In Spanish 3 we are finishing up an art based unit. (Find it free here.) Students are practicing the skills of describing in detail and comparing and contrasting as they look at works of art from the video Bajo la mesa (Morat and Sebastián Yatra). In so far as a final assessment can be “fun”, this is my absolute favorite of the year. Students will re-create one of the art works from the video and then describe the original art in detail and compare and contrast it with another work. Here is a favorite from last year!

Because they need to know how to describe in a lot of detail (and some need scaffolding to do that), I wanted to double check that they were ready for the assessment on Wednesday. I used one of my favorite formative tasks: The Talking Walls assessment.

I hung our 5 selected works in the hallway on a sheet of butcher paper. I set a 2 minute timer, and had each group write as many things as they could about one of the paintings. We continued to rotate until every group had been to all 5 paintings.

When they had finished, they all went back and read the posters so they would have lots of new ideas for ways to describe the paintings. By this time, most students know which painting they are going to use for their assessment, so I noticed that they spent more time at certain posters.

Try this evaluation out on any topic where students have a lot to say about several different sub-topics. It will help you feel confident that they are assessment ready!