any advice would be very welcome!

I will also have to do speaking tests in my high school next month.

I have made the following guidelines for myself. I haven't included number scores, but basically level one would be fifteen points, and level five would be zero or one point. The top level score means the student can basically perform like a native speaker. The bottom level means the student has that frozen, deer-in-the-headlights look and can't really make an intelligible response. The others, obviously, fall somewhere in between. I'm also just trying to figure out how to grade my students, so I'd welcome any feedback to these criteria.

Level 1

• Student is able to answer the question at length and provides additional detail.
  Student speaks with confidence and without pauses or hesitation.
  Student’s pronunciation is clear and understandable, making few, if any, errors in pronunciation or stress.
  Student makes only minor structural errors and displays ability to self-correct and use reparative strategies.

Level 2

• Student answers the question somewhat at length provides some additional detail.
  Student speaks with confidence, with only short pauses or hesitation.
  Student’s pronunciation is clear and understandable, with only minor error in pronunciation or stess.
  Student makes some structural errors, but is able to self-correct and use reparative strategies

Level 3

• Student answers the question in short phrases or simple sentences.
  Student pauses or hesitates occasionally when speaking.
  Student’s pronunciation is generally understandable, with some mispronounced words or misplaced stress.
  Student makes some structural errors, may need prompting from teacher to continue.

Level 4

• Student answers the question with short phrases or one-word responses..
  Student pauses or hesitates frequently when speaking
  Student’s pronunciation may be difficult to understand, with frequently mispronounced words and misplaces stress.
  Student makes frequent structural errors, and is unable to self-correct. Student needs frequent prompting from teacher to continue.

Level 5

• Student is unable to answer the question, answers incoherently, or incorrectly.
  Student pauses or hesitates for a long time when speaking.
  Student’s speech is difficult to understand, with frequently mispronounced words and misplaces stress.
  Student makes frequent structural errors and is unable to self-correct. Student gets “stuck” and may be unable to complete answer.

This rubric is great! I am wondering what people do for speaking tests. I have to give one really soon and not sure how to proceed. I'm only giving a mark out of ten.