SLAVIC 820: WEEKLY TA PRACTICUM

I. Course Goals

B. Teachers will learn to identify classroom problems and work cooperatively to solve them.

II. Course Requirements

B. Presentation of one share activity at Practicum.

C. Timely completion of all testing assignments by deadlines indicated on syllabus including:

1. Composition of Test or Section of Midterm or Final
2. Distributing Test, Midterm or Final Drafts
3. Printing, Collating, Distributing Final Versions, incl. copy to BR
4. Correcting and Returning Midterm Sections
5. Submitting Test Scores and Midterm & Final Scores to BR and curver
6. Curving Midterm or Final Exam
7. Submitting Comments on All Assessment Instruments for Files

E. Timely arrangement of video recording reservation for video observation as per BR request (which you will receive in writing). No observations will be made before September 15. Your grade for this course will NOT be based on the observation, but your grade for the course will be lowered by one step if you do not make the appropriate arrangements for the observation to occur. The observation is designed to help you in your efforts toward professional development. Video reservations must be made at least two weeks in advance by calling (26)3-3839. DO NOT CALL AUDIO-VISUAL SERVICES: they charge for videotaping and the department will not pay for these charges. You must call LSS Video Resource Pool at the number indicated because this unit will videotape teaching assistants without charge.

III. Course Grade

TESTING IN SLAVIC 102 & 204 - Spring 1996

IV. Test Composition and Point Values

Test (1 Unit in Golosa)	102: 100 points total; 204: 90 or 100 points total/30 min.
Midterm (2-3 Units in Golosa)	180 points total/50 min.
Final Exam (5 Units in Golosa)	400 points total/2 hrs.

B. Section Types

1. Listening Comprehension: Listen to text read by instructor and answer questions in English. Select "genre" of listening text on the basis of material from Davajte posluwaem or Listening Comprehension Sections in Golosa. This section should be worth 10% of the total points on the text or exam.

Test	Number of Questions
Unit Test	5
Midterm	5
Final	10

Listening Comprehension on the final exam may include more than one listening text.

2. Reading Comprehension: Read a passage in Russian and answer questions about the meaning of the passage in English. The passage should be drawn from a text which the students have NOT seen before (or at least one they have not been assigned to read), but should be similar in genre to texts in Davajte pohitaem in Golosa. Not every word in the reading passage need be one drawn from the students' active vocabulary as long as meaning in the text does not depend on comprehension of unknown vocabulary. One of the most important goals at this level is recognition of cognates! This section should be worth approximately 10% of the total points on the test or exam.

Test	Number of Questions
Unit Test	5
Midterm	5
Final	10

The final exam may have more than one reading text in the reading comprehension section.

3. Fill Ins & Translations together are worth a total of 60% of the points available on the assessment instrument.

Fill Ins: Read a passage in Russian and fill in the blanks with the approprate forms of the required Russian words as indicated by the context and any cues provided in parentheses. Cues in parentheses may be in Russian or in English. The fill in section should be part of a unified context with the translation section: the author of the fill in section for midterm or final should work together with the author of the translation section for the same test in order to assure this contextual coherence. Avoid absurd, supernatural and bizarre situations or contexts. Students often find humor in the forms of irony or sarcasm to be very difficult to deal with in testing situations. The blanks in this section should pose grammatical, lexical or syntactical language problems based on the exercises of the unit(s) covered, with only one or two blanks at most based on any one exercise. Focus most attention on those grammar topics which students wrote out themselves. This section should be graded for both accuracy and spelling.

Test	Approx. Number of Blanks
Unit Test	15
Midterm	20
Final	60

Each blank is worth 2 points except for blanks for prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, and proper names in the nominative case, which are worth 1 point each. Deduct no more than 50% of the total point value of any blank for grammatical or spelling errors when the answer provided is communicative. (Give no points for the correct grammatical ending on any incorrect lexical item or a grammatical ending provided without a lexical item.) Don't penalize students for a recurring error of any type except violations of spelling rules in different words.

4. Translation: Translate the following passage or dialogue into idiomatic Russian. The passage or dialogue provided here should be part of a unified context together with the fill in section. The author of the translation section should work together with the author of the fill in section to create this context. The translations should focus on basic and fundamental idiomatic structures covered in the lesson or unit. This section should be worth about 30% of the total points for the test or exam.

Test	Number of Russian Words
Unit Test	approx. 15
Midterm	approx. 25
Final	approx. 70

Each inflected word or fixed word group is worth 2 points, while other words (prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions and proper names and personal pronouns in the nominative case) are worth 1 point each. Deduct no more than 50% of the total point value of any blank for grammatical or spelling errors when the answer provided is communicative. (Give no points for the correct grammatical ending on any incorrect lexical item or a grammatical ending provided without a lexical item.) Don't penalize students for a recurring error of any type except violations of spelling rules in different words.

5. Communicative Writing Tasks: Provide a writing task which our students might actually face in Russia. For example: "Leave a note for your Russian roommate at MGU explaining that you've taken ill with the flue and have gone to the clinic." OR "Write a note to your professor at MGU explaining that you won't be able to come to class next week because your parents will be visiting." OR ask students to answer questions about themselves. The communicative writing tasks are graded on content only. This section is worth 20% of the total points available for the test or exam.

Test	Number of Questions
Unit Test	1 (of 2)
Midterm	1 (of 2)
Final	2 (of 4)

C. Changing test formats

If you would like to try something a little different for any quiz or midterm/final section, you are certainly free to do so, provided:

1) You discuss it with your colleagues and everyone is in agreement; and

2) You give ample warning of the format change to all the students taking the test.

V. Dividing Up the Work of Test Preparation, Test Correction & Curving, Share Activities and Film Segments

These activities are not included in the point calculations below.

Writing a 30 minute unit test and collating TA comments (after test is scored) is worth 50 TA points.

Preparing an oral exam video for early presentation is worth 30 points.

Writing the LC for the midterm - 10 TA points
Writing the RC for the midterm - 20 TA points
Writing the FI section for the midterm - 30 TA points
Writing the T section for the midterm - 10 TA points
Writing the Communicative Writing Task section for the midterm - 10 TA points
Leading Review of Midterm, Printing, Collating, Distributing the midterm and collating TA comments (after test is scored) - 20 TA points

Scoring LC for the midterm - 10 TA points
Scoring RC for the midterm - 10 TA points
Scoring the FI for the midterm - 20 TA points
Scoring the T for the midterm - 30 TA points
Scoring the Communicative Writing Task for the midterm - 10 TA points
Curving midterm for the other course - 10 TA points

Writing the LC for the final - 20 TA points
Writing the RC for the final - 40 TA points
Writing the FI section for the final - 40 TA points
Writing the T section for the final - 20 TA points
Writing the Communicative Writing Task section for the final - 20 TA points
Leading Review of Final, Printing, Collating, Distributing the final and collating TA comments after test is scored - 20 TA points

Proctoring final - 10 TA points for each proctor. The final has traditionally been graded collectively by all TAs of each course.

Curving final for the other course - 10 TA points.

All testing materials must be distributed to the mailboxes of each TA and to BR's mailbox by 12 Noon on the Tuesday preceding the assigned practicum meeting so that all of us have ample time to review the materials before discussion at practicum. Materials received after 12 Noon will be marked late.

VI. Testing Dates (Administration of Tests in Classes)

102

204

VII. Principles for Share Activities

Give a brief presentation of the activity (no more than 5 minutes!) and hand out a single copy of every handout necessary for the activity to each TA (for both courses) so that all TAs can use the activity or adapt it for their courses.