WEEK 2
I have spent time on the readings for the weeks and this are my thoughts
1.The Jupiter site that our teacher have put us on reminds me of a national site we have for the Kenya National Examinations council that it uses every year to disseminate results of examination. The only difference is that is for a national exam and it cover all the regions of the country.In My school we have that system for internal examinations at the beginning of the term and in the middle which is on a LAN. Sadly we still have to make manual report cards at he end of the term. Very tedious !Ah technology is still coming. I think I would like to pioneer such a site for my French classes and eventually for the school. I hope I will have that ability at the end of this course. I am encouraged.
2. The reading on writing clear objectives took me back to college many years ago.I think I have to go back and revise all the stuff about Blooms Taxonomy. The situation now in many schools is that sometime we are teaching the EXAM.. Does it happen to you also out there?? It takes a course like this to put you back on track even if it means teaching the exam in a proper way..The ABCD method is good and I totally agree with the quote from the reading attributed to Jones and Lohr that it helps a teacher focus on designing a lesson for a specific skill and also evaluate achievement.That cannot be gainsaid.Fortunately in our classes of language the cognitive is more than the affective so ita is easier to make objectives
If I say the following, would it be acceptable?
After reading the given text ,the learner will answer correctly the questions that follow by using the underlined expressions in the text and thereafter construct 4 correct sentences using the same expressions.?(I am thinking of teaching the Perfect tense in French.)Oh the difficulties we meet there.
3. Oh I was not able to access the material by Huitt,W! help!
I agree with a lot of the things you mention in this entry. The first point I agree with is that many educational systems may force teachers to teach to the test. They base accountability only on test results. Assessment is important but there are many alternative ways to do it other than tests.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with what you say about objectives helping teachers have a clear idea of the kind of student achievement they want to observe in students. That reminds me of backward planning which refers to the kind of planning where teachers set learning goals, then they design assessments and finally they plan for instruction.
A last aspect you mentioned is that in language classes it is easier to find more cognitive objectives than affective ones. I agree with you that coming up with an affective objective is more difficult than writing a cognitive objective or about a skill.
Thank you for your comment Sandra.
ReplyDeleteI would like to share any ideas you have on how to beat that system.Funny, here is the 1st goal/objective of the backward planning for the teacher would be:
-given the lengthy syllabus, the teacher will use the shortest time to make the student pass the national exam with an A grade,Ha.. I now have to classify the ABCD. I asure you that the insruction plan would be perfect but when the student reports to the university, the lecturers would strike because they would know nothing..
Seriously though any form of plan or a good one like the ABCD helps the teacher to stop groping in the dark and happily so to teach content. And if the student can use the web which they find more interesting than the grey books that are yellowing in the library. the better. I thing a teacher who is armed with the right technology equipment can raise the level of the motivation of the class as well as contain the concentration for longer a longer span
Hi,Tina!I agree with you that we will be pioneers in using Jupiter site at our classes, at school.In my country we have the national site which is used when our school-leavers pass the national testing.I would like to try to use Jupiter at my classes too.I think it a very innovative technique to organize and to control the learning process.I wish us success in introducing Jupiter at school.
ReplyDeleteAs for objectives I read them all at Nicenet.I liked them. Now I present the objectives of lessons to my students as ABCD.I observe that they help my learners to comprehend the tasks of the lesson more clearly and to make decisions about their own learning.Thank you for your attention! Have a good time!
I just attended the symposium about remedial teaching.About what you said "The situation now in many schools is that sometime we are teaching the EXAM."This talk mentioned that we should assess for learning instead of assessing of learning.We should focus on learning goals not standards.Teacher's role would be setting learning targets,providing feedback,engaging and involving students in learning.Then student will see the target and receive feedback to improve learning.(Dr.Tan Su Hwi from Singapore at the Regional Language Centre(RELC) of British Council.)
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