Target Language Use When Discussing Assessments

I drafted this post over 2 years ago and even then, instinctively I felt like it was unfair to talk about anything related to grades in French. As I write this now, it's February 2021 and I've spent most of the past year teaching totally online, first asynchronously after the abrupt pivot due to Covid in March of 2020 and then in the fall synchronously. SO MUCH of the research, teaching blogs, and social media posts between March and December 2020 rightly noted the inequities in educational access that already existed but were made infinitely worse because of the pandemic. 

In 2018 I wrote "In the interest of being learner-centered and collaborative I talk about expectations, rubrics, and the pedagogy behind assignments in my classes. I don't want language to be a barrier to those discussions, particularly for weaker students, so we do them predominantly in English. What would ACTFL say about that? Probably:

• Ask them to look at the rubrics and materials in English on their own time (but will they actually do that? Probably not.)
• use 10% of the class period to do this in English and avoid English at all costs for the remainder of the period (what if they have so many questions that it takes 25% of the class period?)
• rely on cognates and other clues (%, numbers of points, etc) to get the point across in the TL (but is that enough?)"

As I reread it in 2021, I wonder if my ACTFL instincts are still correct. A quick Google search just now of "ACTFL target language use" yields this undated resource from ACTFL that cites sources from 1981-1994. This one from Ohio (2014). And finally this 2019 ACTFL statement on diversity and inclusion which is silent on grading and assessment inequities. 

After the pandemic, the George Floyd protests and subsequent ones worldwide, I think the official position of 90% target language use needs to be reconsidered. Perhaps "90% most days" is more reasonable. 

And this doesn't even get into THE emerging diversity, equity and inclusion trend of 2020 which is "decolonizing the curriculum."