Sunday, May 27, 2012 | By: Юля

Week 8: Authentic Assessment


After reading the above article, comment on what it means to assess work authentically.

“Healthier Testing Made Easy: The Ideaof Authentic Assessment” by Grant Wiggins gives the following definition of authentic assessment: “It’s simply performances and product requirements that are faithful to real-world demands, opportunities, and constraints. The students are tested on their ability to “do” the subject in context, to transfer their learning effectively.” The textbook on authentic assessment that we used in the MS in TEFL course "Evaluation and Assessment"  "Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners" by J. Michael O'Malley and Lorraine Valdez Pierce asserts that “alternative assessment consists of any method of finding out what a student knows or can do that is intended to show growth and inform instruction, and is an alternative to traditional forms of testing, namely, multiple-choice tests…it is based on activities that represent classroom and real-life settings. ” (p. 1-2). As we can see these definitions are very similar and they tell us that in order to assess work authentically, we need to align tasks we create with academic standards, make the assignments as real-world like as possible, and have our students apply their new knowledge in these authentic tasks instead of getting them to simply recollect the facts.

When creating a project that must meet the objectives you set in your plan, how best do you assess the learning?

The textbook develops the idea expressed in both resources about the necessity of teaching skills applicable to real-life situations by saying, “The ability to accurately select one of a number of options to brief questions does not reflect what students will be called on to do in solving complex problems, communicating significant ideas, persuading others on important positions, organizing information and managing human resources, and working cooperatively with others in the workplace.” (p.2) Therefore, the best way to assess the learning is to give students meaningful and real-life (or similar to) tasks and have them apply the newly-learned concepts instead of focusing on rote-memorization and recollection.

There is one more reason why authentic assessments should be used more frequently. In fact, standard tests give little if any feedback for teachers and students, thus not promoting further learning and advancement. And if standardized testing can be justified in some cases (when assessing student English language proficiency levels on college entrance exams, for example), this type of summative assessment should be significantly outnumbered by formative (mostly authentic assessment), hence used for checking student comprehension and material retention for planning future instruction.

“Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners” lists the following types of authentic assessment for ESOL learners(p. 12)

1.    Oral interviews

2.    Story or text retelling

3.    Writing samples

4.    Projects/Exhibitions

5.    Experiments/Demonstrations

6.    Constructed-response items

7.    Teacher observations

8.    Portfolios

Therefore, depending on the project, any or several of these assessments can be used. And, although not mentioned in the article, rubrics are indispensable part of successful instruction and authentic assessment, as they let learners know of what is expected from them and based on what criteria their work is evaluated and assessed.

What also is important for authentic assessment is quick and detailed feedback: “Students overwhelmingly report that the single most important ingredient for making a course effective is getting rapid response on assignments and quizzes…An overwhelming majority are convinced that their best learning takes place when they have a chance to submit an early version of their work, get detailed feedback and criticism, and then hand in a final revised version.” I always try to correct homework on time and provide as detailed feedback as possible. The downside of this process is only one – it is incredibly time-consuming for the teacher. I also use process writing with my students, where they write essays, email them to me, I comment on them and suggest ways of improvement, and then they send me further revised versions. The culmination of this project is digital essays that they present in front of the class.

When we talk about feedback, we should not forget about peer review as well. It is true that it takes time for students to see each other’s errors, but the results are so rewarding. In fact, I have seen so many times that my students gave such ingenious suggestions, which I would not have even thought of. Moreover, as the well-known saying states, “Two heads are better than one.” And in the peer review case, students can make use of three heads or more.

I also find the following statements given in the article quite prominent is that challenging tasks allow students not only to master them but to succeed in less cognitively demanding ones. “The more students receive challenging, interesting work demands, the better they do on simple measures," Grant Wiggins states referring to a conducted study in this area of interest.

How do you know they got it?

We can tell that our students have learnt it well when they can apply the new knowledge to highly-cognitive, real-life like tasks and transfer their knowledge to various contexts.




Sunday, May 20, 2012 | By: Юля

Week 7: Midterm Review with Objectives


Halfway Through- Equator

Now that we have reached the course equator, so to speak, it is good time to reflect on what has already been learnt and what we are still to discover. It would not be an exaggeration to say that so far this course has been one of the classes I learnt the most in. Truth be told, financially, I was not too thrilled about taking an extra course on top of the MS in TEFL coursework and considered myself quite technologically advanced to satisfy my students' needs. Boy, was I wrong. Below, objective by objective, I will try to illustrate where my excitement comes from.

1. Demonstrate the understanding of how technologies can effectively promote student learning.

That wise use of technology enhances classroom instruction was not new to me. Nobody would argue that technology is an indispensable part of  most of our students' lives, and we do not have a choice but to modify our instruction accordingly. Here are some of the resources we have learnt in this course that I am planning to use (if not already use) in my teaching practice.

            1. Google Docs I recommend it to those of my students who do not have Microsoft Office at home. I have also started to use it in process writing with one student I am tutoring now. In the future, I am planning to use it with the rest of the students in a similar way.

            2. Digital Storytelling (Animoto  and Photo Story 3) Since the beginning of this course, my students have been creating digital photo stories with Photo Story 3 to present their essays. That is truly amazing how engaging and beneficial this tool is. Not only do they work on computer and writing skills, but also practice pronunciation, intonation, while employing their creativity and simply having fun. As for Animoto, I did not know about it until last week. It seems by far more sophisticated while staying very user-friendly.

            3. Stopwatch l will use it for the first time no later than tomorrow. This is a great tool, indeed.

            4. Online polls Unfortunately, we don't have access to a computer lab every class, but when we do, I will check this resource out. This will allow instant feedback while having the students practice critical thinking skills and participating in their learning process. In fact, I often ask for their feedback but only orally.

            5. Qwiki  Unfortunately, the voice sounds too artificial, but other than that, it's a great resource. Not all kids nowadays are avid readers. However, this websites gives them equal access to written information available at http://www.wikipedia.org/ Who knows, watching these videos might turn them into more enthusiastic readers.

            6. Screencast-O-Matic This screen recording resource is truly fascinating and useful. When I teach Microsoft Word and PowerPoint next semester, I will use it to create tutorials for those who were absent or just need extra assistance.

            7. Khanacademy  is an outstanding resource. I've already introduced it to my students. Due to lack of class time, though, it is more likely that they will use it for self study.

            8. Virtual tours I haven't found a way to use it in my ESOL classroom yet but have already spend two days studying Saint Petersburg with its world-famous museums and palaces to educate myself and then my students of Russian about this amazing city.

Last but not least, our textbook Leading 21st century Schools abounds in useful links, resources, and suggestions, and I will undoubtedly keep it handy.

2. Evaluate and use a variety of current technologies to enhance content instruction and to advance students' technological literacy.

In class, we have been introduced to Scratch and even tried ourselves in using it. Careful examination of this program led me to believe that it can be useful but is rather time-consuming to learn. And whether it will bring positive learning outcomes depends on how thoughtfully it is used and how students respond to it. This course has also taught me how to use Blogger.com, and I have had so much fun with it so far. After this class is over, I will post in it the list of educational websites I feel my colleagues and students might benefit from. Aside from the array of resources described above, I have also realized how easy it is to create surveys in Google docs and how much time Google Reader can save.

3. Design meaningful and authentic digitally based learning experiences with multiple and varied assessments.

            I believe we are yet to meet this objective when have created lesson plans and WebQuests.

4. Reflect upon and demonstrate effective use of digital tools and resources.

            Blogging weekly has been an effective way for me to reflect upon effective use of digital tools and resources. As for demonstrating it, the upcoming lesson plan and WebQuest should meet this objective.

5. Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of safe, ethical, legal and moral practices related to digital information and technology.

            Our discussions of Digital Citizenship with its essential components and the two PBS videos made me reflect upon digital footprints we leave on the web and how critical it is to bring our students up as responsible, cautious, and ethical digital citizens. In particular, this class raised my awareness about cyberbullying and ways of avoiding it.

6. Illustrate through application how state and national standards are implemented within the curriculum (e.g., NH Curriculum Frameworks, ISTE (NETS-Teacher/NETS-Student) and NH-ICT Literacy Standards for K-12 Students (306.42))

            We are just starting to work on this objective in our lesson plans and WebQuests.

7. Demonstrate an understanding of the use of adaptive technologies and other digital resources to personalize and differentiate learning activities for every student.

            Technology lets teachers differentiate instruction, have students work at the most comfortable pace and demonstrate and apply students' multiple intelligences. Thus, for example, posting weekly assignments at Wikispaces and creating screen and audio recordings allows those students who need extra time and support to cope with academic demands. Such projects as Scratch tap into numerous multiple intelligences (logical, spatial, and linguistic, for example). Smart use of technology can also accommodate learners of different learning styles (when students listen, read, and produce the same material simultaneously or consecutively, for instance). Virtual tours, digital stories, and WebQuests are some of examples of such intruction.

8. Evaluate, adapt and reflect on emerging tools and trends by participating in local and global learning communities and by reviewing current research and professional literature.

           Our weekly posts allowed us to share reflections and ideas with each other, so establishing a local community. When reading the textbook and working on the literature review, I have had some opportunity to review current research and professional literature. I am also a member of TESOL.org, and their CALL section in particular. Spending weekends on doing homework for this class has not been allowing for me to be an active participant of this organization so far, but once I am done with this class, I am sure to become a more productive member of the TESOL society. And as I have said above, I am also planning to share this blog with my colleagues and students once this course is over. As for adapting available resources, I believe this happens inadvertently every time a well-thought lesson plan is created, and that is what I do every time when deciding how to use a particular tool in the classroom.  


Sunday, May 13, 2012 | By: Юля

Week 6: Dr. Fadjo's Presentation/Scratch


1. Dr. Fadjo's presentation - what did you learn, interesting items, etc.

On  April 30th, Dr. Cameron L. Fadjo from Columbia University introduced us to the concept of promoting literacy through Scratch. And though I had known about literacy and its components before, it was a good reminder to me that literacy is not limited to comprehension only, but also includes production and communication. Hence, we can enhance our teaching effectiveness by having students create something based on the given knowledge (synthesize) and communicate their ideas and insights using Scratch. Unfortunately, Dr. Fadjo did not share with us hands-on examples of the projects he did with this students in the past, so I wish his presentation had been more practical. However, he skillfully demonstrated the perfect technique of teaching when the teacher poses a question (gives a task) and students are to find the answer(s) on their own. It reminded me of the Socrates method of teaching.

2. Your thoughts and reflection on using scratch yourself, difficulties, how did you figure it out, did you find helpful resources, etc.

Not having had any prior programming experience, I was rather intimidated by Scratch when Dr. Fdjo had us learn the ropes of the program. Moreover, the perspective of creating the project remained daunting to me until I started exploring LearnScratch. This resource put me at ease and did not leave any single question. Even the timing was a cakewalk to me. Later on, when I started recording my own voice, I realized that there was always hissing that had to be removed. So I starting googling a program that would reduce noise and discovered Audicity. Numerous youtube videos on noise reduction in Audicity allowed me to learn this tool within a reasonable amount of time. Nevertheless, I was also planning to find a program that would allow to change the pitch and tone of my voice, to convert into a male or/and a child voice, and to add a specific accent. Unfortunately, I could not figure out how to make a couple of such programs work on my computer and pressed for time, gave up. However, this experience taught me that there are programs allowing to modify speaker's pitch and tone, but there is no one yet that would modify an accent. So the time spent was worthwhile as well.

As for Scratch itself, the most time-consuming for me was to cut the characters out of the picture I found online while preserving the background as intact as possible. It probably took me 3-4 hours at least. It would have been easier to do it with Photo shop, whose trial version had just expired on my PC, than Scratch, but I survived.

3. How could scratch be used in the classroom - is it easily applicable to all academic areas such as math, science, social studies, language arts, art, etc?

I believe that Scratch is a wonderful tool, tapping into numerous multiple intelligences: logical (working with the timing), special (creating a background), musical (choosing or creating music), linguistic (composing scripts), etc. And there is no doubt that Scratch can be applied in various academic areas, such as math, science, social studies, language arts, art, etc. My only (and quite justifiable concern) is that it takes some significant time to learn its commands and options.  

4. Would you use it with your students? Why or Why not?

It is unlikely that I would use Scratch with my adult students, who have numerous critical needs and challenges aside from Scratch and for whom the lack of time is a constant problem. However, I will give them the links to Scratch resources so that they could use it to promote their children's literacy at home. Who knows, they could employ Scratch for their own projects in the future.

Unlike adult education, where there is never enough time to meet the most essential student needs, public schools might be a better environment to apply Scratch in. And provided that this tool is used wisely and thoughtfully, it can be very beneficial for students.  

I feel that I have just scratched the surface of endless possibilities Scratch offers, and after using it in the upcoming lesson plan, our connections might get stronger. And who knows where this journey will bring me next!