The "UnTest": Implementing ACTFL's Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) Workshop

The Professional Development Peer Team of the PACE Project will be presenting a workshop for all CLA language instructors on Friday, February 27, 2015. The focus of this workshop is ACTFL's Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA), and how it might influence curricular choices and activity development. Some language programs at the University of Minnesota have begun experimenting with IPAs to develop curriculum and to assess student language competence by engaging all three modes of communication: Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational. The goal of IPAs is to develop higher order thinking skills and evidence-based learning with a focus on cultural practices, products, and perspectives. We have invited Dr. Francis Troyan from Ohio State University, co-author of Implementing Integrated Performance Assessment (2013) to facilitate this workshop, in which participants will work through the concept, structure, and evaluation of this instrument and begin to construct an IPA relevant to their own curriculum.

In the morning session Dr. Troyan will walk us through the concepts of the IPA (content and development). At lunch we will ask you to share some "food for thought" and to brainstorm ideas for future professional development opportunities with members of the PD Peer Team. Discuss ideas that arose during the morning or venture into new territory, exploring interests and areas that we might investigate together over the next couple of years. The optional afternoon session will provide an opportunity to explore topics suitable for an IPA, to review IPAs developed by our instructors, and/or to develop ideas for an IPA. Dr. Troyan will be here the whole day to facilitate the process.

Friday, February 27, 2015
Morning workshop (STSS 412): 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Lunch session (STSS 131 A& B): 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Afternoon workshop (STSS 412 - optional): 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Feel free to bring a laptop or tablet (not required).

Please register online by Friday, February 13, 2015. If you have any questions, contact Caroline Vang at cevang@umn.edu.

Dr. Francis Troyan is assistant professor of Foreign and Second Language Education and the faculty advisor for the BSEd and MEd programs in Foreign Language Education at Ohio State University. His research interests include classroom-based performance assessment, functional linguistics in foreign language teaching and learning, and high-leverage teaching practices in foreign language teacher preparation. His work has appeared in The Canadian Modern Language Review, Foreign Language Annals, The NECTFL Review, and The Language Educator. He is a co-author of Implementing Integrated Performance Assessment.

The PACE Project is funded by a grant from The Language Flagship.