The dawn of a new school year has graced our presence yet again. Whether that dawn arrived in July, in the past few weeks, or has yet to come for you, we all know the feeling. Nerves scatter about, emotions go from high to low, hot to cold as we embrace another year of learning, assessment, games, inquiry, jokes, and - our personal favorite - spontaneity. Stretch it out and get ready for the year with us by seeing some new ways to use Extempore.

3 Ways to Use Extempore This Year

You clicked looking for motivation and inspiration. Well, here you go! For a quick review, watch the blog breakdown video below.

#1 - Check in on live conversations with Extempore Drop-In

Ever since we've had Extempore Sync, where teachers can host live, interpersonal conversations with their students, we've had requests for a drop-in feature. And it's understandable! Teachers want to monitor how students are performing in real-time, while also providing support and scaffolding to all of their learners.

So why not pop in on your students' live conversations this year? Clarify some questions, provide some scaffolds, or participate in the conversation yourself!

See how it works in the video below, or visit our help article.

#2 - Have students submit screen recordings as a response

Another feature introduced by popular demand, screen recordings are a great way to have students present slides, pictures, or other media in the target language. 

Perhaps you'd like to see novice learners present basic information about a country where your target language is spoken.

Or perhaps you'd like advanced students to create an online tutorial showing how to make a culturally relevant social media post.

Regardless of what you choose, build those presentational skills using screen recordings.

#3 - Add an extra level of comfort with multiple attempts

Teachers love eliciting spontaneous student output via single-attempt questions. But sometimes one attempt isn't enough, and unlimited attempts is far too many. So, find some middle ground with your students by allowing 2-3 attempts in a given response.  

This is a nice way to give your students some extra cushion with their speaking, and not to mention great practice for STAMP assessments, where speaking responses allow a maximum of two attempts.

For more on how multiple-attempt questions work, read the help article here.

What else is new on Extempore this year?

Over the past few months, we've been busy improving Extempore with new features and quality-of-life updates to help our district coordinators and teachers best use the platform. Find some of our biggest updates and feature additions below. 

Know your Data with Extempore Reports

Got data? Extempore Reports allows districts the easiest way to visualize their student data and measure learner progress. Compare test scores over time, averages across a given assessment, and performance across classes, campuses, and even instructors.

Learn more in the video below.

Quality of life improvements

These notes won't make the big splashes that you'll find with the above updates, but they will add to an enhanced Extempore experience, eliciting a cool "Oh, that's nice" as you explore the platform. Enjoy quality of life improvements like

• Sequential mode: make sure students complete all questions in one go and in the proper order.
• Duplicating questions: save time from having to reupload all of the same question content; simply duplicate and edit as needed.
• Archiving assessments: organize your class's assessments and archive ones that are no longer necessary.

That's that for our back-to-school newsletter! Whether your are diving into district data, conducting high-stakes assessments, or just giving your students some basic speaking practice, we hope you have a successful, proficiency-filled year. 

Subscribe to the blog