I can't believe that half the course is behind. Time flies... But very effectively!
This week was devoted to Project Based Learning and alternative assessment. I used PBL partly in my teaching before, but I have learnt a lot of new things. For example, I got really excited by WebQuests. I find them motivating and challenging. Students get directions and then they choose follow these directions at their own pace, trying to solve some problem and fulfill the task.
WebQuests impressed me so much, that I decided to make a WebQuest as my final project. The aim of my project is to help students develop their listening skills. In this quest students will have to do different tasks based on authentic listening materials. They will get links to interviews, news, stories, videos, etc. On each stage students will a listening-comprehension task which will lead to a classroom discussion as a post-listening activity. As their final project, they will need to use the information they got at all the stages and their own experience and create something like a short movie.
The new thing I got to know this week was Rubrics. Rubrics can help students to understand how their work will be evaluated and how they can achieve the highest result. They can evaluate themselves and each other as well. I created my Rubric using http://rubistar.4teachers.org/. It was not very hard. First I looked through various existing rubrics, then I used a template, choose the categories which I find appropriate for evaluating listening and speaking and changed some of the offered criteria. I'm glad I will be able to use rubrics in my WebQuest. It will be new for me and my students and I think rubrics will help them to perform more effectively and it will be easier for themselves and for me to assess their projects.
An adventure is ahead!
This week was devoted to Project Based Learning and alternative assessment. I used PBL partly in my teaching before, but I have learnt a lot of new things. For example, I got really excited by WebQuests. I find them motivating and challenging. Students get directions and then they choose follow these directions at their own pace, trying to solve some problem and fulfill the task.
WebQuests impressed me so much, that I decided to make a WebQuest as my final project. The aim of my project is to help students develop their listening skills. In this quest students will have to do different tasks based on authentic listening materials. They will get links to interviews, news, stories, videos, etc. On each stage students will a listening-comprehension task which will lead to a classroom discussion as a post-listening activity. As their final project, they will need to use the information they got at all the stages and their own experience and create something like a short movie.
The new thing I got to know this week was Rubrics. Rubrics can help students to understand how their work will be evaluated and how they can achieve the highest result. They can evaluate themselves and each other as well. I created my Rubric using http://rubistar.4teachers.org/. It was not very hard. First I looked through various existing rubrics, then I used a template, choose the categories which I find appropriate for evaluating listening and speaking and changed some of the offered criteria. I'm glad I will be able to use rubrics in my WebQuest. It will be new for me and my students and I think rubrics will help them to perform more effectively and it will be easier for themselves and for me to assess their projects.
An adventure is ahead!
