- Details
- Written by Renata Jonina
- Parent Category: English
- Category: English 16-19
- Created: 16 June 2012
General Requirements for the Second Semester
English (Form 10)
Adapted from thinking-approach.org
- Self-study (SS) portfolio - evaluated at the end of the year (mark 10)
- General SS plan
- Is there the filed in general self-study plan with improvements/changes (!) which correspond to the proves of your work?
- SS account(s)
- Have all the accounts been submitted on time?
- Proves of work
- Is there any evidence of self-study work done at home?
- NB: Underlined words in the text or simple English-Russian lists do NOT count.
- NB: Printed songs and printed translations of these songs (without any evidence of your effort) are NOT considered to be the evidence of your self-study.
- Reflections
- Does the portfolio contain reflections on the source materials and the process of learning?
- Is there a special place when a student puts down questions he/she has about learning?
- Structure
- Is material in the portfolio divided into parts?
- Can you see any logic behind the division?
- Design
- Are there any features that make this portfolio different from other portfolios?
2. Classroom (CR) portfolio – adds 10 points to each test. Has to be submitted on the day of the test.
- Classroom notes
- Are there classroom notes from each lesson?
- Are these notes organised?
- Is there a separate sheet for classroom vocabulary and Common mistakes analysis?
- Homeworks
- Are there all homeworks present?
- Are homework materials organised?
- Does the portfolio contain self-study account for the period?
- NB: Homework from the Workbook/Grammar book should be done on separate sheets. I have my exercises done in the book is not an excuse.
- Reflections
- Does the portfolio contain reflections on the source materials and the process of learning?
- Structure
- Is material in the portfolio divided into parts?
- Can you see any logic behind the division?
- Neatness
- Are notes made on A4 paper.
3. Homeworks - random choice (mark 10)
- Vocabulary/Grammar homework exercises can be randomly checked for a mark;
- One mistake in a homework exercise (spelling, grammar, etc.) decreases the mark for one (1) point;
- Three (3) marks collected during the term turn into one (1) mark in the register.
4. Speaking – optional (mark 10)
- Your speaking during the lesson can be evaluated;
- The MINIMAL mark that can be given for speaking is six (6);
- Three (3) marks collected during the term turn into one (1) mark in the register.
- Main requirements for being evaluated:
- NO Russian spoken during the lesson;
- Active involvement in speaking;
- New lexical items are used;
- Grammatical accuracy.
Comments
Which things in the list were more difficult for you to evaluate? Which ones were easy? Which criteria turned out to be the key ones for students' marks?
1. In fact, I have dubious feelings re these criteria. My main doubt is: why do learners need a portfolio? do they collect all those papers to get a mark or does the portfolio helps them to organise their learning? I am afraid, the first option is more likely. At the same time, giving points for homework and classnotes made learners work on the lessons and do their homework. Regarding changes, I should change something to make portfolio a tool rather than a collection of papers. But honestly, I am still not clear yet how exactly I can organise this change.
2. If we speak about things which were easy/difficult to evaluate, then probably the most 'doubtful' evaluation I made was regarding proves of Self-study work. When students bring you printed songs with some hand-written translations above some words, I do not know how to evaluate it. The real proof would be the improvement of their listening skills/some new phrases/words learnt but in my case I give points for 'tangible' proves.
I had to use "Reflections" criteria in self-study more accurately but I just abandoned it at some point. That was most probably because of the general situation with my teaching experience.
I found it difficult to evaluate 'speaking during the lesson'. I am poor in evaluating on the spot and giving a relevant mark, so I hardly used this criteria.
Homework evaluation (like giving their exercises to be done on the lesson for a mark) turned to be time consuming in preparing these exercises.
As i see it now, the key criteria in SS should be Reflections and relevant Proves of work (to give one example of a good practice, one student wanted to improve her listening skills, she listened to songs and put down what she heard and you could actually see that the words are spelled as they are pronounced. Then, she looked for the lyrics and on the top of her 'transcribed song' she corrected the wrong words).
In Classroom notes, I would probably say that the key criteria is the presence and organisation of notes and homework. And I have always been taking a point away if students didn't submit reflections or had their notes written on small slips of papers torn from other notebooks. I can accept stickers or the presence of another 'type of paper' but there should be a clear logic why these are used.