Self-Assessment in a Foreign Language Classroom

 

The article that I read focused on Self-Assessment and applying it to a Foreign Language Classroom, but I think it can be applied in any classroom with the right modification to fit your class and your teaching style. Through self-assessment students develop study skills and it also helps their motivation. Self-assessment also increases confidence in one’s own judgment. The students are very capable of self-evaluating themselves. “Research has found general correspondence between students’ ratings of themselves and teacher evaluation of these students” (858).

Learning a foreign language myself in a college classroom, I know that sometimes students themselves can see clearer how much they know compare to their peers, also, how well they know that material or comfortable with it. They might do well on a test, but in reality do not grasp the concept or vocabulary wholly. So, self-assessment can be an important tool to see if students need more time with the concept or more practice with vocabulary. Isn’t what assessment is all about, not just to give a student a grade, but to help them improve?

Now there is a huge focus on communicative competence when it comes to foreign language learning, so consequently, the rule of the teacher changes to a facilitator and a mentor, therefore, a new way to evaluate is also necessary. For the self-assessment to work, students need a clear guideline on how to grade themselves. They need a carefully designed rubric for each assignment, project, performance that students will use to evaluate themselves. It does feel like a lot of work, but you will not use self-assessment for every assignment.

 For instance, a good idea is to use self-assessment for in-class participation. My Spanish teacher did this and I found it to be useful. She had a rubric for participation and attendance, in which you decide how well you listened to others this week, how much you participated, and did you use Spanish the whole time or mostly English, and there is a ranging score for each part. So you can decide how low or high on a scale you truly were this week. Then she writes comments or adjusts the score if needed, mostly up rather than down. It was great to reflect on one’s self and it encouraged me to use Spanish more and participate in the class more often since I will grade myself. To wrap-up, self-assessment can be used poorly and well, so if you just using because you feel like you have to instead of figuring out a way to make it beneficial to the students’ learning, then it can be a waste of time. So, use it carefully!!!

The article was found on JSTOR.
Geeslin, Kimberly L., Student Self-Assessment in the Foreign Language Classroom: The Place of Authentic Assessment Instruments in the Spanish Language Classroom. Indiana University. 2003.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20062958 .

Meeting the new classroom!!!

Since this was my first week working with new class and new students, the highlight of my week was meeting the students and being surprised at how brilliant they all were. I am working in an AP English classroom and the students have exceeded my expectations if I had any. They are just a joy to my heart. I guess I warmed up to them.

            Anyway, there were few students who a few years ago barely spoke any English and now were an AP classroom and according to the teacher were doing very well and made huge leaps in their knowledge of the language and in class. Another boy was Autistic and he moved from a special classroom to a regular classroom to an AP course. Talking to him, I never would have known that; I thought he was just a little peculiar. It was interesting to talk to the students about the books, them showing interest in what we were reading. That boy goes I did not expect this book to be good, not that we discussed it more and I understood it more, I want to read more and more. That was a good feeling, connecting with the students. You just ask what they think about certain subjects or books and they open up in a way you never would have expected it. So that definitely made my week.

            So this kind of interactions made me think differently about capabilities of students. We sometimes do not expect as much, but I think we should, because the students can surprise us. I always wanted and definitely would adapt a way of teaching that lets students have a chance to talk about their thoughts on books and share their responses about what we are studying.

Also, one thing my cooperative teacher does is have a free come and go policy, meaning he does not write passes for the students, but if they need to use the restroom or get a book from the library, they have freedom to go and do that, just like in a college classroom. Of course they are seniors and juniors, but to my surprise they also did not abuse it. I think I might adapt that, be freer about those things. One thing to remember is of course set clear expectations and my teacher said I give you freedom, but if you are gone for 15 minutes, you know that consequences of that, so just remember that. And guess what? It works. They been so good about it, but then again the teacher had a whole year to work with them on it. It takes time. Lastly, there were not any perplexing situations this week; it was very smooth.

 

Music in a Spanish Classroom

 

So this quarter I did not have any field experience yet, because I started working with a new teacher and that starts tomorrow, but I will share a highlight of what happened to me last quarter during the observations. I was observing a Spanish classroom. What I liked about it was that the teacher used music to engage them in their learning. The teacher played music when they worked individually on a task as a way to make if a more relaxing atmosphere and also they knew that when the song or two would end, they would have to finish their task. He played songs in Spanish to incorporate cultural aspect to the class.

Moreover, what was the most interesting is that he had them memorize different chants to Spanish grammar to popular music beats. It was a way to take boring out of grammar study. They also learned songs for –AR verbs, which was fun. It was for Justin Timberlake’s Bring the Sexy Back, instead it was Bring the Conjugations Back. It is definitely be something I would use in my teaching. Youtube is a great resource for such things.

What made me think differently with that experience is that teaching grammar does not have to be boring, there are other approaches. I will definitely take away that lesson into my own teaching and use activities that stimulate the brain and the body. I mean with music, you memorize and remember things better and also it’s fun. It helps those kids that learn kinetically if you involve movement and by hearing.

A conflicting situation I experiences was that during one of the games we played, I did not address a situation where one student gave a card to another, which caused that person to win in that group. Of course it upset one person and I think if I listened better and addressed that right away instead of let it glide over, it would have been much better. Sometimes you don’t think about those things, but you gotta make sure you are fair, even when it requires more work.

 

Classroom Management for Successful Student Inquiry

                The article I focused on spoke of how to successfully manage student inquiry-based activities and also some benefits to using this kind of approach in the classroom. In the classroom where teacher focuses on inquiry-based activities, he/she becomes a participant and not a focus of student attention. This requires different kind of management in the classroom. First of all, students are very engaged in inquiry-based classroom and do not need any extrinsic motivation, they are motivated intrinsically by their desire to learn more about the subject they are studying.

            I want to teach that kind of classroom where students are fully engaged and I am not a holder of all information, because honestly speaking as a beginning teacher; I do not know much yet. I am still trying to figure out my way around, gaining my own knowledge of content, so, this kind of classroom is ideal and not just because of that, but because I wish the students to be engaged, to work together to learn new concepts and expand their thinking.

            Now, a few strategies to manage this kind of classroom are necessary. First, as a teacher you need to be prepared. It is more time consuming, but in the end there will be less supervision and the students will work together. Some of the concerns of course are to keep students on task. One way to do that is to keep reminding them what to work on, circulating the room, giving them suggestions on how to approach the task, and to be involved with them. The teacher needs to be a part of this, not just sitting comfortably at his/her desk. Prompting them and asking periodical questions on their progress, on what they discovered is essential.

            In the beginning, this kind of approach will require structure, then the structure decreases and student autonomy increases. If students are just dived into this without some prep and structure, they might get lost and thus they will get off task, because they are confused. A way to help them is to also stop the class during discussion and ask them to convene with other students on what they have. Ex: brainstorming in small cooperative groups. I think another point that was not mentioned in the article is accountability. There needs to be a way in which student will be accountable for what they do; they need to show some kind of product at the end or gaining of knowledge.

            One more important thing to remember is to modify activities to meet individual student needs, basically differentiate your instruction.

            Last note, in the article this approach to classroom management was meant for science classes, but I think it could work well in any other setting, such as English or Math, because in all classes there are problems that could be solved as a class.

The article can be found on JSTOR. "Classroom Management for Successful Student Inquiry" by William P. Baker, Michael Lang, and Anton E. Lawson. The Clearing House. May/June 2002.

TPA Lesson Plan Response

The TPA has a lot of very good functions. I think that it tries to hit all of the things we should consider when we are planning a lesson. The inclusion of Content Standards and Assessment are vital to a lesson that is focused and knows exactly where it is headed, how it will be measured, and what you are basing your lesson on. Any curriculum, even the strictest one has room for individuality and also for bad teaching. Therefore, the template helps a teacher to focus and to actually have some kind of backbone to the lesson, why is he/she teaching the curriculum a certain way and what standards are he/she hitting.

 

Another important aspect of the TPA is Lesson Rationale, without it again the question is why are you teaching and how you are teaching what you teaching. There has to be a reason behind actions and I think it is smart and beneficial to have that in the TPA. In addition, I think it is important to specify the time in the Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks and the estimation of time will help to keep the teacher on track and to realize how much something takes times.

 

Also, the inclusion of Student Voice is an essential piece. To me, it helps make sure that each student gets a voice in the classroom and has a chance to speak. It helps the lesson to be more than a lecture, but instead for it to have student engagement. They get to be part of their learning and to speak their concerns or show their understanding.

 

I also like the breakdown of each part of the TPA into sections that include questions to answer. It gives farther explanation on what each of the parts means. Without it, it is hard to understand what is necessary to meet each part of the TPA, what is required of the lesson. Those questions serve as a guide when creating the lesson plan. There are also a lot of them, so it is a bit difficult to include all, but it is a great starting point in planning. With experience, a teacher can see how to meet all these criterions and to answer all the questions within those criterions. Less work will be required.

 

Now some of the things I find tedious and a bit confusing still are the Differentiated Instruction piece and the Parent and Community Connections. Since, this is the first time I see the Parent and Community Connections part, it is confusing how to incorporate that in the lesson. Also I question what is important to include in Differentiated Instruction piece. A lot of students just put a reference to 504 plans or IEPs but no specifics. Sometimes it feels that it is hard to include everything a TPA asking for and it is a bit mundane and repetitive, but I also recognized this process is important, especially in the beginning stages of teaching.