Questions about the course

Questions about the course:

1.       What was missing?

Attendance of live classes and interaction between the teacher and our other partners.

2.       What worked well?

The forums, we would always comment on other partners and take in notice the comments that were made in our own work.

3.       What could be omitted?

We think we had to read too much for some assignments that did not need it; also some of the assignments are unnecessary and if the class wasn’t a distance class, everything would have been a lot easier and faster to do.

4.       Did I like the interaction between my classmates and tutor?

Even though it was easy to make the assignments that were in teams because we knew each other and always made them in the library, when it came to making the portfolio it was difficult to collect the assignments from the different parts of the team. If the class is going to be a long-distance class it would be better if all the assignments were individual.

Reflection unit 6

We learned different techniques to assess our students, we discussed about which one we would use in our classroom and gave reasons for our decision. We also self-assessed. 

Gloria Castro

Moisés López

Israel Jasso

Moises's Self - Assessment

Self-assessment of the course

I made this self assessment format because it´s easier just to highlight what I´ve done during the semester. I think I´ve work pretty well, with some mistake but on time.

Total: 10 points

Points	2.5 points	1.5 points	1 point
Assignments	All the assignments	75-50% of the assignments	Less than 50% of the assignments
Sessions (meeting days)	Present in all the sessions	1-2 missed sessions	More than 2 missed sessions
Blackboard forums	Did all the forums	75-50% of the forums	Did less of the 50% of the forums
Comments	All my comments were coherent and respectful	My comments were not very nice but coherent	My comments were very short. Just because I needed to put something

Gloria's self-assessment

Self-assessment

Name: Gloria María Castro Castro                                              Date:11/19/2011.

·        Answer the following questions in an honest and correct form.

1.   What did you like the most of the course?

The facilities we had towards the lectures that were provided in blackboard.

2.   What did you like the least of the course?

That some of the lectures were really long and boring, also some of them were scrambled.

3.   What subjects did you learn the easiest?

Informal and formal assessment, types of tests.

4.   How often did you deliver the homework on time?

a.   Always

b.   Sometimes (I forgot one of the activities)

c.   Never

5.   On the range of 1 to 10, how well do you think your performance was on this course?

10

6.   Why?

Because even though onetime I forgot to do one of the activities, I always delivered the homework on time and tried my best to keep up with the blog. Also whenever I had doubts I always investigated for extra information and if the readings did not satisfy my needs I looked for other resources (going to the assessment class on the afternoons).

Instrument for students' self-assessment

Instrument for students’ self-assessment

Name: _________________________________                                              Date:_____/_____/_____

·        Answer the following questions in an honest and correct form.

1.   What did you like the most of the course?

2.   What did you like the least of the course?

3.   What subjects did you learn the easiest?

4.   What subjects do you think you need to work on?

5.   Which of the following do you think is the most difficult for you (you can choose more than one aspect):

a.   Reading

b.   Writing

c.   Speaking

d.   Listening

6.   What do you think you can do to improve on this (these) aspect(s)?

7.   Did you learn any new vocabulary and or phrases during the course? Give 5 examples.

Techniques for self-assessment

Which of the different activities/techniques for self assessment can help you the most in a classroom situation?

Questionnaires are for me the most suitable self assessment technique because it gives the students and opportunity to think about what they are going to write about.
The teacher can get to know if the student is capable of expressing his needs, of writing them correctly and of giving alternatives to work on them.
It is also a form of knowing what the students think of the class and if they think it helped them with the learning of a second language.

Advantages and disadvantages of self-assessment

Self Assessment
The usage of self assessment would come really in handy when it comes to language learning because it helps the student and the teacher as well, to notice the level of performance he/she has had through the course. It also helps to notice and understand the possible mistakes he/she has made and how to correct them. But self assessment does not only take in notice the mistakes, it also helps the student to see his/her progress in reading, writing, speaking, listening, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc., and how much practice did it took to get where he/she is right now. 

Advantages
Profiles/Learner Diaries/Counseling sessions:
Ss’ are asked to do these types of self-assessment they really have the opportunity reflect and write/speak freely what they think they have learned along the course and what they haven’t.
Rating/Graph/Adjectives:
Ss’ rate themselves with numbers or with adjectives. This is really easy to graphic and to grade (as a teacher).
Self-editing/Correction:
Ss’ get the opportunity to look at their own mistakes, or their peers’, and correct them. This gives them the opportunity to reflect on them and practice the language while helping others.
Questionnaires: 
(listing, ranking performance/problems, multiple choice questions, agreeing/disagreeing, short answer questions)
All of the above help the teacher know more about the Ss’ production along the course, knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, and comprehension of both the questions and the answers given.

Disadvantages
Profiles/Learner Diaries/Counseling sessions:
Using these types of self-assessment would take a lot of time to read each of them. This would work better with small groups.
Rating/Graph/Adjectives:
Ss’ can easily rate themselves with an excellent performance in order to get a good grade. 
Self-editing/Correction:
Ss’ can cheat on the number of mistakes they had and say they did not have any from the start. They can do the same for their peers.
Questionnaires: 
(listing, ranking performance/problems, multiple choice questions, agreeing/disagreeing, short answer questions)
Some Ss’ may only answer these questionnaires randomly in order to finish with the task without even reading it. This decreases the reliability and credibility of the purpose of self-assessment.

Unit 6

Self - assessment

Reflection Unit 5

We learned how to make a test according to the skills we want to asses, how to give it percentage to each item depending on the importance and/or difficulty of it, to make our own answer key and narrate the process of our test. Also we got some feedback from another team.




Gloria Castro
Moisés López
Israel Jasso

Test comment

Team comment:

Is the English grammatically correct?	Yes
Is the English natural and acceptable?	Yes
Is the English in accordance with the specs?	Yes
Does the item test what it is supposed to test?	Yes, but I expected an item that focuses on oral description because it is mentioned in the objectives.
The correct response cannot be obtained without the appropriate grammar knowledge?	There is no item that tests grammar.
Is the item economical?	Yes
Multiple choice- is there only 1 correct answer?	There are no multiple choice items.
Gap filling – are there just one or two correct responses?	There is just one.
Multiple choice – are the distractors really going to distract?	There are no multiple choice items.
Is the key complete and correct?	Yes, but there is no rating guide for the item with the five sentences.
Are the instructions complete? Not too long?	They are clear, but it would be good to tell the students whether you will give points for spelling, grammar, etc.
Is there an example?	There are no examples.

I really liked your items! What I especially liked was that you prepared a test with no grammar because that is exactly the opposite of what most teachers do.

Bye,

Melanie

Answer key, Rating guide & Narrative of the process of the making

1)   Answer key

            Adjectives:

Middle-aged	Australian	Local	English	Small
Tall (2)	Athletic	Clear	Blue (3)	Curly
Square	Black (4)	Red (2)	Green	Brown
Talkative	Tolerant	Patient	Selfish	Round
Good looking	Funny	Smart	Generous	Helpful
Ambitious	Straight	Great

2)    5 sentences in which they use the adjectives identified above.

3)    Body parts:

1.       Waist

2.       Hand

3.       Arm

4.       Elbow

5.       Fingers

6.       Wrist

7.       Leg

8.       Thigh

9.       Knee

10.   Ankle

11.   Feet

12. Head 13.       Chick 14.       Forehead 15.       Eye 16.       Nose 17.       Ear 18.       Mouth 19.       Chin 20.       Neck 21.   Jaw 22.   Shoulder 23.   Armpit 24.   Chest 25.   Back 26.   Stomach

4)     Use of at least 30 words. Use of adjectives and body parts.

This exercise doesn’t have an answer key because it’s a free writing exercise.

Rating Guide

Writing Activity (30 points)

	-0 points	-2 points	-5 points	Available Points
SPELLING	No errors at all	One to four errors	Five and more	5
PUNTUATION	No errors at all	One to four errors	Five and more	5
GRAMMAR	Always use correct grammatical patterns	One to three errors in grammatical patterns	More than three grammatical errors	10
VOBABULARY	twenty five to thirty words	Fifteen to twenty five  words	Ten to fifteen	10

Reading Activity (25 points)

-0 points	-5 points	-10 points	-15 points	-20 points	-25 points	Points
Recognize 30-35 adjectives on the reading	Recognize 25-30 adjectives	Recognize 20-25 adjectives	Recognize 15-20 adjectives	Recognize 10-15 adjectives	Recognize 5-10  adjectives	25

Listening Activity (20 points)

-0	-4	-8	-10	points	NOTE !!!!!!
Recognize all the words	Recognize 4-6 words	Recognize 2-4 words	Recognize less than 2 words	10	Activity done by listening
Recognize 15 and more parts of the body	Recognize 10-14 parts of the body	Recognize 5-9  parts of the of body	Recognize 0-4 parts of the body	10	Diagram activity (goes together with listening activity)

Narrative of the process

This test is designed for first level of English, is very easy to understand and easy to answer because instructions are really clear.  We started the test with a brief reading in which they have to highlight the adjectives so they can see how they are used, this way it is going to be easier for them to make their own paragraph further on. We also decided to use fill the blanks items on the “body chart” with the listening activity because this way they are obligated to pay attention to the recording in order to get some answers.

Our test is an indirect test because it measures the ability or knowledge that underlines the skill we are trying to sample in our test. The total time we allowed our students to answer the test is 40 minutes because it is not a really difficult test, but we have to take in notice that it is for a 1^st level English.
In general we consider that our test is really practical since the only material we need is paper and the recording. Also the reliability and validity is expressed in our rating guide that shows how we are going to evaluate each aspect.