TESL 140 - Self Evaluation

An evaluation of my learning.

I consider that my learning in the area of assessment and evaluation has improved since the beginning of the course. However, I don't think I can say that I have fully mastered ALL of the components in this course and that I can easily apply them without looking for other sources that can guide me and support me in the developing of assessments and rubrics which it was the case in this course.

Something that I consider to be the most important thing out of any assessment, any rubric or any lesson plan is to ask yourself as a teacher "What do my learners really need to learn and how do I find out?" Yep, this is the title of our first unit, and since I read it at the beginning of the course, it stuck with me. These two questions resonated with me as it made me go back in time and think about what my needs were for me when I first stepped into an English class here in Canada. As a student, I had goals, and I wanted to learn English as fast as possible so I could move on to the next thing on my list. I was very fortunate to have had a fantastic English teacher who was able to fulfill my needs as a learner and as a person.

Every unit in this course showed me how to consider other areas of assessment for example when to use formative or summative assessments. Using formative assessment can be done at any time to the student, and summative evaluation is usually at the end of a unit, or it can be broken down into chunks if the learning unit is too long.

Also, and part of assessments, we have rubrics. I liked the powerpoint by Sussan Webbs. She explained clearly the difference between a Holistic rubric which focuses on an overall judgment of work and the Analytic assessment focuses on the details of the quality of performance. I also appreciated all the examples she presented in her powerpoint. I found them very useful, especially when I was creating my rubric from my lesson plan assignment.
In the future, my goal is to keep learning and expanding my knowledge in this are which I consider being a foundation for excellent teaching. For me, it doesn't matter if you are the most creative teacher when it comes to lesson planning, but if you do not create assessments suitable for your students, then all that creativity will be for nothing.


Reference:

Citizenship and Immigration Canada, LISTN. (2015) Classroom Assessment Toolkit: Literacy to CLB 8. Retrieved from https://listn.tutela.ca/resources/linc-assessment/classroom-assessment-toolkit.html

Webb, S. (2017, April) Creating Effective Rubrics. Powerpoint presented at TESL Peel Halton Etobicoke Conference, 2017, Mississauga, ON. Retrieved from http://www.teslphe.org/uploads/1/5/1/6/15162416/rubrics_pres_swebb_tesl_phe_2017.pdf