A busy Week
The week was a busy one we tackled many topics and did a lot of
assignments. We triggered Rubrics, Assessment, Project Based Learning,
Webquests
John Norris's article "Purposeful
Language Assessment: Selecting the Right Alternative Tests" triggers the
importance of selecting, using and evaluating language tests and related
alternatives in a purposeful manner.
Norris's article gave me an idea about
alternative assessment and raised my attention to different forms of assessment:
portfolios, self and peer assessment, conferencing, dairies, teachers'
checklist and observation.
I delved deep into the topic of assessment and read a number of
helpful articles and one conference paper on assessment. Here are the links:
I believe the ways of assessment not only keep students on track
but also help students become digital responsible. I want to use these new
kinds of digital assessments, I have not tried any of the web skills I learned
about yet as it is the term break.
I was also introduced to
rubi star but I have not tried it yet.
I also read about PBL and read two articles on the topic. They are
helpful. The links are http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning-guide-importance
and http://www.edutopia.org/blog/debunking-five-pbl-myths-john-larmer.
To ME, PBL can be used to
motivate students as they not only learn language but cooperation, integration,
team spirit, dividing work into tasks, and socialization. They also deviate
from the formal, traditional way and thus gain motivation and interest. It has
to be applied to small classes and the magic number of students is from 3 to 9.
Still, the problem lies with large classes. So whenever I give a
project, I give individual or pair work, and they do most of the work at home
rather than in class. I sometimes evade presenting the product in class, as I
did it three times before and the result was hazardous as students did not
listen to the students presenting. To me a project is a technique extend the
work behind the wall of the classroom, make the students gain new skills and be
exposed to new vocabulary.
I have not used rubrics a lot before. The course raised my
awareness that they should regularly be used. I believe that rubrics give students an idea
about how they will be graded so they will check and double check. It is great
that I was introduced to electronic rubrics.
I hope I will teach them about a new kind of grading system they
are not used to and get familiarized with it. In addition, if students helped
in creating such a rubric and thought about the grading system, they would
become more conscious learners. I believe it would be an empowering, raising
conscious experience.
Best of luck for all.
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