我的世界
Wǒ de shìjiè — IPA: My World
The first Integrated Performance Assessment. All three communication modes, one theme, in sequence — and nothing memorised in advance. This is how every year from now on will end.
What an IPA is
Three tasks around a single theme, done in order, each feeding the next. Students don’t know the exact questions in advance — only the theme.
1. Interpretive — read and listen to authentic material about young people’s lives in China, then show what was understood.
2. Interpersonal — an unrehearsed paired conversation comparing that with their own life.
3. Presentational — a prepared three-minute talk with visuals, drawing on both.
It replaces the vocabulary quiz from here on, because by Grade 6 the interesting question is no longer whether students know the words but whether they can do something with them unprompted.
The theme
我的世界 — the world of a twelve-year-old. Everything from the year feeds it:
- Who they are — Unit 1
- Their school day — Unit 2
- What they eat — Unit 3
- Their life online — Unit 4
- What they think about all of it — Unit 5
What gets assessed
- Comprehension — did they get the gist and the key details, not every word
- Negotiation of meaning — when stuck, did they ask, rephrase or work around it rather than stopping
- Content — is there something actually being said
- Language control — accuracy, counted last rather than first
Five lessons, one assessment
Read and listen
Authentic material made for Chinese children — a short article and a video clip about daily life.
Show what you understood
Gist questions, key details, and inference — answered in Chinese, with guessing from context encouraged.
Talk it through
Unrehearsed paired conversation. The prompt is given on the spot; both students must ask as well as answer.
Prepare the talk
Three minutes, with visuals. Notes allowed; a written-out script is not.
Present
To the class, with one question from the audience at the end — also in Chinese.
Authentic material will feel too hard — that’s the point
The reading and audio here were made for Chinese children, not for learners, so students will not understand every word. They are not supposed to. The skill being built is getting the gist from partial information and guessing intelligently from context — which is what real reading in a second language actually consists of. Resist the urge to pre-teach every unknown word; it removes the thing being assessed. Tell students in advance that not understanding everything is expected and fine.
End-of-year check
A student ready for Grade 7 can:
- Read about 550 characters
- Type in Chinese comfortably
- Hold an unrehearsed conversation and ask follow-up questions
- Give an opinion with a reason, and disagree politely
- Get the gist of authentic material written for children
Grade 7 is the narrative year, and it leans hard on Grade 4’s 了. Worth a quick check that it’s still solid over the summer.