Test and Quiz Remediation and Retake Options for Spanish Class

¡Hola profe!  I hope you are living your best life this summer and are getting the opportunity to fully recharge your batteries!  

If you’re anything like me, though, school might still be on your mind this summer.  Maybe you’re reflecting on the policies and procedures you had in place last year and thinking about what you want to do next year.  One such policy that I continually reflect upon and have modified over the past several years is that for test/quiz remediation and retakes.

I’ll be honest with you – when I started teaching in 2009, I did not have any sort of remediation or retake policy.  Once a particular assessment had been taken, I would pass the papers back, review the answers, address any questions, and we’d move on.  The thought of allowing students to redo the test or earn points back did not cross my mind.  After all, when I’d been in high school, I’d never been offered the opportunity to retake a test, and so I just didn’t think it was ever done. 

Then, I moved to a new school a few years later, and listened to a colleague of mine talk about her own retake policy.  It was like a light switch turned on for me.  Her argument was that, even though we do assign grades to students, our ultimate goal is that they learn the material.  Shouldn’t we allow students the chance to show us that they have indeed met that goal, even if it happens after the date of the original assessment?  

If you’re interested in giving your students remediation or retake opportunities this year, or if you’re looking for new ideas to add to your repertoire, here are a few options that have worked for me in my classroom:

#1 Allow students to retake a test or quiz that they’ve already taken, but on which were not successful. 

Based on your curriculum and your grading practices, decide what “unsuccessful” means for you.  For me, that’s a D or an F (below a 70%).  So, if I have a student who scored a D or an F on a test or quiz, I offer them the opportunity to retake the assessment and earn up to a C-.  I have a form email that I send to all eligible students, and anyone who wishes to take the opportunity has to complete the retake outside of class time.  

I also recommend that students come and have a one-on-one meeting with me to discuss the original quiz.  This way, I can help clear up any confusion and offer them additional practice.  Some students take me up on this, and some do not.

You might have questions about test security, or wonder if students who retake the test will get the answers from their classmates.  These are all valid questions!  To avoid this, you could make a second version of the assessment for anyone doing a retake!

I know that it can be time-consuming to make multiple versions of a test or quiz, so let me help!  Save time, energy, and sanity by grabbing any of my ready-to-use assessments.  Here are some of my favorites:

#2 Have students do test corrections or complete an error log. 

Instead of having students retake an assessment completely, you could have them do test corrections.  I like to have students use a certain color pen or marker and, without erasing or in any way removing their original responses, write the corrections next to the original answers.  You can decide if you want to allow students to use resources like notes, handouts, or textbooks.  Personally, I usually allow non-electronic sources to be used to help students with their text corrections!

On other occasions, I have students complete an error log.  I’ll give a blank copy of an error log to each student, which asks them to list the following:

• The errors as marked on the test/quiz
• What kind of error it was (context, grammar, punctuation, etc.)
• The correction
• An explanation of why the original answer was wrong and the correction is right

How should you score test corrections?  That’s totally up to you!  I usually offer a separate class work score for completing test corrections or error logs – usually 5 or 10 points.  You could also award points back on the original assessment based on the corrections.  A third option could be to have a quarterly rubric for students’ completion of test corrections/error logs throughout the marking period, and have the rubric be its own grade in your grade book.  

#3 For proficiency-based assessments, have students complete a reflection. 

For proficiency-based assessments (particularly speaking and writing assessments), I like to have my students complete a reflection in which they discuss their abilities to use the language.  Students supply evidence from their own assessment responses to respond to questions about how well they used their Spanish to complete the task.  Here are some questions I like to ask:

• Did you respond to the prompt(s) with appropriate responses?  Give examples.  If you did not, how could you have responded differently?
• Did you respond with a lot of details/elaboration?  If you did not, what could you have added to make your responses richer?
• Comment on your vocabulary usage.  Did you use any unit vocabulary?  How about idiomatic expressions?  Give examples.  If you did not, what could you have added?
• Did you make any significant grammar errors that impede comprehensibility?  Give examples, and correct them.
• For speaking assessments: Comment on your pronunciation.  Were there any words you mispronounced?  Give examples.
• Did you use the appropriate register (tú vs. usted) for the situation?  Were there any shifts or inconsistencies?  Give examples.  

I like to give students a separate grade for completing their reflections!  Alternatively, if your students are comfortable with the idea, you could have students provide feedback to each other using these questions.  Getting a third perspective can be really valuable for students! 

I hope this helps!  If you have a test/quiz remediation and retake policy that you love, leave me a comment and let me know what you do!  Have a wonderful week, profe!