As a teacher and a trainer, I am often puzzling about how best to provide feedback to students and teachers. The most common way to give feedback is giving a grade, but this is not necessarily the most effective or meaningful. What are the alternatives? Of course, as teachers we are constantly giving some kinds of feedback to students. For example, a student says, “Teacher, what you do yesterday?” And the teacher is faced with a situation in which he can give feedback (about the mistake) or not. When and how teachers give feedback is based on one’s beliefs about learning. What will best help students learn?
However, I’m thinking about more structured, formal, approaches to feedback. There are many options, including checklists, portfolios, short notes, and verbal; also, it could be from peers, self, or the teacher. In the literature, this seems to be what is often referred to as “authentic” (or alternative) assessment. For me, it is basically giving and/or getting feedback in some form other than a grade.
One of the challenges with authentic assessment is that it is not traditional. Thus, many people (teachers and students) are not familiar with it. Often, as is our nature, we tend to fear and/or resist that which is not familiar. This is probably a practical evolutionary trait! In any case, I’d like to say that authentic assessment is valuable and ought not to be feared! I encourage teachers to experiment with it. So, finally, I’m wondering about how you may have experimented with it—what have you done (or experienced) with feedback to help students’ learning and participation, or what have you done that has hindered it?
Selected Bibliography:
1. Huerta-Macias, Ana. “Alternative Assessment: Responses to Commonly Asked Questions,” in Methodology in Language Teaching, 2002.
2. O’Malley, J. Michael and Lorraine Valdez Pierce. Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners, 1996.
3. Porter, Larry. “Giving and Receiving Feedback; It Will Never Be Easy, but It Can Be Better,” 1982.
This month I have been thinking and reading a lot about assessment (maybe too much, which is why I’m not posting until the end of the month). In particular, I’ve been considering how teachers can best assess students’ speaking. In the literature, it seems that there are four good options that stand out to me for assessing speaking, including setting up role-plays, having students give presentations, doing interviews, or recorded speaking “tasks.” All of these assessment activities, if students have been provided ample time to practice, are set up well, and have clear grading criteria, can provide fairly accurate evaluation of speaking. In the end, teachers probably want to include a variety of more than one of these, in order to feel they have a complete assessment picture.
The main “puzzle” (there are several minor ones!) for me has been, what creates students’ buy-in (buy-in = support for an idea or plan) for speaking assessment? In other words, when are students excited to have their speaking assessed? So far, the best that I can come up with is that it depends. Of course, students are different, classes and contexts are not the same, and teachers are distinct. I’d like to know what teachers have done that has worked well and not worked well, in order to get students' buy-in. I’d like to know what students have experienced that has helped them “buy-in” or has caused them to resist. For example, if a teacher tells you that you have to speak for 2 to 3 minutes in front of the whole class (i.e. "present") about a person you admire, in order to assess your speaking, are you excited and motivated, do you support this plan? Or are there better alternatives?
Sources:
1. Bailey, Kathleen. Learning About Language Assessment, 1998.
2. Hughes, Arthur. Testing for Language Teachers, 1989
3. O’Malley and Pierce. Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners, 1996.
4. Thornbury, Scott. How to Teaching Speaking, 2005
_ It is March and today is the fourth. March Fourth, which sounds the same as “march forth.” A date (3/4) and a command (go forward; continue on). When I was in high school there was an inspiring science teacher named Clark Schultes. Although I never had him as a teacher, I felt his influence tangentially through peers. I know that his life and his teaching had a positive effect on thousands of students. Sadly, he lost his battle with cancer at a young age. He inspired in life, and in death; he died on March Fourth. At the “celebration of his life” (he forbade a funeral) someone made the point that Clark’s message for us was that we were the ones who now had to “march forth.” Of course, this message was meant to be interpreted by each person in their own way, and so it has.
These days I am working with pre-service and in-service English teachers and I am inspired by the positive influence they have, or will have, on the lives of so many young people. And, today as I think back to that time, twenty-three years ago, I think about Clark and other teachers who have inspired me (directly and indirectly), what characteristics they had, and how they worked their magic. I’d like to hear about a teacher who inspired you and how she/he did it.
_ What is the fount of your inspiration and love for doing what you do? I stumbled on this puzzle this week from two different directions. First, one of my students asked me for some recommendations for where she could find teaching activities. She is beginning her teaching practicum and will soon graduate to become a real teacher. She needs practical inspiration. Can you recommend books or websites that are good resources for EFL teachers?
The other direction from which I came to meet this puzzle is a bit more circuitous, more abstract. I realized this week that now it is February, when Valentine’s Day is celebrated by some. One of its celebrants is my wife, for whom it is her favorite holiday. Not for its materialism or Hallmark platitudes, but rather just for love and all its myriad incarnations. So I’ve been pondering love. In addition, I got to thinking: what brings, and renews, love and passion to your work?
In conclusion, I’d love to hear your comments for both or either of these puzzles: recommended resources for teachers and/or how you stay passionate about your work. In short, inspire us.
Happy New Year! Many people start off the new year armed with resolutions and one common theme that I have heard from some fellow teachers has to do with balance. By balance I mean finding an appropriate balance between work and life. Unfortunately, many teachers seem to feel that they spend too much time working, which leaves too little time for everything else. It seems like the actual time in the classroom with students is not a problem, all the teachers I know cite this as their favorite part of teaching. However, it is the time spent grading, going to meetings, and all the other responsibilities outside of the classroom which seem to wear teachers down.
As for me, although it is not a "resolution," I am hoping and planning to find more balance in my life in 2012. One thing I have been thinking about trying out is an Internet "sabbath." I would like to take one day every week (Friday?) in which I do not use the Internet at all. I haven't started yet, but once I settle into my new job, I'll give it a try.
So, I've been wondering how other teachers have been able to find a balance in their lives. How do you keep from feeling burned out? In addition, I'm also curious about other professions because working too much is not limited to the teaching profession; how do people in other fields balance their work time and life time? I look forward to hearing your ideas/experiences.
Thanks,
Jeff
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