Language Assessment in the Classroom

Language Assessment in the Classroom course in Future Learn

    In this program there are a lot of important information about assessment. There are also different videos and practical parts. First of all, there were the difference between assessment and testing. In the metaphorical way we can imagine the assessment like a mirror, because it allows you to keep checking what you look like. The assessment is ongoing throughout the duration of a course. On the other side, the test is like a photograph, because it captures one moment.   

     To my mind, it is very hard to assess student’s speaking, because a teacher should be objective. We can’t observe students language all the time, so there were presented some useful ways how to assess our students. Firstly, it is real-life speaking. Secondly, formats, like interview, interactive tasks and group discussion tasks. Moreover, there are tasks, like describing, comparing something, telling a story and giving some personal information. Furthermore, there are settings, like face-to-face or recorded.  

   In addition, the teacher should give a feedback to students. It is very useful to make rating scales to help the teacher to describe a student’s performance in an assessment. It also describes the current level and the next level, in such a way, the teacher can predict their progress in learning.  

   So, thanks to this program, I find out the answers to my questions, how to assess students’ speaking in an appropriate way.  

Here is a link:https://www.futurelearn.com/your-courses#_=_ 

      

     

     

Teacher as mediator

“ The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see” 

   Nowadays there are a lot of sources from which students can learn. Even robots can be teachers, but do they pay attention to students age, level, interests and needs? That’s why the main role of the teacher is mediator.  

   I imagine the mediator in such way: when I was a child I was always going with my parents in the forest to pick up mushrooms. I picked every mushroom that I found and then my mother was sorting them. She told me and taught which one was good and which was bad. And in time I knew what to pick up. In this way my mother was a mediator. So, teachers should “pick up” only appropriate materials for students. They can also recycle materials, using 3P approach to make them more communicative. 

   Furthermore, teachers should only show where to look, but don’t tell what to see to develop in our students creative and critical thinking. We should teach our students to think critically from their childhood and make it as a routine, so when they grow up they could find and tell much more details that you expected from them. 

  

A course on network etiquette and security

   We, as future teachers, shold be well aware of the importance of being able to behave properly in an audience and in an institution. But now we are spending more and more time online, so it's important to use Internet safely. To do this, young people must be able to think critically, protect the privacy of their information and know the rules of safe online behavior.

   We are learnt how to behave ourselves at home, at universities, and in the street. We know how important it is to be vigilant and keep up with our things. The same principles work online, but instead of personal things, we need to keep our personal information and access to our online accounts, so we need to protect them with secure passwords. For example, in our password we should use numbers, symbols, small and big letters. Moreover, password phrases are very useful and unpredictable.

   Most of our students have modern smartphones, laptops and tablets, which they use every day. They use them for communication in social networks, for Internet banking, and for many other purposes that require careful attention to data security. So, we need to teach them how to set up the privacy of the data for their safety and adjust the boundaries between private and public life.

  So, I think that this program will be an important step in educating a high culture of online etiquette for students and help them to use the Internet comfortably, safely and effectively.

You can also attend and pass this course: https://digitaledu.org.ua

Flipped Classroom

Here is the link on my YouTube channel with the video of Flipped Classroom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-nmWPyeHjM&feature=youtu.be

These blogs are worth your attention

Here are some bloggers and links to their blogs that you should visit. 

One of my favourite is David Crystal. He is:
• linguist 
• writer
• editor 
• lecturer 
• broadcaster
He is perhaps best known for his two encyclopedias for Cambridge University Press, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language and The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (3rd edn 2018). 
Here is a link to his blog: http://david-crystal.blogspot.com
The next one is Claudia Patricia. 
She has few blogs:
http://tobeteacher.blogspot.com
http://learningaboutmethodology.blogspot.com
http://teachingresourcesone.blogspot.com
One more anonymous blog, but it is full of interesting information:
http://intrometujep.blogspot.com
http://pc-methodology.blogspot.com
http://interactiveboardmaterials.blogspot.com

My lesson plan on Prezi 

https://prezi.com/p/k0dy0ijdplgk/

Awesome live edtech games that engage students

https://www.bookwidgets.com/blog/2016/12/7-amazing-live-edtech-tools-to-gamify-your-classroom