Reflection of Week 5

During week 5 I have completed 4 tasks; creating a Rubric and Webquest, describing a technology-related change for my project, discussion on PBL and assessment on Nicenet and creating a WebQuest. I think it is important to note that this week we have done some practical work using the some of the tools introduced such as creating the rubric with RubiStar.

Creating a Rubric was the first task I completed and I loved Rubistar which has made work a lot easier for me. It is a great tool which can create rubrics so easily. I have created my rubrics for my study skills class which is Advanced Certificate Level 20 students on persuasive writing.

Problem-based learning (PBL) which we have discussed in the forum is a student-centered learning process in which the teacher acts as a facilitator providing appropriate assistance and scaffolding to the students. In PBL students will have the opportunity to be more interactive while working on different topics and more motivated to participate and to have a better performance. Rubrics also play a role in their learning.

The creation of the WebQuest was a challenging task and takes some time to learn. Then as my technology related change for my project, I decided to introduce Voicethread to my students to try to improve their oral communication through conversation and writing. You can access my Voivethread from the following link.


http://voicethread.com/share/2303788/

Week 5-Creating a WebQuest

After reading about project-based learning and WebQuests, I have created a WebQuest on zunal.com on the topic 'Improve your memory Power' which is a topic in my Study Skills class. It was a nice experience trying to create it. I have found out that if I want a rubric I have to upgrade my account to a Pro which means I have to pay.
My WebQuest address is:

www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=120058

Please visit and comment.

Regards,
Roza

Week 5 -PROJECT STEP #4: Describe a technology-related change

As I have been describing my students last week, I have selected 20 students from my Study Skills subject, in which they study writing skills, reading skills, presentation, note taking skills etc. Students are doing the course online and block mode where most of the work is online and they have block mode face-to-face tutorials. We use Moodle for our learning management system and we have synchronous and asynchronous discussion forums.

I have found out that we need to build students confidence and improve their oral communication as well as develop their writing skills. However, as Robert has suggested to me (thanks Robert for all the ideas and comments), in this project it will not be possible to focus on all these issues. Therefore, I thought of focusing my project on oral communication. To improve the students’ oral communication, I researched a technology tool which fits my students’ needs (as they are only studying online as the face-to-face blocks are already over). I have found out that Voicetread is an appropriate tool for the purpose which could enable students to add audio, video and text comments to graphics, videos and documents. It is a new tool for the students and if they can add voice and comment on the graphics, I believe students will find it interesting and most importantly very appropriate for practicing oral communication. I have already started the project and as students are at a distance plus they are preparing for the exam, I am a little bit worried about getting their full participation.

Pls. comment!
Thanks,

Week 5- Problem Based Learning

According to Wikipedia, Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered pedagogy in which students learn about a subject in the context of complex and realistic problems. They work in groups, identify what they already know, and how and where to access new information to resolve the problem. The instructor acts as a facilitator providing appropriate scaffolding of that process asking probing questions, providing appropriate resources, leading class discussions and designing student assessments.

How can PBL be used to help motivate students more?

I have read the article “Less Teaching and More Learning" by Susan Gaer.
In that, she has mentioned that the project-based approach has helped to motivate students to learn language for a purpose and promotes community among class members. I found that this is true in my Advanced Certificate in Human Resource Management Subjects (I coordinate the course and design assessment with teachers’ assistance). For example, the assignment “Designing an Orientation Program” for Introduction to HRM students, students improve their language and expand support among group members. For the assignment, students are grouped and they have to visit different companies to get information other than books and internet and design the program especially for that company, write a report and present to it the class. Students are quite motivated as they get to interview different companies, divide the work among themselves and help each other in practicing the presentation. In the process their language skills develop and their friendship strengthens.

Week 5-Creating a Rubric

Just like Blerta and Vinicius have mentioned in the discussion forum, I also loved Rubistar which has made work a lot easier for me. I remember last semester making a rubric for my curriculum studies assignment. It took so much time for me. Rubistar is a great tool which can create rubrics so easily. It is simple and easy. Also the respective categories can be edited to adapt the criteria to the students' abilities.

I have created my rubrics for my study skills class which is Advanced Certificate Level 20 students. The lesson is persuasive writing and the topic is presentation skills. This is an assignment for the students and they complete it at home within 3 weeks and they will submit it online to the learning management system by due date.

The link to my rubric is:
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=2109752

My Rubric ID: 2109752

Week 5-Alternative Assessments and Rubrics

After reading the about assessments and rubrics the following is a summary of what I have understood.

Alternative assessments are performance based activities which helps language learning as communication for meaningful purposes. These methods provide learners opportunities to reflect on their linguistic development and learning processes. For instructors, it is a way to connect assessment with learning strategies.
Checklists are often used for observing performance in order to keep track of a student's progress or work over time as they provide an indication of whether a specific criterion, characteristic, or behavior is present.

Rubrics are a wonderful way to clarify expectations for holistic grading, such as for writing or speaking. Rubrics are divided into four categories. Holistic rubrics- an overall impression or rubrics respond to language performance as a whole. Analytic scales-are divided into separate categories representing different aspects or dimensions of performance. For example, dimensions for writing performance might include content, organization, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics. Primary trait rubrics- the instructor predetermines the main criterion or primary trait for successful performance of a task, narrowing the criteria for judging performance to one main dimension. The multitrait rubrics approach- is similar to the primary trait approach but allows for rating performance on three or four dimensions rather than just one. As the reading suggests it is important for the Instructors to plan ahead and introduce alternative forms of assessment gradually or in conjunction with traditional forms of testing.

As Vinicius has mentioned this is a way of involving students in the learning process which will make the learning more meaningful to students. In my institution we have been using rubrics, mainly analytic scale, in most of our subjects. we also use peer evaluation in group presentations.

Reflective Summary of Week 4

The participants are supposed to complete 3 tasks during Week 4 as well and they provided useful information regarding language learning and technology. The first task was to read some of the given articles about ways computer enhance reading and writing skills and finding two or more specific web pages that would work for my class then discuss that in the discussion forum.

I read Three Extensive Reading Activities for ESL/EFL Students Using E-books (2004) by Mei-Ya Liang. It focuses on intermediate and advanced ESL/EFL students. The objectives of this lesson are to guide students to read authentic e-texts outside of the classroom and to improve their overall reading. From this reading, I have found ‘The Greek farmers’ strategies’, the classical argument as an interesting model I can use in my class. Also, I created ABCD Objective for a lesson to use this classical argument in my class.

As a second task I described my class and explained some issues that need to be addressed which are building their confidence, improving student’s oral communication skills as well as trying to develop their writing skills.

Creating a technology enhanced lesson plan was the next task. My lesson plan was on Essay writing for advanced certificate level and the duration is 2 hours. I had three instructional objectives for the lesson. The following are the techniques and activities I have included in the lesson:
1. A game: DeBono’s thinking Hats.-Discussion- Student centered activity
2. Drawing a concept map- Student centered activity
3. Analyzing the topic- Student centered and guided activity
4. Researching information- Student centered and guided activity.
5. Writing and posting the essay on wiki or blog- Student centered and guided activity
6. Commenting or helping other groups to edit the writing- Student centered activity
Web sites needed for this lesson:
1. Daily Motion
2. SlideShare
3. Custom Essay.Org.
4. Eslflow.com

In the discussion forum lot of useful websites are posted from different participants on computer enhance reading and writing skills and I have saved the ones that interests me. Also, I have found out a website which can create lesson plans online. LAMS, Learning Activity Management System, which can create a sequences of learning activities including individual tasks, group works and whole class activities.

Week 4 was a productive week!