Hello everyone! Here is my post about Assessing young learners. I am sure you are going to find it very interesting. I decided to do it on using positive language in the classroom, since young learners and everyone's brain, even in adult stage, does not understand negatives and has to reverse to get there. Please check it and try to change your language into positive words when correcting young learners.
lunes, 9 de septiembre de 2013
domingo, 1 de septiembre de 2013
Portfolios in the classroom
PORTFOLIOS IN THE CLASSROOM
Portfolios are a collection of different tasks students have been working on over a period of time. Samples of writing, lists of books, book reports, tape recordings, and short stories are the most common samples of works kept in portfolios. Portfolios keep a continuous record of students' progress and if they are frequently review portfolios together, teachers and students, teachers will have an idea of what students see and think about their own learning process. At the same time, both, teachers and students, will know what strategies should be applied when studying and students will start self-assessing their work.
Record of language development, holistic view of students learning, tangible evidence of learning and opportunities for collaborative assessment and goal-setting with students are just some of the benefits teachers can get from the implementation of portfolios in teaching practices. Students' ability to think critically about schoolwork is one of the most important and strong purposes when implementing portfolios. In addition to this, there are many other reasons for teachers to start promoting portfolios as a way of assessment.
Moya and O’Malley propose the rationale for using portfolios in the ESL classroom, stating: Language proficiency must be viewed as a composite of many levels of knowledge, skills, and capabilities. A varied approach to measurement, including both test and non-test methods, is, therefore, needed to ascertain student strengths and weaknesses in all critical areas. Portfolio assessment encourages the use of multiple measures. (Moya, O’Malley, p. 4)
In their discussion of portfolios in the article “A Portfolio Assessment Model for ESL”, Sharon S. Moya and J. Michael O’Malley provide examples of school districts that have programs with portfolio development and assessment. They explain the use of portfolios and stress that “A portfolio used for educational assessment must offer more than a showcase for student products; it must be the product of a complete assessment procedure that has been systematically planned, implemented, and evaluated (Moya, O’Malley, 1994, p.1). They list five features of a model portfolio procedure: comprehensiveness, predetermined and systematic, informative, tailored (meaningful to teachers, students, staff, and parents), and authentic.
Moya and O’Malley discuss the Portfolio Assessment Model, which has six interrelated levels of assessment: 1.) Identify purpose and focus of portfolio; 2.) Plan portfolio contents; 3.) Design portfolio analysis; 4.) Prepare for instruction; 5.) Plan verification of procedures; and 6.) Implement the model. (Moya, O’Malley, p.5) This article provides both theory and practical suggestions for implementing the use of portfolios in the classroom. The steps in the model are easy to follow and can be adapted and utilized in all grade levels (K-12, university, adult etc.).
Like all strategies of assessment, the use of Portfolios is not completely thorough in the assessment of students. It is clear that a portfolio development and implementation, as well as evaluation, is time consuming for both students and teachers. Theorists assert that many ESL students are resistant to alternative forms of assessment like portfolios. They also make a point of saying that funders, (from the state, or program etc.) require hard evidence as to the progress of students. They do not want to read millions of students’ portfolios, but they will look at lists and data which show how a particular program is running.
Portfolios are a collection of different tasks students have been working on over a period of time. Samples of writing, lists of books, book reports, tape recordings, and short stories are the most common samples of works kept in portfolios. Portfolios keep a continuous record of students' progress and if they are frequently review portfolios together, teachers and students, teachers will have an idea of what students see and think about their own learning process. At the same time, both, teachers and students, will know what strategies should be applied when studying and students will start self-assessing their work.
Record of language development, holistic view of students learning, tangible evidence of learning and opportunities for collaborative assessment and goal-setting with students are just some of the benefits teachers can get from the implementation of portfolios in teaching practices. Students' ability to think critically about schoolwork is one of the most important and strong purposes when implementing portfolios. In addition to this, there are many other reasons for teachers to start promoting portfolios as a way of assessment.
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| Image taken from Google scholar |
In their discussion of portfolios in the article “A Portfolio Assessment Model for ESL”, Sharon S. Moya and J. Michael O’Malley provide examples of school districts that have programs with portfolio development and assessment. They explain the use of portfolios and stress that “A portfolio used for educational assessment must offer more than a showcase for student products; it must be the product of a complete assessment procedure that has been systematically planned, implemented, and evaluated (Moya, O’Malley, 1994, p.1). They list five features of a model portfolio procedure: comprehensiveness, predetermined and systematic, informative, tailored (meaningful to teachers, students, staff, and parents), and authentic.
Moya and O’Malley discuss the Portfolio Assessment Model, which has six interrelated levels of assessment: 1.) Identify purpose and focus of portfolio; 2.) Plan portfolio contents; 3.) Design portfolio analysis; 4.) Prepare for instruction; 5.) Plan verification of procedures; and 6.) Implement the model. (Moya, O’Malley, p.5) This article provides both theory and practical suggestions for implementing the use of portfolios in the classroom. The steps in the model are easy to follow and can be adapted and utilized in all grade levels (K-12, university, adult etc.).
Like all strategies of assessment, the use of Portfolios is not completely thorough in the assessment of students. It is clear that a portfolio development and implementation, as well as evaluation, is time consuming for both students and teachers. Theorists assert that many ESL students are resistant to alternative forms of assessment like portfolios. They also make a point of saying that funders, (from the state, or program etc.) require hard evidence as to the progress of students. They do not want to read millions of students’ portfolios, but they will look at lists and data which show how a particular program is running.
martes, 30 de julio de 2013
viernes, 5 de julio de 2013
How to Make a Rubric
Hello everyone! This is my first video tutorial, I did it on how to use Rubisar, a free online tool to create rubrics. Please check it out!
A little help!
Hi everyone, this post is just to show my thoughts after assessing my own blog (This one), since I have been struggling to keep this up, according to the purposes set at the beginning of this class. This is the first time I am keeping a blog and trying to feed the same constantly (which I have failed, and probably I already got couple of O.O on my record at school). So, today I decided to look for something/someone to help me out with this. I found this interesting article "A Must-Have Guide To Becoming A Better Blogger". I went through it and hopefully the improvement will be noticeable soon. If some of you are in the same situation as I was (still I am), you maybe would like to check this suggestions.
lunes, 10 de junio de 2013
Scoring procedures in Speaking: A big challenge.
It is known by all teachers and professors that grading or scoring a speaking activity is not an easy task. Since it is very easy to cross the fine line between subjectivity and objectivity, we need to find a way to do it keeping us away from this bias. As Brown (2000) states one of the solutions is to assign not one but several scores for each response, each score representing one of several traits: pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary use, grammar, comprehensibility, etc. This is an useful way to divide a grid, in case you are going to use one, and at the same time and more important that the advantage mentioned before, it helps you, as a test-administer to achieve as high reliability index as possible.
Another challenge is to elicit a criterion because beyond the word level, a student has many options when producing spoken language. That is to say, that when designing a task we must try to be as specific with the micro- or macro-skills we are setting for the activity as we can, so you will be sure which aim you want your students to achieve. All of this bearing in mind that no speaking task is able to separate the only skill of oral production, since most of them involve the interaction of aural comprehension. Now, in order to conclude this post, I want to share with my colleagues these useful webpages I've found where you can design rubrics, which I consider as a great tool when being objective is the principal aim. Rubrics, are more than a check list and they provide corrective feedback. Take your time to explore and try them.
Another challenge is to elicit a criterion because beyond the word level, a student has many options when producing spoken language. That is to say, that when designing a task we must try to be as specific with the micro- or macro-skills we are setting for the activity as we can, so you will be sure which aim you want your students to achieve. All of this bearing in mind that no speaking task is able to separate the only skill of oral production, since most of them involve the interaction of aural comprehension. Now, in order to conclude this post, I want to share with my colleagues these useful webpages I've found where you can design rubrics, which I consider as a great tool when being objective is the principal aim. Rubrics, are more than a check list and they provide corrective feedback. Take your time to explore and try them.
Hope you find this post useful for your teacing process.
viernes, 24 de mayo de 2013
Traditional vs. Alternative Assessment
Hello Everyone!
This is a brief description of traditional and alternative assessment. At the same time, it is an invitation to explore new fashions to assess students. If you are not able to see the glogster, please click the link below and enjoy it!
http://rochipochi.edu.glogster.com/traditional-vs-alternative-assessment
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