[teachingenglishmadeeasy]

okay, don't laugh, but, this is true.

I have 22 students in a 50-minute speaking class. I have to give them a mid-term worth 30% of their grade (yeah, not my idea). Any thoughts?

[Eric]

I was often in situations like this. Some ideas include:

- interviewing students 1 on 1 for about 2 minutes each
- group students into small groups (3 ~ 5 ss/group) and have them do a little re-enactment or role play in front of the class or privately.
- pair off your students, give them a situation and a role each and have them interact for about 2 or 3 minutes.

This is what I had to do when I had to grade 30 or 40 students on their speaking ability within a 2 hour time period.

Eric

[STCrowley]

Wow. First, let me say that sucks. I hate doing stuff like that. Grading is the thing I like least about the class. If they're adults, I'd say ask them what they think is fair. . . they might have ideas. Otherwise, my best bet would be to form them into 'teams' and have them debate something 'safe' (you know, where nobody is going to get really upset). My favorite topics are 'should MP3s be free' or 'Should the government give parents more money to have more kids. . .' And then you can say you're grading them on their performance in the debate, but you should know what kind of grade they deserve until now.

Anyway, those aren't very organized thoughts, but it about sums up how I'd consider going about it.

[teachingenglishmadeeasy]

Some good ideas. Unfortunately, I have to adhere to a the time limit, so, trying to debate would take too long to assess each student. I think that would be great if I had more time.