Group Discussions
Group discussions are a great way to get students talking, and an opportunity to collect data on student growth. I use group discussions as an assessment strategy at the end of a unit as well. For non-assessment discussions, I use a variation of the Discussion Thursday from Somewhere to Share. Students can use English, but they have to offset their English use by using more Spanish for this assignment.
When I want to use discussions as an assessment, I still have students keep track of how they participate, but mostly to make sure they are talking enough that I can hear them speak, but I use a rubric similar to the one below as I walk around the room and listen in on conversations. Other ways to get students speaking enough to ensure I have sufficient evidence for a score is to do round-robin type speaking, inside-outside circles, etc.
Languageley 