The Advantages of Rubrics

Summary

By Licda. Belinda Davis

A rubric is a scoring guide that seeks to evaluate a students' performance based on a full range of criteria. It is an assessment used to measure students' work. It is a working guide for students and teachers. Rubrics can be created for any content.

Why use rubrics?
When students receive rubrics before, they understand how they will be evaluated and can prepare accordingly. Developing a grid and making it available as a tool for students' use will provide a better quality and increase their knowledge.

Create an Original Rubric
To get started remember:
1. Establish the concepts to be taught (objectives)
2. Choose the criteria to be evaluated.
3. Develop a grid. Plug in the concepts and criteria.
4. Share the rubric with students before.
5. Evaluate the end product.

Analytic vs. Holistic Rubrics

*Analytic rubrics identify and assess components of a finished product.
*Holistic assess students work as a whole.

To choose the best type of rubric remember considering your students and grader; for modeling, present anchor products or exemplars of products at various levels of development.

What is a weighted rubric?

Is an analytic rubric in which certain concepts are

judged more heavily than others.

A weighted rubric clearly communicates to the students

and their parents which parts of the project or assessment

are more important to learn for a particular activity.

Rubrics are important and necessary tools for everyday teaching, don't lose sight of the purpose or objectives of

the assessment by getting down in meaningless details.

Rubrics can be used for oral presentations, projects, written assessments, creative writing and many others.

Sindicatos de Educadores tienen la razón

Sindicatos de Educadores tienen la razón.

Revelado porººEl Chamukoºº

Saludos queridas almas: El Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Educación (SEC) hizo un llamado a huelga a sus afiliados, con esta movida se pone cuesta arriba la directriz del Ministerio de Educación Pública (MEP) de solicitar un comprobante de asistencia a los afiliados que asistan a este evento y  no podrá hacer rebajos ni tomar represalias hasta que un Tribunal declare ilegal el movimiento. Con la reciente jurisprudencia de la Sala Constitucional, será toda una odisea para el MEP lograr su cometido. 

En ocasiones anteriores he criticado duramente a los sindicatos (incluidos los del magisterio), pero en esta ocasión tienen toda la razón: Los 5 días para congresos están por fuera de la jornada laboral de 200 días lectivos, así que es falso que el MEP esté dando licencia con goce de salario a los funcionarios para que asistan a este evento, y por lo tanto cualquier control que quiera ejercer es una intromisión directa en la organización de los sindicatos.

También es cierto que se está explotando a los funcionarios que no están afiliados a ningún sindicato, porque se les obliga a trabajar cinco días más (fuera de los 200) sin ninguna paga extra, este pobre diablo quisiera saber cuántos empleados estarían dispuestos a este atropello.  El Colegio de Licenciados y Profesores debería demostrar que sirve para algo, y llevar un proceso laboral contra el MEP en representación de los docentes no afiliados a los sindicatos, con el fin de cobrar los días extras que los obligan a trabajar.

La jurisprudencia que utiliza el MEP para amedrentar a los sindicatos está bien jalada del pelo: primero porque se refiere a los dirigentes y no a los afiliados; segundo, porque se refiere a permisos sindicales EN HORAS LABORALES, y como se expuso anteriormente, los días de congreso están por fuera de los 200 días lectivos; y tercero, porque no se infiere que dicha jurisprudencia se refiera a relaciones laborales con educadores.

Y lo peor es que el MEP y varios medios de comunicación le han hecho creer a la ciudadanía que esos cinco días de congreso y la organización de los mismos son pagados por el MEP, cuando esa información es más falsa que un político honesto: El costo de la organización de los congresos corre por cuenta de las organizaciones sindicales que obtienen fondos de los aportes de sus afiliados.

Y cuando el MEP dice que esos cinco días son pagados por el Estado manipula la verdad maliciosamente: Todos los trabajadores reciben salario los 365 días del año -porque a nadie le dejan de pagar en vacaciones, fines de semana o feriados- pero si a cualquier trabajador lo hacen ir a bretiar fuera de su jornada laboral ¿qué es lo que corresponde? que le paguen el doble por los días extra trabajados, cosa que el MEP NUNCA HARÁ.

Cualquiera podría maliciar que esta jugarreta del MEP es una represalia contra los sindicatos por rechazar la propuesta de trimestralización. La solución a este conflicto es muy simple y ojalá lo pongan en práctica a partir del año que viene: no deben incluirse los días de congreso en el calendario escolar porque son días que están fuera de la jornada laboral de los 200 días lectivos y cada organización deberá realizar su congreso cuando estime conveniente, siempre y cuando no esté dentro de esos 200 días.

My Glossary

Because learning is exciting and fun, I hope these words are helpful.

1. Gleaned: to learn, discover, or find out, usually little by little or slowly.

2. Proofread: to read (printers' proofs, copy, etc.) in order to detect and mark errors to be corrected.

3. Hallmarks: any mark or special indication of genuineness, good quality. Any  distinguishing feature or characteristic.

4.  Deemed:  to form or have an opinion; judge; think.

5. Benchmark: any standard or reference by which others can be measured or judged.
 6. Venue: the position taken by a person engaged in argument or debate; ground.

 

7. Genre:  a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, or technique. Kind, sort, style.

 

8. Thesaurus:  any dictionary, encyclopedia or other comprehensive reference book.   a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms.

9. Germane: closely or significantly related; relevant; pertinent.

10. Amenable: capable of or agreeable to being tested, tried, analyzed. Ready or willing to answer.

11. Odds: the ratio of probability that something is so, will occur, or is more likely to occur than something else. A difference favoring one of two contestants.

12. Biases: a particular tendency or inclination, especially one that prevents unprejudiced consideration of a question; prejudice.

13. Allayed:  to put (fear, doubt, suspicion, anger, etc.) to rest; calm; quiet.

Assessing Speaking

Summary

Chapter 6

The aim or objective of learning a new language is to be able to communicate. Speaking is an important channel of communication in a general English program. When testing this skill, we want to simulate real - life situations that students engage  in conversations, ask and answer questions, and give information.

Heaton(1995, p.88) stated that speaking is "an extremely difficult skill to test, as it is far too complex a skill to permit any reliable analysis to be made for the purpose of objective testing."

Why Test Speaking?

In communicative language teaching, speaking is a prominent component of language curriculum. If we value communication skills, we must assess them or we send a double message to our students about what is important. With English now a global language, we need to develop proficiency in speaking. 

                                                          

Theory of Speaking Assessment

Canale and Swain(1980) argue that there are four competencies underlying speaking ability:

1. Grammatical competence: knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics.
2. Discourse competence: rules of cohesion and coherence, holding communication together in a meaningful way.
3. Sociolinguistic competence: knowledge of what is expected socially and culturally.
4. Strategic competence: manipulation of the language, how to keep a conversation going or end it, how to resolve communication breakdowns.

Categories of Oral Skills

The routine skills are associated with language functions and the spoken language required in certain situations like ordering food in a restaurant or asking for directions. By contrast, the improvisational skills are more general and may be brought into play at any time for clarification, to keep a conversation flowing, to change topics, or to take turns.

Important Things to Remember

1. It is unrealistic with large classes to test speaking individually because of time and resources.
2. Decide if your focus is more on fluency or accuracy.
3. Check if students mistakes impede comprehension or cause a breakdown in communication.
4. Some criterias you can use on accuracy(grammar), vocabulary, linguistic ability(pronunciation, intonation, and stress), for fluency(ability to express ideas), and content or ideas.
5. Students can be tested individually, in pairs, or in groups of three.
6. Speaking tests can be conducted live or be recorded.


Formal Speaking Assessment Techniques

Canale(1984) proposed a framework for speaking tests. He believed that students do best when they are led through the following stages:
* Warm up: the purpose is to relax students. Students are asked general or personal information.
* Level check: try to determine the students' level of speaking through questions or activities. This part is assessed.
* Probe: the examiner push the students to go beyong his or her abilities. This part can be scored or not.
* Wind down: relax the students with easy questions. This is not scored.

     

Classroom Speaking Assessment Techniques
                                                                         
Oral presentations: students talking about a familiar topic.
Debate on a controversial topic: a formal public speaking activity where two students or groups argue for or against a topic.
Reading aloud: it is a good pronunciation practice and assessment. Give students the chance to look at the passage first.
Retelling stories: give a report on the content of an article they read.
Verbal essays: students speak for three to five minutes on a specific prepared topic.
Extemporaneous speaking: students are given a topic to speak about it for two  minutes. They have no time in which to prepare.