The SnapJury blog
Video tutorials, methods and resources for assessing orals (and written work), running your classroom and designing courses. Written by a teacher, for teachers.
Video tutorials
Getting started
Assess oral work
Assess oral work
Assessing group presentations: one grade, individual grades… or both
Shared grade or individual grades, cooperation criteria, free riders: assessing groups without unfairness.
Assess oral work
Preparing students for job and internship interviews
Realistic simulations, tricky questions, posture: the most useful oral of their lives can be practiced in class.
Assess oral work
Reading aloud: an underrated oral exercise
From fluency to the pleasure of the text: bringing reading aloud back, from primary to high school, and assessing it simply.
Assess oral work
Body language in presentations: assessing it without caricature
Posture, eye contact, gestures: what non-verbal really says, what to assess — and the traps of one-size-fits-all recipes.
Assess oral work
Running mock oral exams without losing weeks of class
Logistics, frequency, feedback: realistic practice orals that don't eat your teaching time.
Assess oral work
Grade now, complete later: finish your orals with a clear head
Identify the student afterwards, pick drafts back up calmly, finish on a big screen in the evening.
Assess oral work
How to grade an oral exam in 3 minutes (with zero prep)
Start an oral with one tap, grade live, get a written summary: the step-by-step method, no rubric and no prep.
Assess written work
Rubrics & scales
Running your classroom
Running your classroom
Opening routines: 5 minutes that change the whole lesson
Entering the room, getting to work immediately, a speaking ritual: starting strong without raising your voice.
Running your classroom
Getting quiet students to speak — without putting them on the spot
Shyness, insecurity, boredom: tell the causes of silence apart and offer formats where speaking becomes possible.
Running your classroom
Running a full day of class presentations: who speaks, who listens, who learns
Speaking order, roles for the audience, smooth transitions: turning a day of orals into real learning time.
Course design
Course design
Back to school: the week-one assessment checklist
Classes imported, rubrics ready, rules announced: everything that, done in August, makes September much lighter.
Course design
Planning your school year without being trapped by the plan
Start from June's goals, milestone your assessments, keep slack: a year plan that guides without locking you in.
Course design
Designing effective assignments: instructions, criteria, grading scale
A clear prompt, criteria announced up front, a scale aligned with the goal: assignments that truly assess what you taught.
Every learner
Every learner
Assessing adult learners: demanding, never patronizing
Peer-to-peer posture, real-work scenarios, usage-oriented feedback: assessing adults has rules of its own.
Every learner
Oral skills with young learners: speaking to learn before being graded
Short routines, speaking games, kind observation: building the foundations of oral skills from the earliest years.
Teaching resources
Teaching resources
Teaching mixed-ability classes without cloning yourself
Work plans, peer tutoring, tiered instructions: classroom structures that absorb the gaps.
Teaching resources
Student motivation: what teachers can actually influence
Autonomy, competence, connection: the three solid levers — and why carrots and sticks always wear out.
Teaching resources
Group work that works: cooperation, not organized chatter
Seating, roles, accountability: the conditions for group work to produce real learning.
Teaching resources
The flipped classroom, minus the dogma: what actually works
Theory at home, practice in class? Yes — but not just any way: success conditions and well-known pitfalls.
Teaching resources
Grading bias in oral assessment: know it to grade fairer
Halo effect, order effects, rater fatigue: the well-known traps, and practical ways to limit them.
Teaching resources
Peer assessment for oral presentations: why and how to start
The student observing with a rubric learns as much as the one presenting — if the role is well framed.
Teaching resources
Nervous students in oral exams: assessing without freezing them
Separate the performance from the person, announce the rules, reward progress: stage fright can be worked on.
Teaching resources
Giving feedback that actually helps students progress
Factual, actionable, balanced: the three ingredients of useful feedback, for orals and written work alike.
Teaching resources
Grades or competency-based assessment? You can have both
A false duel: a criteria rubric that produces the grade, and observations that feed the feedback.
Teaching resources
Assessing class participation every day, without the overhead
Quantity isn't quality: simple routines to assess speaking from every student, even the quiet ones.
Independent trainers
Independent trainers
Outside instructor: fitting into an existing teaching team
You arrive at a school that already has its habits: understand the curriculum, slot your course into what exists, find your place without disrupting.
Independent trainers
Independent trainer: landing your first clients
Schools, training centers, bootcamps: where to look, how to present yourself, and why your former-colleague network beats any directory.
Independent trainers
Icebreakers that actually work (and don't make anyone cringe)
First contact with a group: useful icebreakers — not gimmicks — calibrated to age and stakes, that genuinely open up the room.