Chapter 7 Reflection- Assessing Listening

Teaching is more than imparting knowledge, it is inspiring change. Learning is more than absorbing facts, it is acquiring understanding.

William Arthur Ward

I believe the quote above relates to what we discussed in class today. Today, we discussed assessing listening and how it corresponds with the other 3 skills, reading, writing, and speaking. We also discussed designing assessment tasks and I realized that many of the different elements we discussed I see happening in my classroom when teaching my ELLs. One assessment is recognizing phonological and morphological elements and this is when students either confuse vowels, consonants, words that end with -ed or -s, and contractions. One example I see happening in my class with my ELLs is distinguishing gender such as her and he and the confusion between vowels. My students are saying the sound of "e" for "i" such as it and eat. What important lesson I learned is that once we notice the mistakes being made, we must gently and calmly fix those errors before it carries on with their learning. Which brings me back to the quote where the teacher helps students gain knowledge and by doing, and we must inspire them.  We must also remember that learning should be fun. Learning should not only be about absorbing facts but also acquiring understanding. And with some time, patience, and the correct correction process we will be able to get our students to understand what is being taught. Teaching in a DI school, a few teachers teach more for the lesson gains and some teach to mastery. My goal is to teach to mastery. I would like my students to understand more of the sounds and how to comprehend stories than to know more and not understand what they just learned.

Week of March 9th Reflection

"The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them."    — Ralph Nichols

I chose this quote because it is important as educators of second language learners to remember how isolating and frustrating it can feel to lack language skills.  It is not easy for our students to learn to understand and be understood, but they are willing to learn we just have to help them.  We need to find ways to help them make connections, give them plenty of opportunities for practice, and praise them even for their modest achievements.  Natural instinct when we don't understand is to be quiet and to hide.  We need to help students step away from that instinct so they can develop the skills they need as quickly as possible.  

In reading this chapter on assessing listening I thought a lot about my students and the many dictations, dialogues, films, and radio broadcasts to which I have exposed them and with which I have assessed them.  More than that though, I couldn't help being reminded of my own language learning both as a student and during my time studying abroad.  My teacher and high school and my professor in college spoke only French to the class so I felt confident going abroad that I would at least be able to understand.  I remember being surprised at how quickly everyone seemed to spoke and how confused I was when I heard slang or vernacular terms.  I remember never wanting to answer the landline at my host family's house because I was afraid that the caller would want to leave a message and- my greatest fear- their phone number.  As insignificant as it may have seemed, the day I picked up the phone and took down a message and phone number without having to ask for numerous repetitions was a huge milestone for me there.  We need to celebrate our student's milestones even if they may seem insignificant.  

When I write an assessment, I try to put myself in the place of the student and be sensitive to their insecurities.  I try to give them an opportunity to show off their strengths even if I also have to assess their weaknesses.  

Eighth Week Reflection

Everything in writing begins with language. Language begins with listening.
Jeanette Winterson

Today in class we talked about how to assess ELLs listening skills. We went over some of the main ideas and looked out some examples of types of questions that can be used in assessing listening. We then broke up into three groups and worked on our collaborative group assignment. Each of the three groups were asked to review certain pages in the chapter and pick out the most important information. We then presented our findings to the rest of the groups. Each of the groups also did a role play of sorts. At the end, we took a group picture to post on our blog.

I can relate to how an ELL feels about listening to a native English speaker. I am sure that they think that we talk too fast. I felt this way when I was learning Japanese. Even after I got somewhat good at Japanese, I still felt like Japanese people spoke way too fast. Out of all of the skills, I definitely think that listening was my worst while studying Japanese. Even on my final exam, that was the section I scored the lowest in. I think that it would take me many more years of studying Japanese to ever get really good at understanding what Japanese people are saying.

I chose this quote because I do think that language begins with listening for the most part. As infants, we hear what others are saying around us and we start to mimic that. If we cannot hear how sounds are made, then we would have a lot harder time pronouncing the sounds correctly. We also need to know a language in order to write it.

Alternatives in Assessment

"Don't rate potential over performance."
- Jim Fassel

This is a quote from a professional football coach. I think what he is trying to say is exactly
what we see in Chapter Six. We learn about alternatives in assessment for the same reason Jim Fassel stated this quote. If we have students with plenty of potential in our class it is our job
as educators to see this positive imagine and foster their potential in education. We need to allow them to thrive and learn using other assessments like portfolios, journals and essays. Chapter Six explains how we as teachers can utilize alternative assessment and measure these using items like rubrics. I utilize alternative assessments in my Geography class which helps measure my students’ achievement of objectives and standards. Rubrics also help the students’ to see what is being measured. Objectives being clearly identified are vital when using rubrics. I believe we as
educators need to utilize alternative assessments which may augment standardized testing in making sure our students potential is maximized to the fullest.

Seventh Week Reflection

Instruction begins when you, the teacher, learn from the learner; put yourself in his place so that you may understand . . . what he learns and the way he understands it. Soren Kierkegaard

This week we learned about alternative assessments. Working in the ESL field and previously in Special Education, I have used a lot of alternative assessments. A lot of these assessments were just informal with me basically just making daily observations about my students. I have also used journal writing as a way of assessment, though looking back I do not think that I gave my students the kind of feedback that they really needed. I guess it all came down to time when I was reviewing the journals. I wanted to make sure that I read everyone of them, but I really did not take the time to write any positive or constructive comments. If I decide to use journals again in the future, I will make sure that I take the time to give my students the proper feedback that they need.

Some of the teachers in the ESL Department have folders for all of the students with various examples of the student's work in it. This is sort of like a portfolio except that I do not believe that the students make the decision on what does or does not go in these folders. Having studied a foreign language before, I know that we did a lot of roll playing in class. This is another type of alternative assessment that can be used in an ESL class. Most of the time, the students like to do roll playing with either the teacher or other students. Usually the teacher will show the students some examples of what they are looking for and provide the students with a script template to follow so that the students stay on track and do not just start talking about whatever they want to. We also used roll playing in one of my ESL workshops. In this activity, we were trying to express various emotions and get the audience to guess which emotion we were acting act. Students can also use roll playing without actually using words. The students will then have to infer what is happening.

I chose my quote because it basically states that as teachers, we must realize that our students learn in many different ways and they express their knowledge in many different ways. We cannot use tests as the only means of determining whether or not our students are making progress. Hence, we have to incorporate the use on alternative assessments into our classrooms.

Chapter 6 Reflection- Alternatives in Assessment

"In education it isn't how much you have committed to memory or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. It's knowing where to go to find out what you need to know and it's knowing how to use the information you get." --William Feather

Today, we discussed about different alternatives of testing other than using traditional tests. Some examples of alternative testing include students being assessed on what they do every day, a requirement for students to perform, create, produce, or do something else related to what was taught, a simple journal or even a portfolio can be use as an alternate way of assessing. Teaching in a school that is under the Direct Instruction program really takes away the time I would like to use to assess my students thoroughly in other areas such as telling time, shapes,colors, nursery rhymes, etc. Personally, I wanted to begin a portfolio for my students, but looking at the amount of data and work that is expected of me I threw that idea out the door. Portfolios require a lot of planning and time for both student and teacher to go though the portfolio together and communicate about what assignments he/she would like to choose. On the teachers end, we must figure out what exactly the student is being assessed on using the portoflio.

The last two weeks of the quarter is very hectic for me and my fellow kindergarten colleagues because we need to make time in between our DI schedule to assess our students in areas such as personal information, shapes, colors, numbers, etc. I do however assess the way they color, they way they cut, trace lines through their busy work These are alternate forms of assessing. The chapter explains that alternative testing poses a challenge on teachers and I have to agree. Traditional tests, such as standard based tests are designed to be practical and reliable instruments. They also help minimize time and money. On the other hand, alternative testing requires effort, time, and money to prepare and evaluate what the students are being tested on, provide feedback and one on one conference when using portfolios, etc. In my previous studies, I learned that rubrics are the greatest assessment tool, especially when evaluating language. I understand that rubrics require effort, care, and precision from a teacher. And just like creating a standardized test, rubrics must have clear objectives. Most importantly, a rubric must have a scale to rate the student’s performance.

As a first year teacher, I am still looking for ways to make testing fun for kids where their anxiety level is lowered. One way I assess their motor skills is by taking them outside and do a little PE together.

Quote from: http://ripplemaker.hubpages.com/hub/50_Inspirational_Quotes_for_Teachers

Week of March 2nd chapter 6 reflection

"All assessment is a perpetual work in progress." -Linda Suske, 2005

This quote fits much of what we have discussed in class so far.  All assessment, including standardized tests, are in constant need of tweaking and revision.  Construct validation must continuously be monitored, tests can be made more practical, more authentic, or more reliable.  Sometimes the pendulum must swing back and forth to find the correct balance.

This chapter discusses alternative assessment.  In my classes I have used many, but not all, of the alternative assessments.  I find that while the tests I create usually only require some tweaking or some alteration of questions or the order, the alternative assessments are always an experience.  I am never sure exactly what students are going to do as a performance, a project, or journal until I have the product in front of me.  Sometimes it is exactly what I expect, other times students surprise me.  Either way, I am constantly looking for a clearer explanation of what I expect, and a more efficient method of scoring the result.

For alternative assessments I generally use rubrics or a checklist to determine how to score the assessment.   I want to be consistent from project to project, and from day to day.
In assigning work to my students I would usually rather do alternative assessment than formal assessment.  The limiting factor, however, is always time.  It takes a great time investment to create a clear and effective alternative assessment.  They also take longer to grade, and if they involve presentation, class time is needed to allow for the presentations.  As I mentioned earlier, once I have created the assessment, I am always looking for ways to improve it and make scoring more efficient.

From the reading, observation is an assessment that I have used frequently without even thinking about it.  I use this to determine participation, to measure level of comprehension, to assess what teaching styles best interest students, and how well students are working in groups.  What I have not considered doing, but should, is a checklist of observations focused on a something specific like grammar.

 I have used peer assessment when I have students work in groups, but I have only used self-assessment minimally.  Self-assessment is something I would like to implement more in my classroom.  I think it is important for students to reflect on their own learning rather than always expecting someone to tell them how they are doing.