Reflective Papers
Reflective paper #1 – Assessment
for TESOL
Name: Jessie Acosta
I.D 8-790-804
Write your reflection paper based
on readings assigned for this week. No summaries of the content are required.
These are some questions that can help you connect theory and practice:
What does this information mean to you? What new things have you learned and
how have they affected preconceptions or misconceptions you brought with you
into class? How could the information impact your particular teaching
experience or situation?
During my short period in teaching English
Language, I have seen different techniques and ways as a student can develop a
series of language skills. Teaching a new language is not a matter of what
abilities a teacher possesses, but it depends on the way how he uses them to
make his students to master and reach the objectives of the lessons.
A good learner develops his skills by following
distinctive teaching strategies that support his learning process and then his
proficiency. So, in this regard it is a merger between the student`s capacity
and motivation and teacher`s technique and strategies to obtain the desired
goals.
This is the exact point
that the authors want to remark. How we can apply and perceive the wide
spectrum of assessments, tests and evaluations.
Undoubtedly, the perspectives of the authors are related with what we as
teachers do in classes. Our role in classes is not only to test our students to
just grade them or to classify their knowledge with numbers, but rather is to
provide enough tools and support, so they can get the objective of the lesson.
However, it should be
noted that we teach our students for learning and make them to identify,
analyze and apply what they have learned along their learning process. What we
have to make sure is that we must prepare our students to develop their
abilities and to hone them for their own profits.
When reading the articles,
I could notice that the authors make a strong differentiation among the
concepts of assessment, evaluation and tests. This point is very remarkable for
me because the distinction between these concepts is almost the same when
translating it into Spanish. Until now, I dare to say that all of these aspects
were unclear, for not saying that I did not have idea what they cover or mean.
Actually, I consider that
is necessary to have these aspects in mind since it is important to evaluate
ourselves and our teaching process. It will helps us to provide efficient and
assertive support. A wrong use of the assessments, tests or evaluations would
not give us the expected outcomes. It is critical to recognize what kind of
assessment we use with our students.
Definitely, this
information has given me more information about the way and tools I use to
assess my students. It is a wide topic that invite us to go deeper and clarify
some doubts related to the tools we use to assess the students.
Reflective paper #2 – Assessment for TESOL
Name: Jessie Acosta
I.D 8-790-804
Write a reflection paper based on
readings assigned for week 3 or 4 (check syllabus). No summaries of the
content are required. These are some questions that can help you connect
theory and practice: What does this information mean to you? What new
things have you learned and how have they affected preconceptions or
misconceptions you brought with you into class? How could the information
impact your particular teaching experience or situation?
When
teaching a foreign language or any other matter, we as teachers have the
responsibility to apply consistent and effective assessment. But, the relevant
point here is how we can identify if what our students need is an assessment, a
test or an evaluation and how we can use them effectively. Along this course, I
could see the different alternatives we have in order to evaluate the learning
process of our students.
By reading
the articles, observing the presentations and listening to the explanations, I
could see that it is important for me to make changes and reorganize my
teaching techniques in many aspects. Maybe is not because I am doing it wrong,
but if I want to get significant learning and positive outcomes, then I need to
implement new methods to fulfil it. It
really called my attention the way how the authors detailed every specific
point related to these aspects.
Definitely,
during this assessment course I not only learned new terms, but I also
understood some arguments and descriptions of assessing, testing and
evaluating. For instance, the principles of assessment were very interesting
for the fact that they meticulously explained how they work, how they must take
into account and how they should be applied. Concerning with assessment “as” I
learned that this model tries to involve actively the student in his own
learning process. The student should take the main action in every part of the
development while the instructor makes observations, takes notes and guide the
learner with effective feedbacks.
In the same
way I can mention the relevant role of assessment “for” in which the teacher
closely interacts with the student. In this aspect the teacher is a
facilitator, coach and works side by side with the learners by matching the
assessments with the enhancements of the students.
Assessment of
learning helps teachers to assess achievement instead of standards. It is
usually applied by an external entity and it occurs at the end of the school
year, unit or a semester. Assessment of may be used to grade or measure the
students, as well.
In addition, I can say that another point
that called my attention was the principle of assessment which offer the
opportunities to go dipper into crucial characteristics we use to teach our
students. Such features indicate us how valid, reliable and practical is the
assessing process we do.
Definitely, the descriptions of these
relevant concepts, have awaken my interest about how I teach and the methods I
use to get the objectives with my students.
Comentarios
Publicar un comentario