Saturday, 9 November 2013

Week 5: RUBRICS, ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT, PBL AND WEQUEST.

MOVING HIGHER AND HIGHER!

Hello everyone!

Here is a small reflection about week 5 learning.

I read about Alternative Assessment and discuss on it on Nicenet. Through this reading I learned what is an alternative learning. I have a lot to say about it but let cut a long story short. Alternative learning is learning by doing. The students do the work by themselves. They are at the center of the teaching/learning process. The teacher plays the role of a facilitator, a guide; encouraging, motivating learners. The students with the help of the teacher improve their communicative skills by interacting with one another, assessing themselves and their peers. Alternative learning is an active learning. The experience shows that this method is motivating the learners, because the learners in general, be they youngs or adults like  to be considered, responsibilized, valued...Alternative learning provide them with these aspects.

What about Rubrics?

They are wonderfull tools for assessments. I usually use a rubric to assess the students but this time I learned more about rubrics. There are different types of rubrics and it is very easy to create a rubric through Rubistar (http://rubistar.4teachers.org/)

For PBL (Project-Based learning) I believe it is a great project, where students have their own pace for learning. They learn from one another. PBL copes very well with rubrics because the students need to know what to do, and how they will be assess.

As for the Project Task step 4, I tried to find a technological solution to my students poor expression and shyness. I am quite sure, the website ByGosh (http://bygosh.com), could be one of the medicines.

At last, I did an exciting Extra Credit task by creating a WebQuest (http://www.webquest.org/search/index.php), (http://www.Zunal.com). I discovered the usefulness of webquest in the sense that it is interesting and motivating. It also helps the students develop critical thinking, problem-solving and decision making skills. What I appreciate much is that it includes cooperative learning.

Bye-bye!!!

Thank you all!

Your comments and contributions are welcomed.

Bernadette

2 comments:

  1. Hello Bernadette!
    II share your reflexions and want to say that the week was rather responsible. Working with Rubrics was a completely new technique for me and now I am planning to use them in my work as it seems to me a really effective evaluation tool. Rubrics also make grading much easier on the teacher and the grading is more efficient.They make the assessments more reliable, relevant, and objective. The list of criteria helps students to concentrate on and later analyze their answer/performance. Webquest was also a very interesting tool. By the way I like your work very much.
    Best regards
    Inesa

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  2. What a well thought out and meaningful reflection, Bernadette!

    It's wonderful to read about how you processed all that was introduced to you in week 5.

    Regarding PBL and alternative ways of learning, you are absolutely right to say, "The students do the work by themselves. They are at the center of the teaching/learning process. The teacher plays the role of a facilitator, a guide; encouraging, motivating learners."

    I love implementing projects into my classes because I get to see active students students, learning together. It's so FUN!

    Thanks for a great blog, post!

    Best,
    Courtney

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