Hello, Donna and CLassmates
This week’s topics have basically been related to effective
assessment. What do I mean? Traditionally, pop quizzes, weekly tests and final
exams have been widely used to assess our students’ performance, progress and
mastery in a subject during the school year or a course they have been taking. However, I wonder: How
many of us have suffered from test anxiety before and during a test? How sure
can we be that our students have learnt something well enough by only considering
written evaluations? Is it okay to judge a student as good or bad depending on
how he or she does on tests? These are important questions that we have to keep
in mind because every student learns in a different way and his or her progress
and performance are determined according to some factors such as interests,
motivations, skills and learning environment.
Therefore checklists and rubrics are very
useful tools for authentic and effective assessment and alternative assessment helps
our students become more self-confident, committed and organized while doing a
task or making a project.
1)
Checklists
.jpg)
A checklist is a list of items and
steps that are required to accomplish an activity. Checklists are used in many
fields or areas. Basically, they help us keep control of the things that we
need or have to do in order to achieve a goal. Therefore, it is very important
to check, verify and never skip any items in a checklist. In education,
checklists are useful because they give students the control of what they are
doing as well as what the teacher is expecting from them.
2)
Rubrics
A rubric is a sheet of paper where
teachers can determine which aspects are going to be considered while assessing
students. At the same time, when students are given a rubric, they can know
exactly what to do and how to do it in order to get a grade. This is a fair and
well-organized way to assess students because they become more involved and
committed on their tasks and they can know in advance how good or bad their
grades might be depending on their progress and performance.
3)
Alternative
Assessment
Alternative assessment implies the
use of non-traditional approaches or tools in evaluating students’ performance.
Nowadays, the use of technology and the internet has made it possible to assess
students in a more authentic way. Besides, alternative assessment gives
teachers the opportunity to become facilitators and students to become builders
and evaluators of their own knowledge and performance.
related links
Dear JC,
ReplyDeleteI'm two thumbs up for your reflective posts and grateful for your sharing of the links below. You have truly engaged yourself to webskills and I'm delighted to be a part of it. Thank you.
You have comprehensively and effectively assessed the real value of alternative assessment and the use of rubrics. Yes, now I know why this is our teacher Donna's favorite.
Cheers,
Sonia