I wanted to write a quick review of a wonderful new web 2.0 tool I just started using: Lingt. This free site allows teachers to create activities that require oral responses. You can embed a written, oral or graphic prompt and the students will respond to it via a "talk bubble". Students do not need to create an account. They can record their response and then type in their name and email address and send for assessment. My favorite feature is that after you listen to your student's response, you can send feedback directly to the student orally or with a quick note. The instructor can also set up several classes, and this makes managing and grading the recordings very easy to do. I found the site intuitive to use for both me and my students, and so far it seems reliable. The only problem the students had was letting the site access the computer mic. If they didn't read the screen and denied access, the talk bubble wouldn't work.
I gave my students questions using interrogatives and the present perfect and told them to answer three out of the four prompts. A few students still want to write out their answers before recording, but I'm ok with that right now. Several students asked me what question #__ was asking, and I had to explain to them that understanding the oral prompt was part of the assessment. Most of the class did beautifully. I suspect the few students who had problems did not take the activity seriously or did not think I would listen to all the questions.
I will be incorporating a lot more oral assessments with this site into my lesson plans as the semester unfolds. For teachers who are preparing for AP exams, this seems like a fantastic resource.
