Hello Everybody,
This week we read some articles about Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles, and how we can use technology in our classes to include the different MI and Learning Styles. According to Gardners, we all possess different intelligences. He has classified them into nine, and he states that everybody s able to develop all of them even in a small scale. These intelligences are present in our lives since the moment we are born; however, we have a tendency to develop one or two more than the others.
I had been hearing about MI and LS for many years, but had never thought about how technology could bring to the class oportunities to address the different learning styles. I always thought about auditory and visual activities using the tape recorder and/or video in class and I was not paying attention to the kinesthetic and visual learners. This week, I discovered that it it is possible to address all the MI with the use of technology inour classes.
Another article we read this week was about teaching large classes. I found the activities in this article extremely interesting because that is a common problem teachers and students face in my country. Most of the activities are easy to do and help the teachers get all the students invlolved in the classes. Finnan and Shaw also present some ideas on how to enhance lecture-style classes to promote studnets' learning. Among the ideas presented, the ones I found more helpful are the use of different material other than the textbook, to establish a routine in the class so it always follow a logical order, and students are aware of that order, and the the combination the class with pair and groupd work to promote collaboration in class.
The task for this week was to create a rubric or an alternative assessment tool to share it with the participants. I had been using rubrics for my classes for some time and I think it makes the assessment process easier for th eteacher and clearer for the students. I usually give the rubric to the students in advance so they know what it is expected for them to do. It is not easy to make rubrics, but it is important to know exactly what we are going to evaluate from students' work or performance.
Cristian
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Hi Cristian,
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned, it is not easy to create a rubric. It took me hours reading many rubrics I found on the net but really when you develop one it is much easier to evaluate your students. Here at work, we have no standarized rubrics which makes the valuation more subjective. This course gave me the oportunity to start it at once and I think it will be fairer for our students. Now, your comments on giving the students a copy so they know what will be atken into account sounds really good. I hadn't thought about that but I really like it. It is true that finally not only the teachers should know about what to evaluate but our students also should know about that in order to be prepared.
Thanks for your useful comments
See you soon
Raphaël
Dear Cristian and Rafael,
ReplyDeleteI also think that students should be given the rubric beforehand as they should know how they will be assessed. Syllabi usually provide exact assessment criteria but only for the course as a whole and not for a single activity. Thus, rubrics are effective tools for objective assessment. What do you think?
Manana