Learnings, Week 5: Alternative assessment, Rubistar and PBL

What an interesting week! It was full of learnings both on the theoretical as well as practical application of the skills that we learnt this week. I learnt about certain things which were certainly very close to my heart in the abstract form but I was not able to give it a proper shape or correct nomenclature.  

Theoretical Learnings

The week introduced me to 

Alternative Assessment: 

The question of assessment has always haunted me, my teachers, my colleagues as well as my students. The questions that we all have asked us and each other over a long period of time are:

1. What are we actually assessing?
2. Are we assessing what the student has 'learnt' or what the student has 'crammed' or 'mugged up'?
3. If we are assessing what he has learnt for the whole semester/year, is it fair to judge that in just 3 hours?
4. Is it fair to assess all the learners who have different learning styles 
5. Are we assessing the skills that the student has developed or are we just testing his/her memory and retention?
6. Is there an alternative to this method or is this a 'necessary evil' and we have to live with it?

The picture earlier was somewhat like this:

(Courtesy: http://remixingcollegeenglish.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/testing_cartoon.jpg)

But doing this course and learning about alternative assignment made me change the picture in my mind. I would like to quote my colleague Paula Habre who remarks about Alternative assessment, "Alternative assessment becomes like personalized jewellery  There are many possibilities of evaluation dependent on the projects. This will make the teacher shift from the classical ways of evaluation to more practical ones that show strengths and weaknesses that learners can work on."

To sum up, Alternative Assessment is "to each according to his/her needs"

Project Based Learning

Thanks to Courtney for she sent the link to the above video on the discussion forum. The video was very educative as it showed how alternative assessment can be done using project based learning. It covers most of the things that could constitute Project Based Learning and Alternative Assessment. The diversity of the types of projects is also very good. It has:

a) Power point (which is the most popular) 

b) Drama

c) puppet show 

d) Producing a video 

e) Making utensils, bookmarks and football to give a message to save the environment. 

f) Booklets and posters 

g) Files, pins and decorations (made of waster paper and straw) 

h) Making aquarium

i)  Making T shirt.

Project Based Learning (PBL) is a very innovative way of learning as well as assessing the students. It develops within the students a feeling of "team spirit" and makes them communicative learners. They learn by doing things and not just by mugging up. 

The question then was that how would these projects and alternative assessments be tested? Would there be a parameter by the help of which they could be evaluated? The answer was provided by our next learning.

Practical learning

Rubistar

This was one thing with which every participant including me fell in love with. It is a tool to judge or evaluate any assignment. Rubistar is a very good site that provides the tool for most of the common types of assignments. I created two rubrics, one with the help of Rubistar:

Oral Presentation Rubric : Judging an Oral Presentation

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Comprehension	Student is able to accurately answer almost all questions posed by classmates about the topic.	Student is able to accurately answer most questions posed by classmates about the topic.	Student is able to accurately answer a few questions posed by classmates about the topic.	Student is unable to accurately answer questions posed by classmates about the topic.
Content	Shows a full understanding of the topic.	Shows a good understanding of the topic.	Shows a good understanding of parts of the topic.	Does not seem to understand the topic very well.
Enthusiasm	Facial expressions and body language generate a strong interest and enthusiasm about the topic in others.	Facial expressions and body language sometimes generate a strong interest and enthusiasm about the topic in others.	Facial expressions and body language are used to try to generate enthusiasm, but seem somewhat faked.	Very little use of facial expressions or body language. Did not generate much interest in topic being presented.
Preparedness	Student is completely prepared and has obviously rehearsed.	Student seems pretty prepared but might have needed a couple more rehearsals.	The student is somewhat prepared, but it is clear that rehearsal was lacking.	Student does not seem at all prepared to present.
Speaks Clearly	Speaks clearly and distinctly all (100-95%) the time, and mispronounces no words.	Speaks clearly and distinctly all (100-95%) the time, but mispronounces one word.	Speaks clearly and distinctly most ( 94-85%) of the time. Mispronounces no more than one word.	Often mumbles or can not be understood OR mispronounces more than one word.
Vocabulary	Uses vocabulary appropriate for the audience. Extends audience vocabulary by defining words that might be new to most of the audience.	Uses vocabulary appropriate for the audience. Includes 1-2 words that might be new to most of the audience, but does not define them.	Uses vocabulary appropriate for the audience. Does not include any vocabulary that might be new to the audience.	Uses several (5 or more) words or phrases that are not understood by the audience.
Uses Complete Sentences	Always (99-100% of time) speaks in complete sentences.	Mostly (80-98%) speaks in complete sentences.	Sometimes (70-80%) speaks in complete sentences.	Rarely speaks in complete sentences.
Volume	Volume is loud enough to be heard by all audience members throughout the presentation.	Volume is loud enough to be heard by all audience members at least 90% of the time.	Volume is loud enough to be heard by all audience members at least 80% of the time.	Volume often too soft to be heard by all audience members.
Collaboration with Peers	Almost always listens to, shares with, and supports the efforts of others in the group. Tries to keep people working well together.	Usually listens to, shares with, and supports the efforts of others in the group. Does not cause "waves" in the group.	Often listens to, shares with, and supports the efforts of others in the group but sometimes is not a good team member.	Rarely listens to, shares with, and supports the efforts of others in the group. Often is not a good team member.
Stays on Topic	Stays on topic all (100%) of the time.	Stays on topic most (99-90%) of the time.	Stays on topic some (89%-75%) of the time.	It was hard to tell what the topic was.
Posture and Eye Contact	Stands up straight, looks relaxed and confident. Establishes eye contact with everyone in the room during the presentation.	Stands up straight and establishes eye contact with everyone in the room during the presentation.	Sometimes stands up straight and establishes eye contact.	Slouches and/or does not look at people during the presentation.

and the other was not machine generated. It was done completely by me. It is 

Analysis of A Work of Art : Rubric for Evaluation of an answer on Practical Criticism of a Poem

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Theme of the poem	Makes a complete and detailed description of the theme of the poem and all the important points are dealt with.	Makes a detailed description of the themes of the poem and some of the important points are dealt with.	Makes a detailed description of some of the themes of the poem and one or two important points are dealt with	Descriptions are neither detailed nor complete.
Imagery	All the images i.e. visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory and abstract images including other images like animal images (if any) are dealt with.	Four or more than four types of images are dealt with while some are left.	Only three types of images are identified. Analysis of the images is also incomplete.	Two or less images are identified and the analysis of the images is also poor.
Figures of Speech	All the major figures of speech like metaphor, simile, synecdoche, metonymy, personification, hyperbole, transferred epithet etc. are identified.	Most of the major figures of speech are identified.	Only some of the figures of speech are identified.	One or less figures of speech are identified.
Rhyme and metre	Metre identified and rhyme scheme along with single rhyme, double rhyme, triple rhyme and masculine or feminine rhyme identified well.	Most of the parameters identified.	Only rhyme scheme or metre or masculine/feminine or double/single/triple rhyme identified.	None of the parameters identified.

Besides these, most of my students commented on the blog. It was another 'high' for me as a teacher. 

Something which did go not the way I wanted it to:

Last week I had made a lesson plan for teaching a poem by Keats. Instead of that I used it for another poem by Thomas Gray. It was "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard". I followed the steps that were mentioned in the lesson plan but by the end of the lesson when I asked the students for a feedback. 3-4 of the boys said, "It is a very BORING poem". 

I do not know how to take this comment. My colleagues tell me that there was no fault of the teacher as s/he did not compose the poem and the poem is a little serious. However, I do not agree with this defence. In my opinion, there must have been some fault of the teacher that the poem did not go well with the students. I tried asking the students what did they not like about the poem. They mentioned two points. a) It was very long b) It was very boring. 

I do not know how to resolve this issue.

Ashish Pande