Micro-quiz

Give a straightforward, no nonsense quiz on material that must be memorized: write down five expressions that take the subjunctive; a verb conjugation in a particular tense; a brief vocabulary list; the list of verbs conjugated with "être" in the passé composé, to be conjugated with the subject "elles;" etc.

Set-up

Announce the quiz the day before. The idea is to make the students memorize -- not to catch them if they did not, so be specific:

• example: "Tomorrow, [at the beginning of the hour] there will be a quiz on the passé composé with être. You will have to list the verbs and conjugate them with "elles." [This is the lengthiest mini-quiz I can imagine, but worth it for the particular grammar point.]
• example: "Tomorrow there will be a micro-quiz on the imparfait. You will be asked to conjugate "faire," "être", and "avoir" in the imparfait.

• Be sure to make this a SHORT quiz. (Think of it as a 3 minute quiz: 30 seconds to prepare it; 1.5 minutes to take it; 30 seconds to grade each student's quiz)
• Grade the quiz and be sure students know it is being graded.
• Correct the quiz at home, or have students exchange papers and pen color and correct quickly in class. (students circle mistakes)
• Keep grading simple. The conjugation of one verb is graded on a possible 6/6 points. One wrong is 5/6 [five divided by six] or 83%.
• Don't split hairs in grading. The "je" form of the verb is right or wrong. No grey area.
• Count the grade as a participation grade.

• If you give the micro-quiz first thing, decide ahead of time what you will do if a student arrives late.

• The micro-quiz should take about two minutes. Some students with learning needs will not be able to handle the time constraint. See how it goes the first time, then fine-tune to make sure they aren't singled out, embarrassed, etc. You may not want to count the micro-quiz for some students with learning needs. This will vary from individual to individual, and is best decided between the two of you.

• A certain amount of memorization is essential in a language course. But students are less and less likely to have memorized anything for a course before. By announcing a quiz on memorized material, you can be sure that most students will actually do it. They will not only learn the material, but learn how to learn it. Then you can move on to more communicative, creative uses of the language in class.

• Students who never open the book outside of class will at least open it to prepare for the quiz. They may begin to open it a little more often on their own once they get to know it.

• The micro-quiz rewards students who prepare the material.

• The micro-quiz provides an actual letter grade for participation, based on evidence of preparation.

• Studying for the micro-quiz should help students in the long one by giving them an better idea of how much time they need to prepare for a quiz.

• Having actually memorized basic material ahead of time, students should be able to devote more time to learning how to use the language they've learned -- in composition, homework, conversation, quizzes, etc.

I have found that students like micro-quizzes. They like the concrete nature of it. They likethe practice for the "real" quiz. They like knowing where they stand. The responsible students see it as a chance to get a good grade. It lights a fire under students who aren't working. It gives me some actual grades to count under participation. (I feel strongly that preparation is a major component of participation). I suggest doing one micro-quiz each week.
 

Cheryl Krueger
University of Virginia