Unit 4 Self-evaluation
I have had two aha moments during this unit; one positive and one partly negative though the negative aha moment could be turned in to a positive with work and more practical experience.
At the beginning of this unit I wrote about wanting to find better ways to evaluate and assess the student I tutor. My general method has been to point out her mistakes, for instance in spelling and grammar. Because I teach her one on one I have the time to take her through whatever issues she has, showing her tricks or rules or exceptions etc. I try to focus on things that would be hard for her to learn in a larger classroom situation.
My hope was to develop ways to help make this learning more evident to both her and myself. Holistically I know she has improved while I have been helping her. I am confident that it is, in part, because of this focused one on one teaching she receives and I too have learnt a lot a long the way, maybe more than her.
But I also realise that this style of teaching with its undocumented assessment would not cut it in the professional world of teaching for various reasons. One reason in particular is that if I am ever to work as an ESL teacher I will have to teach in classrooms with at least 10 students, so assessment, peer assessment and the use of rubrics for assessments become essential if I am to do a good job with assessment. At the end of this unit I feel that if I could become more competent at developing assessment rubrics so that they flow from my pen with relative ease, I will be a better teacher. I am hoping that through practice and real life experience of actually creating rubrics for real purposes would help. I was unable to do this with my student as this course coincided with a period where my student and I have not seen each other in a teacher student relationship. We had a few social outings and then I became sick.
Nevertheless, I see how in a classroom situation with multiple students, rubrics make sense. I heard this Australian radio program which reinforced for me, the usefulness of a rubric. The program talks about how filling in a scribe about patient information can save lots of time for a Doctor so there is more face to face time.
Doctor's scribe
For teachers, it is a good tool for organising information and communicating what information a teacher usually would keep in their heads or may mention to the whole class. "You're doing well, you're getting this", or "do you understand?"
I had learnt about rubrics in the last unit but didn't really understand what their role was. At the time they seemed complicated and just another way to give teachers extra paper work. Now I see that they actually have benefits to teachers and students alike. A way of giving a 'mark' that doesn't just say that you failed or give the student a sense that their work is an impossible mountain of mistakes. A rubric assessment creates the sense that learning is continuum. Doing well is not some unachievable goal. These are the steps you need to take to make improvements and this is an area where you are achieving or nearly there. The students work is not just a mess of red x's and crossed out words good for nothing but the bin.
The use of rubrics for assessment purposes also helps the teacher to better understand what is going on with a students learning. There may be more work involved but I think that it connects the teacher with the student, forces the teacher to also be more reflective of what the students needs are and be more analytical about how their teaching can better address student weaknesses. Detailed rubrics also provide accountability and clarity across the board.
As I said earlier, I also experienced a negative, aha moment, during this unit. During my progress through the Fundamentals of Teaching unit, while out of depth with technology and unprepared for the work-load of an on-line course, I felt mostly that I had the skills to be a good teacher. During this unit I began to lose confidence in my abilities. Assessments are more like the science side of teaching. One must be almost scientific when it comes to assessments. Here is my weakness. I know how important this part of the job is but I feel like this is where I may let my students down. Do I trust that I will become, with time and work, that teacher that I aspire to be, that teacher that in a 'rubric sense', I have not quite achieved? This unit has shown me what the difference between an average teacher would look like and an exceptional teacher. I have found one of my weaknesses as a student teacher. It is perhaps a turning point.
At the beginning of this unit I wrote about wanting to find better ways to evaluate and assess the student I tutor. My general method has been to point out her mistakes, for instance in spelling and grammar. Because I teach her one on one I have the time to take her through whatever issues she has, showing her tricks or rules or exceptions etc. I try to focus on things that would be hard for her to learn in a larger classroom situation.
My hope was to develop ways to help make this learning more evident to both her and myself. Holistically I know she has improved while I have been helping her. I am confident that it is, in part, because of this focused one on one teaching she receives and I too have learnt a lot a long the way, maybe more than her.
But I also realise that this style of teaching with its undocumented assessment would not cut it in the professional world of teaching for various reasons. One reason in particular is that if I am ever to work as an ESL teacher I will have to teach in classrooms with at least 10 students, so assessment, peer assessment and the use of rubrics for assessments become essential if I am to do a good job with assessment. At the end of this unit I feel that if I could become more competent at developing assessment rubrics so that they flow from my pen with relative ease, I will be a better teacher. I am hoping that through practice and real life experience of actually creating rubrics for real purposes would help. I was unable to do this with my student as this course coincided with a period where my student and I have not seen each other in a teacher student relationship. We had a few social outings and then I became sick.
Nevertheless, I see how in a classroom situation with multiple students, rubrics make sense. I heard this Australian radio program which reinforced for me, the usefulness of a rubric. The program talks about how filling in a scribe about patient information can save lots of time for a Doctor so there is more face to face time.
Doctor's scribe
For teachers, it is a good tool for organising information and communicating what information a teacher usually would keep in their heads or may mention to the whole class. "You're doing well, you're getting this", or "do you understand?"
I had learnt about rubrics in the last unit but didn't really understand what their role was. At the time they seemed complicated and just another way to give teachers extra paper work. Now I see that they actually have benefits to teachers and students alike. A way of giving a 'mark' that doesn't just say that you failed or give the student a sense that their work is an impossible mountain of mistakes. A rubric assessment creates the sense that learning is continuum. Doing well is not some unachievable goal. These are the steps you need to take to make improvements and this is an area where you are achieving or nearly there. The students work is not just a mess of red x's and crossed out words good for nothing but the bin.
The use of rubrics for assessment purposes also helps the teacher to better understand what is going on with a students learning. There may be more work involved but I think that it connects the teacher with the student, forces the teacher to also be more reflective of what the students needs are and be more analytical about how their teaching can better address student weaknesses. Detailed rubrics also provide accountability and clarity across the board.
As I said earlier, I also experienced a negative, aha moment, during this unit. During my progress through the Fundamentals of Teaching unit, while out of depth with technology and unprepared for the work-load of an on-line course, I felt mostly that I had the skills to be a good teacher. During this unit I began to lose confidence in my abilities. Assessments are more like the science side of teaching. One must be almost scientific when it comes to assessments. Here is my weakness. I know how important this part of the job is but I feel like this is where I may let my students down. Do I trust that I will become, with time and work, that teacher that I aspire to be, that teacher that in a 'rubric sense', I have not quite achieved? This unit has shown me what the difference between an average teacher would look like and an exceptional teacher. I have found one of my weaknesses as a student teacher. It is perhaps a turning point.
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